Phil and Scott's advice is very sound. As a coach going into our 3rd year and parent of a child on a very successful team the best advice is to focus on those missions your team is able to do based on their current abilities.  That is truly have a strategy that is within their ability.  Focus on being successful on those missions. As they add skills and the earlier missions are all set (they are successful most of the time in practice) add more missions. Have them focus on time and difficulty to make changes (changing attachments) between runs. 

Todd Lennox
Coach
Capital Girls 1046 (2014-2015)
Think Tank 23332 (2016) 

> On Sep 6, 2016, at 11:56 AM, Scott Rakestraw <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> 
> Phil gives great advice, start simple.  Also consider pit stop/base time not just how long it takes the robot to run.  Budget at least 30 seconds for pit stops, this leaves you about two minutes for missions.   Every year my teams had to trim runs/missions to fit under the time.   Test your time early and often.  
> 
> This question inspired me share my team’s mission strategy from Trask Trek in a blog post to help rookie teams - https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__www.startingpoints.com_howmanymissions_&d=CwIFaQ&c=eLbWYnpnzycBCgmb7vCI4uqNEB9RSjOdn_5nBEmmeq0&r=J5fb0ELkRoh7TzAGYz99sSMvB-c7i4AC0HDT2OVPrww&m=kbzh102LkT4m_KCNYD54EmgMulkdLjIiPvGmA3Gkfuo&s=tOO4LZnQIk3d-6ghJ6OkeMWrRbBgPCIeUoid4D7z7Kk&e= 
> 
> Scott Rakestraw
> 
> On 9/6/16, 10:37 AM, "First Lego League in Virginia and DC on behalf of Phil Smith III" <[log in to unmask] on behalf of [log in to unmask]> wrote:
> 
>    On your first question:
> 
>    Have them start with ones they know (think?) they can do, then add as they go along. For a rookie team, trying to do all may be daunting, but may be possible. But I can promise you that for a long time it'll be "Nothing ever works..." -- hence the "start with the easy ones".
> 
>    Some flow may also evolve naturally -- "Hey, we weren't doing the XYZ mission, but we can grab the flying squirrel on the way back from delivering the atomic wombat" or whatever. Let 'em figure it out!
>    -- 
>    Phil Smith III
> 
>    Coach, The Capital Girls (retired)
>    Team 1900 (2002)
>    Team 2497 (2003)
>    Team 2355 (2004)
>    Team 1945 (2005)
> 
>    -----Original Message-----
>    From: First Lego League in Virginia and DC [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Cathy Abi-Khattar
>    Sent: Tuesday, September 06, 2016 10:15 AM
>    To: [log in to unmask]
>    Subject: [VADCFLL-L] how many missions to go for?
> 
>    Hello
>    We are a rookie team trying to figure out a good number of the missions to tackle. About how many missions do most teams go for? All of them? Half? We have a tight timeline so I want to challenge the kids as much as possible without stressing them out. This is their first year doing a team. 
> 
>    Also, where do we register and pay for our team to join the VA DC FLL? We are registered and paid for nationally but on the VA DC FLL site I can only find links to register nationally. Where do you pay the $125 to register regionally?
> 
>    Thank you!
> 
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