Team Games at Escarmouche

Six games, deliberately different from each other

The reason this works as a team day is that no single person can win all of it. The games are chosen to reward different things, so the quiet one who cracks the Code Breaker matters as much as the one who flips tyres fastest.

• The Gauntlet - a 14-obstacle assault course of mud, grit and glory
• Gladiator Combat - pugil-pad duels on the podium, last one standing wins
• Tug of War - the oldest test of teamwork there is
• Tyre Flipping - raw strength and grit against the clock
• Human Foosball - football, except you are the players on the table
• Code Breaker - brains over brawn, crack the mission to win

A team day in pictures

Why it works better than a conference-room exercise

Most corporate team building fails for the same reason: everybody knows it is an exercise, so everybody performs. Nobody is genuinely invested in whether the paper tower stands up.

Physical competition skips that. People stop managing how they come across after about ninety seconds of Tug of War, and what you get for the rest of the day is how they actually behave under pressure - who organises, who encourages, who goes quiet, who turns out to be fiercely competitive. That is the bit worth watching, and it is the bit people talk about afterwards.

Who we run team days for

Sporting teams use it pre-season, when the squad has new faces and needs to mix. Youth groups and schools use it because it tires everyone out productively and rewards the kids who are not the obvious athletes. Corporate groups use it because it produces genuine conversation at the pub afterwards rather than polite small talk.

Groups vary in fitness, and that is fine - the mix of physical, tactical and problem-solving games means everyone has at least one event where they are the useful one.

• Sporting teams and clubs
• Schools, youth groups and student societies
• Corporate and workplace teams
• Mixed-ability groups - there is an event for everyone