Sept. 24, 2012
SEATTLE - Sophomore McKenzie Fechter wrote the blog below about what the team was up to this past weekend. Saturday the GymDawgs and staff arrived at Gas Works Park eager to learn what was in store for our morning team bonding activity. We started off by getting 20 minutes to construct a plan to complete the tarp turnover, rope house, and pipe line challenges and then were given 20 minutes to perform the three tasks. After conquering the tarp turnover challenge (getting 20 people on the rectangular tarp and turning it over without anyone falling off the tarp) we found difficulty performing the next two tasks. However, with extreme efforts, determination, and communication we ended up successfully completing the other two tasks. Next we did a partner trust challenge where we had to guide our blindfolded partner through the obstacle course and collect tokens without hitting a cone; once all 10 of our team members crossed we had to complete the word from the tokens which spelled out "Communication". Our next challenge was by far the most challenging task yet. We split up in two teams of 10 and had to find a way to create a canopy like model to tie around a bucket filled with balls and slowly guide the bucket around a course and then bring it back; If that's not enough we were not aloud to touch the bucket or have an arm crossing the force field. Although my team did not come up with a successful method, the other team of Huskies came up with one. Our last and final challenge was to split up the team into two and we had to run over to a circle filled with 30 different coins each labeled 1-30. As a team we had to hit each number in correct order and then run back without having two people in the circle at once and hitting a coin out of order. We had three times each to strategize and figure out a more productive way of completing the task. After that, we gathered in a circle and talked about the beneficial things we learned (communication, support, not getting over anxious, and trusting each other) were among a few of the common ideas came up. It was such an amazing opportunity to be able to participate in that activity with the GymDawg team and staff. I definitely think we all learned a lot of information about each other and gained insight as to what we need to continue to work on to achieve our goals this year and go to Nationals. |
