Team attitude

[548swimmer]

Each competitive team that I have had the privilege of participating on had a certain "no-nonsense" attitude. From what I observed at Championships, the "competitive" teams (1114, 469 to name a few) have that same attitude. I saw these teams and several others of the same caliber stay after the GM ice cream social to just run on the practice field so their drivers got as much "wheel time" as possible.

Sure, competitions are fun, but we had almost half of our team miss the last qualifying match on Friday to go see the arch. In the morning, I saw some teams with their entire team there right when the pits opened, regardless of when matches started. While some teams had everyone there, our drivers didn't show up until they had to so they could get as much sleep as possible after staying up late goofing around. How do you do it? How is it possible to keep so many kids serious about how the team does all three days?

Where does that competitive attitude come from, and why doesn't AndyMark have it in the KOP in the same tote as the chassis. After all, attitude is as important as the robot.