LRC – ROPE COURSE TEAMBUILDING

Before the game starts… Who has heard of LRC?

A summer morning, Warsaw’s Żoliborz, a rope structure awaits between the trees. (We hung it up in the morning, answering questions from passersby: “Will these be military exercises..?) Participants are arriving. Their faces show various emotions: excitement, curiosity, slight apprehension… Just like the passersby we spoke to in the morning, most are seeing the LRC course for the first time in their lives.

LRC (Eng. low ropes course) or rope courses are a popular team-building tool in the Netherlands, Germany, and the United Kingdom.

What does it look like?

A video from our workshops: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I6LqFG8h6z0
And this is what the course looked like for the Ambassadors of Bank Zachodni WBK 🙂  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E6jDVaYTtiM&t=1s

What happens during the game?

We start with a quick safety instruction. The team gets on the ropes and… the game begins! The first section turns out to be a challenge – it’s a steel rope without any stabilizing elements. How to cross it? Various ideas are proposed, participants discuss and test different solutions.

Every 5 minutes, a bell signals the passage of valuable time. You can see the rescue expedition retracing their steps to help a colleague trapped a few sections back. One of the rescuers inadvertently touches a forbidden part of the structure and has to buy his way out… He ran out of emeralds! Fortunately, his colleagues chip in for the ransom 🙂

After getting off the route, we will sit in the shade under the trees to share our impressions. We will talk about the quality of communication and collaboration during the game, analyze the pros and cons of the strategy the team decided on.

LRC route – what is needed to conduct the workshops?

• We can set up the LRC route both in the forest and in urban areas. The only thing needed is 6-7 healthy trees with a diameter of at least 30 cm.
• The rope team-building course is a little different each time – we plan it to fit the game scenario and the workshop program. We bring the ropes to the location and usually set them up the day before the workshops.
• 5-15 participants can play at a time. In case of a larger number of participants, we divide the group into several teams.
• The rope game lasts 1.5 – 3 hours. It works well as the main point of the program, and we also use it as a workshop module – an experience to which we will refer later during training on communication, effective collaboration, or leadership.
• Participation in LRC training requires good health, but athletic fitness is not necessary. The ability to cooperate and the right choice of strategy are much more important.

Low and high parks – how do they differ?

LRC, or rope courses, are also called ‘low rope parks.’ The name can cause misunderstandings because although both activities use ropes, they differ in most other respects.

At first glance, you can see the difference in construction. The LRC course hangs about 40 cm above the ground, while the stationary park is high up, between the trees. The LRC route consists of ropes (steel – for walking and climbing – for holding on), while the high park has elements made of various materials, boards, etc. The LRC is designed for a specific game and training purposes, set up in a chosen location, and taken down after the workshop is completed, whereas high parks have a fixed shape and are stationary.

The key difference lies deeper. A stationary park primarily involves overcoming fear on one’s own. In contrast, the teambuilding route is not a space for solitary athletes – without mutual help and collective problem-solving, it would not be possible to win the game, and often not even to complete the route. Here, the team matters.