“(My team) realized early on that the competition wasn’t really against the other teams: it’s against themselves and their robot. So they never really cared how other teams did, just whether THEY felt that THEY’D done their best. Essentially, the FLL Challenge is a mountain that nobody is supposed to climb all the way. Some teams are GT 8th graders with no extracurriculars who live in the same neighborhood and spend many, many hours every day; other teams are full of busy 5th graders who meet once a week for an hour and everything in between.
So sure, there might be some “keener” team at a tournament clicking off high table scores. But that’s only 25% of the overall evaluation. I’ve seen teams advance to State who did poorly on the table; I’ve seen teams NOT advance who did GREAT on the table.
I have yet to see a team NOT have fun at a tournament. I like to tell the story of having only ever seen ONE kid crying in eleven years of coaching and judging, and there was clearly a lot more going on there than just unhappiness over performance. Compare that to ANY sport your kids have participated in.
So…worry not. Tell them to do their best, and enjoy the ride. And when they get together this week and complain that “NOTHING IS WORKING AND WE AREN’T READY AND WHAT ARE WE GOING TO DO THERE’S NO POINT…” -- deep breath, help them figure out what DOES work, and don’t even let them THINK about not coming. They’ll have a blast!”
I find a lot of truth in this. The kids are learning to listen to each other. They are learning the iterative process. They are learning to fail; something most other sports do not teach with their participation awards.
We will keep on practicing and working on the challenge, the rest of the month and maybe through the spring for some workshops. The important thing is to not give up, keep on trying, and keep on learning.
