Chapter 2: There's no "off" in Offseason.
Updated: Sep 14
On the first day of school, Mrs. Takes had seventeen students ready to build a robot.
This was encouraging.
It was also a problem.
The Greenhorns were a brand-new FRC team. Their students had signed up for robotics because they had been promised, with reasonable confidence, that robotics would contain robots. They arrived bright-eyed, curious, and ready to begin their exciting engineering adventure.
“What are we building?”
“When do we get the robot?”
“Can I drive?”
“Are we going to competition?”
Mrs. Takes had questions too.
Her main one was:
What exactly are we supposed to do until January?
She knew that the official FRC game would not be revealed until Kickoff. She knew that once January arrived, the team would have a game, rules, and a robot to build.
January, however, was several months away. Stalling for time was not an option.
The students needed to feel like a team. They needed things to accomplish. If robotics was connected to a class, there were grades to produce. They needed skills before anyone handed them a power tool in January and suggested that perhaps the next six weeks would be an excellent time to learn manufacturing from scratch.
Mrs. Takes had volunteered to help students build a robot. She was beginning to realize she had instead agreed to administer a small engineering firm whose employees required permission slips.
Welcome to FRC.
The Robot Season Starts in January. The Team Season Does Not.
One of the easiest rookie mistakes is to think of FRC as a January-through-April activity.
That is when the most visible part happens. Kickoff arrives. The new game is revealed. Build Season begins. Robots appear. Competitions happen. Someone loses a 10 mm wrench despite owning six of them.
But an FRC team has a year.
FIRST's current Mentor Guide treats the months before Kickoff as active team-development time: creating or updating the team in the FIRST Dashboard, fundraising, completing Youth Protection requirements, recruiting students and mentors, selecting events and Kickoff plans, choosing Kit of Parts options, applying for grants, training students, inventorying equipment, and preparing for awards and the coming season.
In other words, the offseason is not a five-month waiting room.
It is your chance to build the organization that will eventually build the robot.
For a new coach, it helps to stop thinking about the year as one enormous calendar full of mysterious deadlines and instead divide it into manageable chunks.
An Oversimplified FRC Year
Time | What the Team Is Mostly Doing |
July–August | Form the team, get organized, establish safety and expectations, begin training |
September–October | Build skills, order equipment, recruit, handle registration and administrative work |
November–December | Practice, assemble training projects, finish preseason purchases, prepare for Kickoff |
January–February | Kickoff and Build Season |
March–April | Competition season and, for qualifying teams, FIRST Championship |
May–June | Recover, review, repair, document, celebrate, and begin the offseason again |
The exact rhythm varies by team and region. School calendars differ. District and Regional schedules differ. Community teams may not care when your school district administers the ACT, which is one of the many freedoms they enjoy while dealing with entirely different administrative problems.
The point is not that every team follows these exact six blocks.
The point is that January should not surprise you.
July–August: Build the Team
If you are starting an FRC team around the beginning of the school year, your first challenge probably will not be robot design.
It will be figuring out what everyone should do.
The students are eager. That enthusiasm is precious. It is also perishable.
Telling a group of teenagers, “The real thing starts in five months,” is not a particularly effective retention strategy.
So give them something real to accomplish.
RECOMMENDED: Give the Offseason Milestones
A developing rookie-team schedule might look something like this:
August — Safety, tools, and team building
Teach students how the workspace functions. Introduce basic safety expectations. Begin tool training. Do team-building activities. Let students learn one another's strengths before Build Season introduces them under considerably less diplomatic circumstances.
September — Get your feet under you
Choose small training projects. Order kits or components. Start CAD, programming, electrical, mechanical, strategy, or driving exercises. Begin giving students enough vocabulary that phrases like motor controller and CAN bus stop sounding like maritime law.
October — Build something
Assemble a chassis, prototype board, training mechanism, electronics board, or other manageable project.
The objective is not to create a competitive FRC robot in October.
The objective is to create something complicated enough that students have to solve problems together.
November — Wire it. Program it. Keep going.
