New Team, New Coach Guide

This guide is designed to help the absolute beginner head coach keep tabs on everything they need to keep tabs on.

It assumes the following:

  • You have a basic understanding of what FRC is (A robotics program) and what you expect to get out of it. (A set of students motivated to go into stem)
  • Your team has almost zero experience in any of the FIRST programs (FLL, FTC, FRC). More experienced teams probably won't find the guide particularly useful.

Before you even start

  • Do you have enough funding to start your season?

  • What is your practice space going to look like?

  • How/where how often are you going to meet?
  • Have you assigned roles to the students and mentors?

Pre-competition Activities

  • What does your schedule look like for the season?

    • What are the priorities for bringing the team up to speed?

  • How prepared is the coding team for the season?

    • Do they understand how to submit code to the robot?
    • Can they code a drivable robot?
    • Have you established the drive station

  • How prepared is the build team for the season?

    • (important) Can you wire up the robot?
    • Can your build team follow a design from CAD?
    • Do you understand some basic mechanisms use to solve common FRC challenge scenarios (lift designs, shooting/intake mechanisms)
    • Do you have the right tools for the build team?
      • Measuring, cutting, holding, bending?
    • Do you have the right materials?
    • Do you know how to fabricate those materials? Use machines?
      • Bending/Metal Cutting stamping machine
      • Lathe
      • Bandsaw
      • Crimping/Electrical
    • Do you understand how to put those parts together?
      • How do you put together a motor with gears?
      • How do you create the frame and bumper?
    • Are you going to purchase predesigned solutions from the marketplace?
    • (important) Do you understand the general rules of the game?

Season Kickoff

  • Where are you doing your kickoff?
  • What does your planning session look like?

Season

  • How are you going to get your robot to the competition?
  • What is your pit area going to look like?
  • What does your driver station look like?

Post Season/Out of Season

  • Are we going to do extra competitions?
  • What does our outreach look like?
  • Do we have enough funding for next season?