A few thoughts on gracious proffesionalism by a rookie mentor...

[martin417]

When I decided to volunteer to help the local high school robotics team, I had no idea what to expect. I kind of expected small, simple, remote controlled, erector set type machines that would perform simple tasks. I attended the kickoff in January, and was impressed not only with the complexity of the task and robot, but also with the philosophy of the FIRST organization. I love the idea of gracious professionalism and “coopetition”. I really enjoyed working with the kids and other mentors during the build. When I reached the regional (Peachtree regional), I was pleased to find that in the pits, the teams lived up to the motto. They were all gracious, helpful, and professional.

Then, on Friday, the matches started. What a disappointment! I believe that FIRST has done an excellent job of designing a game that encourages attaining a goal. As in real life, one wins by striving to do the best one can to attain his or her goals, not by preventing others from doing so. The game rules are carefully constructed to encourage teams to advance by scoring, and to discourage hindering other teams, a practice that some teams have called “defense”. Since one of the goals of FIRST is to model real life, and in real life, one rarely gets ahead by preventing others from excelling, I understand why the rule framers went to so much trouble to construct an offense only game. As I said, once the matches started, I was appalled. I saw many matches where one or more teams never made an attempt to score, but spent the entire match doing their best to prevent others from scoring. If the game were football, defense would be part of the game, but this is not football. Imagine watching a game of golf, and seeing Tiger Woods run out and tackle another golfer on his back-swing, or attempt to damage his clubs between holes. I saw some teams go so far as to damage other robots, and while I cannot say with certainty, it often appeared to be intentional. This is my first year of involvement with FIRST, and after the introduction I had, I was hoping for better.

I have nothing but praise for the FIRST organization, and all the people that volunteered to make the Peachtree Regional a success. Not all teams engaged in “defense”, I saw many that only did the best they could to score. I was somewhat surprised that the referee’s did not ever call an infraction of rule <G37>, even though I saw several instances that appeared, to my eyes, to be obvious violations.

I spent several days thinking about how to express this concern in a gracious, professional way. I hope I have not offended anyone. The views expressed here are mine, so if I have offended anyone, I apologize. I am curious if I am the only one that sees things this way.

Martin Wilson, PE