Continue assembly. Make electrical connections. Begin programming. Test subsystems. Take things apart after discovering why they did not work.
This last activity is commonly known as engineering.
By about December 15ish — Make something happen when a student presses a button.
That is the goal. Not a FIRST deadline. Not a rule. Not a requirement.
Just a useful finish line.
RECOMMENDED: Before winter break, give students something they can point to and say, “We made that work.”
Maybe the chassis drives.
Maybe a motor spins.
Maybe a mechanism moves.
Maybe a prototype responds to a controller.
The particular accomplishment matters less than students experiencing the entire chain from idea to something functioning. CELEBRATE THAT MOMENT! Take video of every time they enable the robot and test a control for the first time. As soon as the motor moves from a controller button - the students have just officially become roboticists. Don’t let that brief moment escape you. It’s a unique shout for joy that you will forever chase the moment it works for the first time.
If robotics is part of a class, these milestones can also become legitimate checkpoints for assessment: safety certification, CAD assignments, wiring exercises, build documentation, programming tasks, design reviews, reflections, or demonstrations.
If robotics is not a class, the milestones still matter.
Progress is motivating.
“Learn robotics” is not a project.
“Make this move by December” is.
What If We Don't Have Robot Parts?
Then do not wait for robot parts to start building robotics knowledge.
New teams have dramatically different resources. Some begin with a shop full of equipment inherited from an established program. Others begin with three screwdrivers, an old laptop, and a room that the custodian would very much like back by 5:00.
You can still use the fall season to develop a team.
Students can:
sketch robot designs;
practice CAD on Onshape- There's even course curriculum available.
Beginner: https://learn.onshape.com/learning-paths/cad-for-robotics
Intermediate: https://frcdesign.org/
study previous seasons and FRC robots;
watch robot walkthroughs such as Behind the Bumpers videos;
Google search "FRC (insert year) video" watch old match footage and learn how FRC games actually unfold;
practice strategy using old games to talk about how to score points;
run a mock Kickoff;
practice reading an old Game Manual;
use a driving simulator such as MoSimulator;
learn basic programming concepts;
study mechanisms “Marco Design: Preparing for the Game Drop” is a great reference;
analyze why different teams solved the same problem differently;
learn project management and documentation.
A useful exercise is simply to choose an old game your students do not know.
Watch the reveal.
Then ask:
What scores points?
What appears difficult?
What would we prioritize?
What would we ignore?
What information do we need before choosing a design?
What kind of robot could our team realistically build? What was the “Kitbot” for that year? What was the “Everybot” for that year? How are they similar and different? As rookies you will most likely be building a KitBot and maybe by second or third year you’ll advance to an EveryBot. Or who knows maybe your team is ready to jump in to EveryBot year one or designing their own robot from scratch. It's a team decision with lots of guidance from the coach as to what's feasible in the first few years.
You do not have to fabricate a single piece of aluminum to begin learning how engineers make decisions. Your goal between August and January is not to exhaust the team preparing for Build Season. It is to make January easier.
That same principle runs through practical offseason advice already used with developing teams: train without the pressure of competition, teach tools and technical skills, reuse previous robots where possible, inventory equipment, clean up administrative work, and practice the processes that will become much harder once the season clock starts ticking.
January is not the best time to learn absolutely everything for the first time. However, no amount of preparation will quite get you ready for your first ever season. So don’t sweat the pretend deadlines but don’t miss the lessons from trying to keep them.
We'll get more into the Build and Competition Season in later chapters.
Your Team Needs a Calendar
Not eventually. Now. Buy one. Print one. Project one. Create a shared digital one. Chisel one into a stone tablet if that is what your organization's IT policy allows. I bought a giant dry erase yearlong calendar off Amazon that was super handy.
The format is less important than the fact that the team can see it.
This was one of the first painful lessons the Greenhorns learned. Mrs. Takes had dates. Some were in her email. Some lived in the FIRST Dashboard. Some were on the school calendar. Some existed on sticky notes. At least one was being stored exclusively in her memory, which was already being asked to retain several hundred things and had begun filing formal complaints.
