I was just wondering how other people find time to go to both sports practices and robotics meetings. Last year I was able to attend almost every robotics meeting and this year due to track i can barely make 2 or 3 a week. I usually rush home from practice so i can do some homework in the hour before I have to head off to robotics. (this is why I am wearing spandex in American Robot episode 2). I was just wondering how other people deal with this issue
Well, I don’t think this will help you a whole lot, but I just don’t do sports…
Two years ago, tennis practice lined up just perfectly with robotics so that I didn’t have to miss anything. Track, however, was a different case, so I ended up just being statistician that season.
One year ago, tennis was at the same time as robotics, so I compromised with the tennis coach to just be a fill-in for doubles since we had an uneven number of people anyway… Compromise = good stuff
This year, football practice was an hour after robotics, so that posed no problems whatsoever.
Pretty much, it’s just been deciding what my #1 priority was/is… And that’s robotics 
you have two options, 1 find the site that Napoleon dynamite’s uncle got his time machine from.
- Run really fast at track practice so you can get done earlier and get to your meetings.
Now being serious, It is very hard to find the balance between other activities and FIRST. Many people who have jobs or play sports find ways to get to work before or after meetings. Sports is a whole different thing for people that have done it on MOE, most of the kids either work it out with there sub team leaders to come a little late or even have to switch days on and off between work/sports and robotics. With the homework issue, the way I deal with it is by just trying to do it before or after school or even at the meetings if needed.
this year i am managing to participate in first team, chess club, cross-country, nhs, and science olympiad.
cross-country is a fall sport 
chess club meeting isnt even mandatory, just show up occasionaly for a few matches.
nhs meetings are in morning and havent had any conflicting dates, i tutor kids at first sometimes since we do tutoring 
only problem has become science olympiad and i found out that the competition day is the same as our first regional and so i am choosing not to attend the science olympiad competition. so i guess im not in that anymore…
I recall a while back, during the robotics off-season, I participated on the Varsity Tennis Team. It is impossible to participate in a sport during the robotics season, not only is it a strain on your grades, studies, but also a harsh treatment on your body.
the problem is that I am a varsity indoor track runner and i score in some of the meets, plus if I miss too many practices for Robotics then I will get kicked off of the team. My coach has some anger management problems.
im an aspiring football and lacrosse player as well as a wrestler. i take all honors classes, no free period, and im also a musician as well. what do i do? i leave school at 3, go to wrestling, after that pick up food, go to robotics from 630-9, then i come home and shower, and i start hw at 10. and then i wake up 630 the following day and do it all over. :ahh:
you know there really is no good way to cope with sports and robotics. i try to do what i can and go with the flow of the day.
Well for me personally, tennis doesn’t start up until mid-March. So that won’t be a problem for the most part. Right now, we’re dodging track kids as they run through the halls. They get really upset when we leave the woodshop (that’s where we work) and they have to stop (OH NO! :ahh: ) and let people use the hallway. But they don’t mind watching us build and see how our robot evolves throughout the season. Basketball is also running now, but we don’t have any basketball players on the team. Other than those, lacrosse, softball, baseball, and spring track don’t come until March as well and the fall sports don’t affect anything. Basically winter sports and robotics clash a bit too much for someone to do both.
I participated in Indoor Track and Field all four years of high school. The only conflict between that and robotics was that I missed some of the saturday build sessions (only the morning) because I would be at a track meet until 1 or 2pm. Half of the inddor meets were on Fridays which did not conflict with the robotics meetings at all.
I wrestled and do robotics at the same time for a while, but i had to leave practice early every day to go straight to robotics.
After I realized i needed time for homework, i decided to participate in robotics instead of wrestling
So i guess i dont find time for both 
… That is why I just play sports for fun, not professionally or for a team.
but then again, isn’t FIRST a sport? I mean come on now, our championship is nothing less than the super bowl.
-Arefin.
It is very difficult to engage in any activity other than FIRST, so I’m not involved in anything other than robotics.
You can try playing during the off-season…
Wait. “Off-season”…?
I know that sports are very time consuming … not from personal experience but from watching most of my friends.
In our team, we have a few people that do sports. Two of them, both girls in the soccer team, go to practice first and then come to Robotics. Usually, Robotics is until quite late, so they still have time to make it to the meetings … and of course they come on the weekends.
Something to consider as well, is that Robotics takes up quite a lot of time for those 6 weeks and if you have lots of other activities to do it might interfere. What I’m trying to say is that you have to weigh the pros and cons and if you can drop some activities maybe you should. If you can’t, do the best to manage them all, without killing yourself.
Fortunately soccer was in the fall, but I did miss a few of the fall meetings…i’d come walking in to the once a week meetings starting in november and december and people would be like “Who are you? Who who?”
I had a friend who was on the swim team try to do robotics one year and there was no way he could do both…
Right now, I have that same problem. I do track, fencing, and a bunch of other clubs and now I have to go to robotics everyday of the week. at first i was planning to go to robotics three days and the rest for fencing and track.
But now Im going everyday to robotics right after school instead. I only go to robotics late on Fridays to go to Fencing and Track for a little bit. I chose robotics over clubs and sports because I think that it is more important to me and it will help me a lot more in the future than the clubs and sports. after robotics, I have time after dinner to do homework so thats not a real big issue.
When I was in high school - I had Football during the fall and that hurt for the fund raising. I’d call up one of the mentors at the time ask them what happened and what can I do to help out. Nothing much more than that.
The short time that I wrestled wrestling came first. It’s a team sport where you ARE needed to get points for your team. Robotics was just in the building faze and I made it once-n-a while, but than I just quit wrestling and took up robotics 100% of the time…
I run track also.Track practice goes from the end of school 2:52 through 4:15. Robotics practice also starts at the end of school but goes till 6:00. I have told the track coach about my situation therefore i get started early on my practice and usually get to robotics about 4:00. Maybe this will help you some maybe not either way it works well for me.
I’m a member of Robotics, community service club, astronomy club, (Varsity) Fencing, etc… and all i have to say is get ahead on the weekends. Usually my day goes like this:
As soon as school ends Fencing, then i got 20 mins for dinner before robotics, after i return do work for a bit then sleep. Usually robotics is enough free/break time for me.