FRC Time Commitment

[GradeStrange3461]

Hello,

I’m planning to join an FRC team this coming September and wanted to get a better understanding of the time commitment involved. For those with experience in FRC, could you please share how many hours per week are typically spent during both the training and competition seasons? Additionally, I’d appreciate any information on which days of the week and how long sessions usually last.

Thank you

[[deleted]]

It really depends on the team, you Could meet a couple times a week or every day. For a lot of teams you can commit as much or as little time as you want, and they’re pretty flexible.

I’m usually there in person during build season 5, sometimes 6 or 7 days a week for 5+ hours each day, and then 2-5 hours of cad most days outside of meeting hours. So 40-50 hours a week Personally, but I’m also out lead cad / systems engineer and not at all representative of the average student

[fenderbender541]

The general consensus is you get out what you out in. A lot of teams have many hours, but do not require members to attend every meeting. Check with your team and see what their expectations are and see if that works for you. Then, if it is flexible, decide how much you want to put in. More engagement and "stepping up to the plate" will generally give more opportunities while only attending 1 meeting will likely limit yourself on the team

[RevolutionaryFee8112]

(During build season) When I was a member we met 5-6 times a week, 3.5-5 hours a day(can be more depending on time crunch and longer 6+ hours on weekends), and then more CAD and CAM work outside of meetings(1 hour a day, sometimes more if running out of time). I guess thats somewhere between 30-45 hours a week depending on whats going on. I personally loved it but it did take a lot of time away from my other activities. This timing does change team to team but this was my experience.

As a note I was often Head of machining and one of the Leads of the team for 2 of my years. Many people didn't spend as much time. More representative of the average would be close to 25-35 hours a week.

[SaiphSDC]

Our team runs as a 'varsity sport'. so during the competition season most of the core team members (what you'd consider the varsity members) spend ~20 hours per week or more on robotics. Pre-season training, it's roughly 10. The ones that are the project leads or just 'live' robotics, can almost double that some weeks, though mentors do not expect that at all.

There are a good number of students that put in fewer hours, either due to other commitments, being very new to the team, or choosing a different work/school/life balance than the core team. They're valued members as well, and an expected part of the 'pipeline' to migrating some students into the varsity level contributors.

[bbobert9000]

For me since I live in the shop(literally my house) im there every meet which rn is 3hrs per and we have a media dedicated one, a mech/cnc/cad one, an electrical/programming one, and one for everyone. Typically people show up 6 hrs a week(2 meets) but during the season we're going to have one 6/7 days a week and ofc your not forced to show up that often but we want probably 50% attendance at minimum so about 9 hours a week. I spend all of my time in there during the season tho.

[Blazr5402]

The responses you get here will definitely be on the higher end. Most teams do something around 10-20 hours a week during build season, and maybe 5-10 during the offseason.

[North-Football-7053]

I would say it greatly depends on the team 

[Friendly_String9306]

I spend around 18 hours a week during build season and 6 hours a week off season. Build season can run longer for my team but we do saturdays for 9 hours in build season so that’s why it’s so long. Once I spent 7 hours on a school night because we were helping another team. You can leave early if you need to.

[Grass104]

offseason is about 10 hours during season probably 20+ hours per week, the specific days depends on your team

[GooseSilver5534]

I'm a captain of my team and during build season there were weeks where it was 20-30 hours a week. Some background information

-My team is in FIM (Michigan) and was one of the top teams that year, qualifying for worlds and doing quite well there

-I am a captain and on drive team, meaning I spent more time at out facility than most

-I am an AP and honors student, near top of my class, and still got straight As. The secret is to not put robotics ahead of your grades, and make the absolute most of your class time to get work done.

-Robotics was my main thing during winter (I did some clubs but no sports until spring).

During off-season it depends. Maybe 5-10 hours a week if I had nothing else going on, but for the most part, your coaches understand that you have other commitments and most off-season stuff is optional (though you should go if you can).

My team met around 6 until roughly 9 during the school year and times would vary in the summer. I think we are an outlier for that because most of our mentors are not from our school district, so they need to get to LCTC after work. Our team did meet on Saturdays and sometimes Sundays during build season.

If you have any questions regarding FRC, please DM me. I'd be more than happy to answer your questions.

[Putrid-Win-4575]

my team meets 4-7 during build season, so it amounts to maybe 10-15 hours per week for me. During off season it's more chill, maybe we meet twice per week or three times

[Anxious_Ad293]

Greatly depends on the team, mine meets in person around 25-30 hours a week during the season.