After a weekend swinging from ropes, navigating wire courses and crossing rope bridges Instructors from across the Thames Valley are now ready and qualified to work with cadets on Low Ropes Courses. The European Ropes Course Association accredited training was delivered by Vertex Training near Corfe Castle in Dorset.
The weekend started with the vital skill of safe operation before moving through some of different types of exercises and the positive methods of reviewing teams. The weekend concluded with written and practical assessments of all of the course members by Vertex Training in order to qualify for the industry standard ERCA accreditation.
One of the course members, Squadron Leader Mark Trevena, summed up the experience “the team arrived in Dorset feeling apprehensive about the course, but after an excellent weekend all 14 of us are now ready to return to our Squadrons and starting developing our cadets using some of our newly learnt life changing skills”.
Low Ropes Courses use elements that are close to the ground, so the perceived risk is low, but still challenging to complete. Cadets will walk tightropes, negotiate obstacles, climb walls, and pass team-mates through a giant web. By doing so they progressively expand their comfort zones and develop new understandings of how they complete other non-associated tasks in everyday life. Each challenge draws upon team members to actively support each other.
