Here at LOOP NOLA, we often use low ropes challenges to get groups working together both physically and mentally. By using communication and problem-solving skills, groups come out of the experience bonded together. No longer a gaggle of strangers, they’ve become a team.

But how does that work, exactly? In this post, we’ll share some of the elements that make low ropes such a successful team building activity.

Challenge by Choice

Before any low ropes activity begins, we explain to participants that we practice something called “Challenge by Choice”.

This means that everybody gets to choose how involved they are in the challenge. For example, if a challenge will require some participants to be lifted in the air, anyone who isn’t comfortable with being lifted does not have to be.

Challenge by Choice doesn’t mean that people can completely opt out of participating altogether. Rather, we ask that everyone consider stepping slightly outside their comfort zone without entering their panic zone.

By encouraging participants to engage outside of their comfort zone while still holding personal boundaries, our low ropes facilitators prime them for cooperative learning.

Physical and Mental

Another aspect that makes low ropes challenges so great for team building is the combination of both mental and physical challenges.

These two things aren’t kept separate on a low ropes course. Even if a physical challenge is obvious, like balancing on a cable or swinging on a rope, low ropes challenges often include mental puzzles by design.

For example: Who swings on the rope first, having no one on the other side to catch them? Who swings last, having no one on the original side to help push them all the way across?

These questions may seem to have simple answers on paper, but in execution often pose hurdles for the team to overcome. What if the first or last person simply can’t make the crossing without help? The way groups problem-solve in those cases is where true teams are born.

Looking Out for One Another

Among all this puzzle-solving, rope-swinging, and cable-balancing, there’s another important aspect at play: safety.

Before participants get up off the ground and onto the low ropes challenges, they are taught spotting techniques. These techniques are used whenever participants are in a position where it’s possible to fall.

This means that anyone who isn’t swinging, balancing, or being lifted is spotting the other group members. With nearly the whole group holding their hands up and ready to catch, what would be a dangerous fall can quickly become a lot more like a fun crowd surfing experience.

Participants often report that the act of keeping one another physically safe on the low ropes course is profound. Learning to not only trust others to catch you, but also how to be trustworthy as a catcher, creates tight bonds between participants.

Experiencing Success

As intimidating as low ropes challenges appear, we never issue a challenge to a group that we aren’t confident they can complete. This means that even though your group will certainly have to problem-solve and work together, they will in all likelihood experience shared success.

And that’s a big team building win.