When I was in highschool and having a rough time (nothing like these kids are going through) then I really liked hockey because for 60 mins only the game mattered, none of the other bull shit. I don't think I could get that at a robotics club, maybe you could.
Theater (stage management, sound mixing, lighting, etc) had a similar quality for me. There's something a lot more satisfying about live work, especially when the whole rest of your life is project-based.
It's in the running, but my all-time winner is still the comment that dismissed wight lifting for exercise. Called it something like "zero net work" because a rep starts and ends in the same position. I'd link to it, but that might be too mean by dang's standards.
I like threads like this one though. It reminds me not to jump straight to doubting myself when I run into a thread with more-convincing groupthink.
As someone that in highschool played both football and did robotics club, I think there was more comraderie in football, despite more of my long term friends doing robotics club. Robotics club, science fairs and programming clubs were fun, but they were just more academics. Football and other sports were a different kind of fun. They are more basic traditionally masculine fun. You do hard things like running and hitting people and you get yelled at, but it builds a shared bond that is much deeper. You also are able to let go on a sports team in a way you can't with an academic club. You don't have any girls you need to worry about, you don't have to keep clean or anything.
