⁉️Stuck?

That's okay, let's fix it

Along the journey of VEX robotics, it's easy to get stuck. Sometimes, your team is waiting on a part to come in, or can't figure out their design, or don't know how to build what they need. This is normal, but it's important to get out of these ruts as soon as possible, since they can stall progress for weeks or even months.

Ask yourself the most important question: what is holding your team back from moving on?

Based on your answer to the above question, here's some advice from our experience:

• Design? Watch robot reveals, matches, tournaments online. See what strategies work, and which ones don't. Ask other teams why they made their robot the way they did, and learn from them. Don't try to design it all yourself--no robot is completely original.

• Building? Again, watch robot reveals, pausing the video to see how teams built and supported their mechanisms. CAD helps a ton when building, so invest time into making one. Ask other teams for help, and don't be defensive when offered constructive criticism.

• Coding? Keep it simple--the way all good code is. Take a look at our coding tutorials, and if those don't help, ask more experienced teams. Test things one step at a time, and find where the code went wrong.

• Team dynamics? When team members disagree, it's nearly impossible to make progress. All disagreements come down to a difference in perspective--some people value good notebooks, some value original designs, some value what works in matches. Talk out your differences, find the root cause of the schism, and remember that you are all working towards the same ultimate goal. The best option is usually compromise between the two perspectives in question.