TEAM BUILDING
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Mad Dash (Splash)
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Object Retrieval Race
COMMAND TASKS LT CALLUM FORSTER HELPED CADETS FROM CLEVELAND ACF TO TRAIN FOR 4 INFANTRY BRIGADE’S MILITARY SKILLS COMPETITION, THE BLACK RAT CHALLENGE, BY TEACHING THEM ABOUT COMMAND TASK METHODOLOGY, ORGANISATION, CONDUCT AND COMMON FEATURES
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MAD DASH (SPLASH) Equipment: Two planks, two orange tyres, two white tyres, one bucket (ammo box), two 2m lengths of rope and mine tape. Time: 20 minutes Where: Indoors or outdoors Aim: For cadets to get from one side of the crocodileinfested river to the other. On the way they must pick up extra ammunition that has been dropped by the RAF on a small island. Benefits: At first this task requires a lot of planning from the whole team, but once the task is underway it becomes a physical challenge. This task, aimed at junior cadets (1 star and below), promotes team work and team bonding, which is useful when preparing for competitions that are dependent on team work. Instructions and results: Set out the area as shown in the diagram (top right, facing page), making sure that the first white tyre
can be reached from the mine tape (river bank). The distance between the first white tyre and the second white tyre should be greater than the length of both planks. The white tyres are small islands which can be used as aids, but must not move. The orange tyres are floating barrels which can be moved anywhere within the boundaries of the task. Brief the cadets that they have just been ambushed by an enemy patrol and they must get over the crocodileinfested river and escape the rapidly-approaching enemy. They must pick up the spare ammunition on the way, as they are down to 10 rounds each after a recent fire fight. Using the equipment, all team members must get across the river without touching the water. Not all of the equipment has to cross the river. Make it harder: Remove one of the orange tyres
2 OBJECT RETRIEVAL RACE Equipment: Two tyres, a bucket, tape, a wooden pallet to signify an island and two lengths of rope per team. Time: Five minutes Where: Indoors or outdoors Aim: To retrieve the bucket from inside the stacked tyres without any equipment touching the ground. The team which does this fastest wins. Benefits: To develop communication, team-working and coordination skills in teams of any size. Instructions: Mark out a large circle with the tape and stack the tyres on top of the pallet inside the circle. Place the bucket inside the tyres. No member of the team, nor any piece of equipment, can touch the ground inside the circle. The teams are allowed to use only the rope to extract the bucket. If any piece of equipment touches the ground, time penalties will be incurred by the team; if five minutes is allowed for the task, use 30-second time penalties. The winner is the fastest team .
NO TEAM MEMBERS, NOR EQUIPMENT, CAN TOUCH THE GROUND INSIDE THE CIRCLE
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