What she did not have was one place where the team could see what was coming.
Teenagers have lives. They have football games, homecoming, prom, ACT and SAT testing, jobs, band, sports, family commitments, other clubs, transportation problems, and occasional plans that apparently require twenty-three messages to explain. If students learn on Tuesday that you need them all day Saturday, you have not discovered that teenagers are unreliable. You have discovered the importance of scheduling. I would establish a general rule of thumb borrowed from team 118 Robonauts: “FAMILY > School > robot” in that order, in that capitalization, with intention. FAMILY comes first, School is second, robot is last. Seems trivial but it's important that you as a coach know and that the students know how to manage their time. This sets the priorities straight when schedules start to get crazier.
FAMILY>School>robot
The Calendar Is Not Just for the Coach
Put major team commitments where students and families can see them well in advance.
Include things like:
regular meetings;
training sessions;
outreach events;
offseason competitions;
Kickoff;
Build Season milestones;
school holidays;
BIRTHDAYS - (they love that!);
exam periods;
major school events;
event registration windows;
competition dates;
travel days;
parent meetings;
grant deadlines;
award deadlines;
purchasing deadlines;
internal design deadlines;
robot completion goals.
Then talk about the calendar. Repeatedly.
At the beginning of each month, spend a few minutes reviewing what is coming.
“How many meetings do we have this month?”
“Who has testing?”
“When is our outreach event?”
“When do we leave for competition?”
“When does this grant close?”
“What has to be ordered this week if we want it next month?”
A calendar nobody discusses eventually becomes wallpaper. A calendar the team uses becomes accountability, not just for the team but for the coach. Your students should be able to look ahead and make decisions about their lives. Your mentors should be able to look ahead and tell you which weekends they can help. Parents should know that an event exists before their child announces at dinner on Thursday that they require transportation across the state Saturday morning.
This is project management in its least glamorous and most useful form.
September–October: The Administrative Season
While students are learning tools and discovering that aluminum edges can be unexpectedly educational, another version of the FRC season has begun.
The paperwork version.
The current FIRST Mentor Guide places a significant amount of preseason responsibility on Lead Coaches. Those responsibilities include registering the team, managing team information and the roster in the FIRST Dashboard, event selection, Kickoff and Kit of Parts decisions, monitoring the FRC calendar, and helping make sure deadlines are met.
This is why you should become familiar with the Dashboard before you urgently need something from it. You do not need to memorize every button. You need to know what lives there, who is responsible for it, and when it needs attention.
The Two-Lead-Coach Problem
FIRST currently requires an FRC team to have two adults registered as Lead Coaches in the FIRST Dashboard. The Mentor Guide describes them as the team's primary contacts and gives them significant administrative responsibilities.
REQUIRED
Set up both Lead Coaches correctly and complete the applicable FIRST requirements for those roles. Do not assume that naming Lead Coach 2 means Lead Coach 2 has finished becoming Lead Coach 2.
Rookie teams frequently discover that the second Lead Coach is the nearest administrator, teacher, mentor, or adult who agreed to assist before fully understanding what the sentence meant. They just happened to sit still long enough for you to catch them.
Then Lead Coach 1 spends an afternoon saying things like:
“Did you get the email?”
“Try logging in again.”
“Click the team.”
“No, the other team.”
“Do you still see the red warning?”
“There should be a button.”
“I don't know why there isn't a button.”
This is normal enough to plan for.
The better version is genuinely shared leadership. Two adults look at what needs to happen and divide the work. One might own Dashboard administration and registration while another manages purchasing and travel. Or one handles school/community-organization logistics while another coordinates team operations. There is no single correct division. But there is an important lesson here for the coach currently doing everything alone:
This program requires infrastructure because it actually is a lot of work.
If your administration or host organization knows that you are currently performing the jobs of coach, teacher, purchasing manager, travel coordinator, fundraiser, technical mentor, communications director, and occasional keeper of snacks; then use that information. Leverage the fact a lot is being asked of you. Do so with Gracious Professionalism. While a lot is being asked of you, lead with the small wins before you come with the asks. You and your team can accomplish a lot without help. But don’t be too timid to ask for help. The squeaky wheel gets the grease. Occasionally it also gets another mentor, which is considerably more useful.
