#morethanrobots

FRC Preseason has officially begun, and many teams are already working hard with preparation and skill-building to make build season the most productive it could be. For a new rookie team, preseason can seem daunting. How can you prepare for something that is still many months away? We interviewed some girls on different FRC technical subteams about the most important piece of advice they would give to rookie teams about preseason. Based on the different areas they specialize in, each girl has separate ideas about what would make a team’s preparation successful and productive. 

Claire, technical project manager: “Training the new girls is the most important part, because if we don’t, we are missing out on ⅖ of the team’s capabilities.”

Anna, mechanical team member: “Refining skills is really important because we can get rusty over summer, and we have to make sure skills are on point for build season.”

Teadora, electronics lead: “The most important part of preseason is making sure girls are trained and familiar with tools so they can use it in build season. That way they get practice, and no bad habits are formed.”

Abbey, design lead: “Preseason is perfect to learn new skills, because it is the most relaxed time to learn. It’s really good to be prepared for build season.”

Anna, business project manager: “It’s a chance to be express the business aspect of running a team, which you don’t get to do in build season.” 

Senior Kyle, every time I say "file": Yes? Uh-huh? WHAT?

Me: ... file ...

Kyle: Katie. WHAT?

Freshman driver: ice cream?

Head coach: *loudly clicks “submit order”*

Me: Wait, wait, wait, you ever could trust America?

Three more days until kickoff! You know what this means: pizza, caffeine, and no sleep for 42 days.

However, despite all the jokes we all make about awful diets and bad sleep habits, self-care is something we all need to remember during build season. Here are some tips to stay healthy as we approach a time when our health often, unfortunately, ends up as a low priority.

Reusable water bottles. Water is pretty important for obvious reasons, but multiple bottles of water can be tiring to lug around. Plus, it’s better for the environment than the recyclable water bottles.

Sports drinks in moderation. Although water is always a good go-to when you need to hydrate, if you’ve been sweating a lot, you also need to replenish the electrolytes you lose. Drinks like Powerade and Pocari Sweat are great for those purposes.

Don’t fall asleep in a binder. We all know how it happens: after a long day’s work, you get home, plop in bed, and pass out in grimy clothing. It’s fine. Just make sure you remove your binder if you wear one.

Utilize team sweatshirts and layers. Depending on what part of the world you live in, it can get pretty cold outside, so make sure to bundle up when traveling to and from your team’s shop. If you wear a binder, you can also use sweatshirts and larger clothing to take a break.

Fruit instead of sweets. And most snacks in general. Vitamin C prevents colds, which is extremely important when you spend a lot of time close to people in the winter. It’ll also help prevent breakouts.

Protein bars. Pizza is the solution to almost all your problems most of the time, but if you’re eating it three meals a day, that’s a problem that can’t be solved by more pizza. Protein bars are just one alternative, and a fantastic one at that.

Set an alarm for lunchtime. Speaking of eating three meals a day, you need to make sure you really have three meals a day. It also goes for anything else you need to remember at a certain time, like picking up an object, taking your meds, checking a monitor, etc. This is also useful during competition season, because it’s very easy to forget in the heat of things.

Work out. You don’t necessarily have to do any intense workouts, but doing at least one physically active thing for an hour each week serves as a good distraction from spending so much brainpower on robots every day. It will also help prevent you from passing out at competitions when you run back and forth between the pits and the stands, or when everyone gets up to do the Macarena.

Good luck, and remember: safety and your health come FIRST.