Is a FIRST Team equal to a traditional sports team?

[The other Gabe]

Originally Posted by thatnerdjack

I should also probably mention that her main argument was that they don't have the same "atmosphere". Meaning that the people on her rugby team were closer than the people on my FRC team are.

this being the main point would make FRC and most sports very similar, in that some teams have disharmony, others are the party team, while others work perfectly together, with only minimal issues.

That being said FRC is not a sport. there is not enough physical exertion during the actual competition, and the majority of the team technically does not compete (but instead plays some sort of support role to the 4 that do). Most sports require a specific skillset to be successful on the team, but in FRC there are many different skills that are of use (I spend a comparatively small amount of time on the robot, but I help a lot with strategy development, chairmens and scouting). FRC is something wonderful in and of itself, but a sport it is not- I think it is better than a traditional sports team, but that might be a bit of a personal bias

[MikeE]

Originally Posted by thatnerdjack

I should also probably mention that her main argument was that they don't have the same "atmosphere". Meaning that the people on her rugby team were closer than the people on my FRC team are.

Based on my rugby playing experience I tend to agree with your friend. There is a particular bond that develops in a team where everyone has a specific specialist role which directly contributes to success of the whole. Add in both the physicality of a hard contact sport and the continuous nature of the game, and a very close team atmosphere is the norm not the exception.

[Gregor]

Originally Posted by MikeE

There is a particular bond that develops in a team where everyone has a specific specialist role which directly contributes to success of the whole.

Does that not also apply to FRC?

[MikeE]

Originally Posted by Gregor

Does that not also apply to FRC?

That part does.
Physical contact sport doesn't (possible exception of 2014 game).

[piersklein]

Even by any definition given on this tread, FRC qualifies as a sport.

Time:
For background, I sail for a varsity sailing team which is top 5 in our region and likely top 15 in the country. We have practice for 3.5 hours a day and 9-4 weekend meets. On the other hand, with FRC, we easily can go for 6 hours a day and 8-10 on weekends. In terms of time, FRC wins easily.

Skill:
I think we can all agree that FRC requires just as much if not more skill than whatever sport you play.

Physical Exertion:
Locktite in a bolt ever? Or have to bend metal with a hand brake? Or carry a 120 pound robot on and off the field and position it? There is some physical exertion there. Maybe it doesn't match sports, but it is there.

Atmosphere:
There is a close bond that forms on a sports team, one that a whole FRC team does not get close to. However, the bond between team leaders or the drive team who spend seemingly every waking moment together is something that sports, for me, has never compared to.

However, FRC is not widely recognized as a sport. That is a problem, for everyone involved. I have had arguments about what constitutes a sport many times not even including FRC. And have been told crew, sailing, and FRC are all not sports. The arguments always end up not being about what constitues a sport but rather about the problem humans have with acknowledging the effort and achievements of others. It is somehow threatening for someone else to work harder than you or to have more success than you.

Ninja Edit: Forgot Physical Exertion category

[gblake]

Brazenly quoting myself ...

Originally Posted by gblake

Yes, of course they are equal, in every way you can think of, except for all the ways they are exact opposites.

Is an apple equal to an orange? Is an apple equal to another apple? Is one half of an apple equal to the other half?

I recommend spending your time on other, more important questions, like "Does a submarine swim?"

Or, "How is a traditional sports team like a fish without a bicycle?"


Blake
PS: The swimming submarine is part of a non-trivial discussion...

[Sperkowsky]

It depends on the sport

As a gymnast I practice 4 hours every day all year round. It's a lot more work then frc sorry but it is.

During build season I'm also at robotics every day for a few hours but it's no where near as hard then doing sport training for hours.

Let alone that I'm a high level but some of my elite friends practice 8-10 hours a day. No where near an frc team.


Frc is hard mentally but overall not as hard as a traditional sport

Sorry but it is

[asid61]

I should fine-tune my previous answer.
For the vast majority of those who participate in robotics, there is no comparison to those who play sports. Sports requires a much larger time committment than FRC for almost everybody in FRC.
But, if you are in the tiny margin of people that spend hours and hours working, then the time you spend is comparable to the tiny margin of sports; personally I spend anywhere between 6-8 hours of FRC stuff on weekdays, and more on weekends. Once it gets to the point where all free time is spent on something, it is no longer a question of who is spending more time, but rather a question of who has more time to spend.

[Mr. Lim]

Right now, people don't consider robotics to be a sport.

By people, I mean the general public.

There are some really forward-thinking states that have high-school athletic associations that actually do recognize robotics as a legitimate sport, and I think this is an amazing thing.

I think it is extremely important that we (the FIRST community) do our best to start convincing others to treat robotics more like a sport.

There are a lot of reasons which I highlight in this blog post:

Robotics: A Character-Building Sport for the Mind
http://www.crescentschool.org/learn-more/crescentvoices

[cxcad]

This thread raises an interesting question for me: Is academics a sport? After all, most of us are competing for the highest rank, the most APs, the highest test scores, etc. And in some schools, students get letters for academic achievement.

[WillNess]

I think that if you're looking at spent time, FRC dominates sports. Or at least by my standpoint because I was required at every meeting. During the build season I was spending more time a week at robotics then I was at school. 35 hours a week at school, and at LEAST 37 hours, at the end of the build season it was approaching around 40-45. I think that the community of the kids is way different than an actual sports team. On sports teams I see more competitiveness within the team, and you'll never see gracious professionalism between different sports teams.