Youth Protection and Mentor Setup
FIRST's Mentor Guide states that team mentors are required to obtain Youth Protection Program clearance, including applicable screening requirements, annual FIRST YPP training, and acknowledgment of FIRST YPP policies. Screening requirements vary by location; the guide specifically notes their applicability in the United States and Canada and directs teams to current FIRST Youth Protection resources for exact requirements. Lead Coaches are responsible for helping ensure mentors meet applicable requirements.
REQUIRED
Follow the current FIRST Youth Protection requirements and any additional requirements imposed by your school, district, nonprofit, sponsor organization, facility, or other host.
Do not use this book as your final authority for the exact current process. Use FIRST. Rules and procedures change. Our goal here is to remind you to put the task on the calendar before discovering at an inconvenient moment that an adult still has three unfinished steps. Also, you can not add students to your team roster until those steps are completed.
The Preseason Administration Worksheet
Do not try to keep all of this in your head. Give each task an owner and a date.
Check the current FIRST calendar and Dashboard each season before filling in season-specific deadlines.
What Needs to Happen | Who Is Handling It? | Due Date |
Lead Coach 1 registered in FIRST Dashboard | __________ | _________ |
Lead Coach 2 registered in FIRST Dashboard | __________ | _________ |
Lead Coach 1 required YPP steps complete | __________ | _________ |
Lead Coach 2 required YPP steps complete | __________ | _________ |
Other mentors complete applicable FIRST/YPP requirements | __________ | _________ |
Required Consent & Release forms complete | __________ | _________ |
Team contact information checked | __________ | _________ |
Team registration completed | __________ | _________ |
Express Enrollment invitation/QR prepared and shared, if used | __________ | _________ |
Student enrollment/roster checked | __________ | _________ |
Parent/guardian enrollment instructions sent | __________ | _________ |
Event preferencing opens | __________ | _________ |
Team event choices finalized | __________ | _________ |
Additional event registration, if applicable | __________ | _________ |
Kickoff selection opens / decision made | __________ | _________ |
Kit of Parts options selected | __________ | _________ |
Initial registration payment deadline | __________ | _________ |
Additional event payment deadline, if applicable | __________ | _________ |
NASA RAP grant deadline, if applicable | __________ | _________ |
Other grant deadlines | __________ | _________ |
Submitted award deadlines identified | __________ | _________ |
School/organization travel approval started | __________ | _________ |
Competition transportation requested | __________ | _________ |
Hotel process started, if needed | __________ | _________ |
Major preseason purchases submitted | __________ | _________ |
This is not meant to be an exhaustive list but hopefully covers some of things you didn’t think about planning for in the offseason. Also, you should not be putting your own name down for the entire “who’s handling this” column. You may have to initiate a lot of it but find ways to delegate what you can. Also, you’d be very surprised at what the students on your team can handle. Give them a chance! They have access to resources and AI that we didn’t growing up. Responsible use of AI is not only allowed, it’s encouraged with FIRST.
November–December: Make January Less Intimidating
By late fall, the administrative and technical sides of the team should begin converging.
You want to know, as early as practical:
where you are attending Kickoff;
which event or events you expect to attend;
which students and mentors are active;
which registrations remain incomplete;
what equipment is missing;
what needs to be purchased;
what winter break does to your schedule;
what major school/community conflicts exist;
what travel approvals take the longest;
whether your training project is anywhere near functional.
By December, Mrs. Takes still did not know what robot the Greenhorns would build. Nobody did. That was the point of Kickoff.
But seventeen students now knew one another. Some could use tools. Some could CAD. Someone had made a motor turn on purpose. The Lead Coaches were registered, the paperwork was moving, the competition dates were on a calendar, and the team had practiced solving problems before the problems began arriving with official logos attached.
They were not ready for Build Season.
Nobody is.
They were, however, considerably less unready.
That is an excellent offseason goal.
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