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Adventure Racing: A New Challenge in Team Development
By Mike Smaltz,
Personal Trainer with Platoon Fitness and Personal Evolution Training
Each year housing and residential living professionals face the annual challenge of training both new and seasoned staff members within their department. Designing quality programs that promote critical thinking, new challenges, and teamwork can be a daunting task. However, there is a new trend that just may do the trick to excite and challenge both student and professional staff members. This new trend is the sport of Adventure Racing.
Most recently adventure racing has taken hold with televised events such as the Eco-Challenge and the X-Games. There are many aspects of adventure racing that make up the sport and they vary within each race. The most common disciplines are mountain biking, trekking, rock climbing, kayaking, and land navigation. What is unique about adventure racing is that anyone could do the disciplines alone, but the sport mandates that they be done as a team. We realize that the aspect of building effective teams is critical when you are planning your fall training program and adventure racing activities offer opportunities to build teams creatively.
There are several benefits to including adventure racing as a component in your training module. First, is the stress that is put on the body and mind to accomplish the goal. Goals can vary from team to team and it is vitally important that the team goes into the race with the same goal or they are finished before they start. To achieve the goal, your staff team must pull together to get the job done. There can be no blame cast on the team member doing the navigating if the team gets lost while on a scavenger hunt for example. This concept teaches your staff that when someone is out of the loop it is up to the rest of the staff team to pick up any slack. Ultimately, adventure racing brings out the teamwork in everybody, which is what you need to build a strong team foundation for the academic year.
Adventure racing itself is an excellent tool. There are leadership skills involved that do not come into play in everyday life. In respect to college students, the effects on small groups would be immeasurable. Adventuring racing could help students realize their potential, as individuals are severely limited when compared to the potential of working with a group. The problem solving skills needed to complete an adventure race would greatly enhance and focus the individual with the team dynamic. Where many new staff are confused or unsure about their new role, adventure racing will give them a renewed confidence within the team and a positive reinforcement that other team activities cannot provide. Adventure racing takes out a lot of the competitive and the "have to win" mentally. It has a task attaining mentality that no other team activity has. The team comes first and you do what you have to with that team to accomplish almost anything. The real life stressors that the races put on a team also can not be duplicated in any other team sport.
Teamwork by definition is individuals coming together as a single unit to accomplish a common goal. The definition doesn't take into account the multiple personalities, views, and opinions that come into play. Imagine a team of four people standing, huddled around a compass and map in the middle of the wilderness, hundreds of miles from the nearest sign of civilization. One member of the team wants to go south, two want to go west, and the fourth doesn't care he just wants to stop and rest for a little while. Tempers are getting heated and the tension is rising. In the heat of the argument one team member brings up the fact that one of the other members forgot to bring the right map and they were lost because of that. It also comes out that the accuser is slowing everyone down because his fitness level isn't up to par with everyone else. The last member continues to whine about being tired and wants to rest. After all, the team has been racing for two days and the end is another two days ahead. At this point, it is important to remember that the team must come together and focus on one issue at a time. The group huddles up again and decides south by southwest would be the best way to travel and a small rest to eat and drink would freshen them all up. Adventure racing puts teams in this type of situation all the time. The team has to put differences aside and refocus on the task at hand. It takes a lot of give and take, as well as a mature mental outlook, but once accomplished the next stressful task is more easily accomplished.
Teamwork is a skill itself. It needs to be developed in the individual and the group. The team dynamic is very important if the team is to be successful. Adventure racing helps develop that skill. Each person of the adventure racing team must pull his/her own load, plus that of the teammate. Everyone within the team must be responsible for the teams actions and decisions, regardless if they had an active roll in that decision. There will be significant amounts of time spent with your teammates on the racecourse, and before the race. The importance of having the same goal can not be overstated. Everyone on the team should have similar commitment levels to the race event as well. This is a team sport where everyone needs to cross the finish line together, so you are truly only as strong as your weakest link. If one of your teammates is not willing to commit to the common goal then the team will never reach that goal.
The most successful teams are made up of individuals who recognize adventure racing as a team sport. There is no "doing your fair share of the work"; it's about doing everything you possibly can to get the team to the goal. Sometimes this may mean two people do most of the paddling while the other two sleep. Or maybe three people work together to carry an injured teammate to the finish line. You must be selfless. You must be a leader, as well as, a follower. The only results that counts are the results of the team. The feeling comes when the team has overcome the hardships and stresses of the race. The team has endured and the team crosses the finish line together.
Just think what this type of simulated activity could do for your student or professional staff group. Good luck and have fun.
About the Author
Mike Smaltz is a former Navy Seal and Personal Trainer with Platoon Fitness and Personal Evolution Training. Mike has been a participant on many adventure racing teams, most recently the Endorphin Fix. For more information contact Mike at MikeSmaltz@aol.com.