Physical Team Building Activities

The team building activities help us in teaching how to work in a group. Complementing each others' weaknesses and strengths can be learned through these activities. The physical team building activities for kids are a part of school life. Kids get to learn how to cooperate and perform a particular task with the team effort through such activities.

Team Building through Physical Activities

The bonding between team members and students (in school) can be strengthened with the help of physical team building activities. Since these activities are not just sedentary and allow physical movements, the team members become much more active and enthusiastic about the task.

Tug-of-War
This game is one of the best physical team building activities for adults and kids. In this activity, the participants have to be grouped in two teams. Members of both teams have to stand in a line and hold a rope. This rope has to be pulled by both teams in order to test their physical strength. There is a line drawn between the two teams. The team which pulls the other on their side wins the game. Format of the game is quite simple and easy to understand. The key to gain victory in this game is pulling the rope together with a combined effort. Lack of synchronization in terms of pulling the rope scatters the energy. It is therefore, the team that works together wins in the end.

Capture the Flag
This game is much like soccer or football. The objective in 'capture the flag' is getting the opponent's flag and bringing it to your own territory. For this game, the participants should be divided in two teams. The playing area should be marked in order to determine the out-of-bounds area. There should be a safe area and penalty box. The safe area should be in the middle of the field. On either sides of this safe area, should be the territories of opposing teams. The penalty box, which is also known as the prisoner box should be used to detain players from the opposing team. The objective in this game is to capture flags of opposing. These flags have to be pinned to certain objects. Players from opposing teams enter each others' territories for capturing their flags. If these players are captured and tagged by opponents, they have to stay in the penalty box until their teammate tags and brings them back to their own territory. In this game, one has to be quick on the feet and also think about helping team members in a smart way.

Balance Beam Activities
The physical team building activities played on a balance beam require a great amount of team work and flexibility. There should be two teams for playing this game and participants of both the teams have to arrange themselves into formations on the balance beam. The height of balance beam can be adjusted as per the convenience of players; it can be high, low or even at the ground level. At first, the player can assemble on the balance beam in a random manner. Different formations on the balance beam should be made as per the directions of an instructor. Points are awarded to the teams on the basis of correct formations being made and also how quickly one moves. The skills of participants are tested when they rearrange themselves on the balance beam by helping team members to move without falling.

There are many physical team building activities like those mentioned above that one should consider in the process of bringing the team members closer and motivating them to work with unity. Teachers should try these different types of team building activities to create a positive environment for students to understand each other in a better manner.