Rookie teams response to their first season.

[McDoofus]

Hello Chief Delphi users,

My team and I are wondering a few things with relation to rookie teams. So, if you have ever been on a rookie team, and you have a minute, please answer some of these questions:

What would you change about your teams first FIRST experiance?

What do you wish you knew before/during the season that could have helped you prepare for the competition?

What questions would you have had for a ten year veteran team before you started the season?

Any other comments would be appreciated.

If you are on a well established team (let's say of 4 years or greater), please tell us all what your advice would be to any incoming teams.

Thanks for your response,
LCEC, team 2429

[Lee Reid 3136]

I wouldn't change a thing. Our first year in FIRST was awesome. Even the not so awesome bits. Almost everything was a new experience or a chance to learn new things. I would recommend FIRST to anyone, even people who might not be into robots per say. There is something for everyone and you might even find you like something that you never thought you would.

Things that I would tell a rookie team:
1. Have fun. It's supposed to be fun and it can be alot of fun if you let it.
2. READ THE MANUAL!!!! Have everyone on your team read all the parts of the manual until they have it memories it and then make it them read it again. If everyone reads it, then if someone has a question about a rule, then odds are that someone will know the answer.
3. Try to get a good Mentor team if you can. Team 1522 was our mentor team and they were tons of help. They pretty much made our code work and robot would have been a box if it weren't for them.
4. If you have a Mentor team don't rely on them for everything and it needs to be a back-and-forth relationship. 1522 did help us alot, but we did most of the work and did all of our own designing. We were even able to return the favor in a way. On either the Thursday or the Friday of the competition, 1522 came to terms with the fact that their kicker didn't work. They then used our, much simpler, kicker design and were able to compete in most of their matches.
5. Don't let your mentor do all the work. You can have ideas, too! Some maybe good some maybe bad, but they are still ideas and possibilities.
6. Get your robot working as fast as you can. Decide on a plan as a group and go with it. Six weeks may seem like a long time but it can disappear pretty quickly. I think one of the reasons we did so well is because we had to make a working robot to fulfill the requirements for a NASA grant. We were so concerned that we might have to give the $5000 back to NASA that we really quickly got our robot working. The benefit from this came when we got able 4 feet of snow over the course of 2 weeks in the middle of build season and at that point most veteran teams were probably still prototyping and planning because they were relying on have all 6 weeks of build season which they didn't have and they were not able to build the caliber of robot that they wanted
7. Try to get some extra money if you can. The KOP is nice but it adds a lot of limitations on the potential of your robot. The NASA grants are nice even if they require a little extra work. If you get corporate sponsors, those can be good to and most of the time all you have to do to get it is to put a companies name on your T-shirt.
8. Get T-shirts. Colorful ones. Black does look good but lots of teams use black shirts and a bright color shirt will make you easier to spot in a crowd and will make you more memorable.
9. Make your team memorable. Whether it's a team hat, name, robot, T-shirt, what have you, you will be easier to remember when alliance selection comes around, if not this year then the next year or the year after next.
10. Scout. Have a scouting team and have a them scout like their lives depend on it. Know what teams are good and what their bad at. Have a strategy going into the every match, so you can perform at your best. Also have scout reports written neatly or even typed if you manage it. A well written scouting report can save you alot of embarrassment during the alliance selection.
11. Be happy with the results, no matter what they are. We were the third seeded team and got the Highest ranked rookie award and a judge's award and I couldn't care less. I would have been psyched even if we came in dead last. In six weeks, we turned some motors, some wire, and pile of aluminum into robot and that is an accomplishment to be proud of.

Well that's all I think of right now I might have some more later.
I just realized that I spent the last hour and a half writing this and it is now nearly midnight. Worth it? Yes.