Play in Search Training
The recent snow and yet another Christmas book (Living Out LOUD by Keri Smith) has got me thinking about play.
As was briefly discussed in the comments about graveyard humour following my report on ALSAR at the Dartmoor Rescue Training Exercise, fun and humour are a perfectly natural defence mechanism for our brains. The question is; how well do training officers balance the “fun” and the serious training exercises?
So here are a few of my ideas for fun search training exercises;
1. Spot the fairy
Maybe not a winter activity but set up right I think you could have a great twenty/thirty minutes of fun with this. Find a location with lots of cover and dead ground. Dress up the biggest, manliest member as a fairy. See who can be the first to spot him jump up.
This is probably best mixed in with some visual training of the “find 20 objects hidden in the panorama in front of you” type!
2. Route and Path Race
Have three or four equal route and paths, or one long circular path. Place ten or more small objects along this path. Have the teams race along the path. Give points for speed, and number of objects found.
3. Quick Search
Set up the usual search exercise [See my series on planning search exercises]. However, instead of having one Search Controller and search teams – run two competing “search units” with a search controller and search  plan each. Have them compete to see who can find the misper first! This should help train search urgency!
4. Beat the Search Dog
Here’s a fun joint dog / foot search team training activity. Set up some search areas – send out foot teams and a dog team and have them race to try to find the waiting misper.
5. Rescue the Landrover
Why not hide a Landrover or similar on the search ground? Let the team(s) find it and “recover it to a place of safety”!
I’m sure you can think of lots more… How about another New Year’s resolution? To put in a “fun” exercise or activity every couple of months.
January 7, 2010
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Robert Bradley · 
6 Comments
Tags: Graveyard Humour, Landrover, Route and Path Search, SAR Training, Search Dog, Search Fun, Search Play, Search Training Exercise, Search Urgency, Snow SAR, Training Officer · Posted in: Search Thoughts, Search Training
6 Responses
I agree, in fact one year I dressed up as Santa and had a big bag of presents for the search team when they found me.
Who are you and what have you done with the real Rob Bradley?
Hide a load of small objects along a route and path and award points for finding them? This sounds like a hunt for clues! Clue conciousness involves being aware of clues and their potential value, but not searching for them. Hide a number of human sized objects (dummies) down a route and path. A team that trains with clues will search too slowly when looking for a human. Burn the clue box should be every training officer’s New Year Resolution.
I’ve obviously taken all the fluff said about me to heart!
I’m now the ZEN master of search … giving paradoxical advice to you, allowing you all to come up with your own answers!
Look out for the new book – Zen and the Art of Search, coming out soon!
The clue, of course, is that the route and path search game is scored on speed!
In realistic search training exercises I still hold the position that clues should not be used and as Johnnie quite rightly says – BURN THE CLUE BOX!
Burn the clue box! Now that would be a T-shirt slogan!
For the fun of it…
I did wonder about the clue searching… It might emphasise the wrong thing during the exercise? A race type situation might be good though, to show teams how fast they can move whilst still finding mispers. As Johnnie suggested, several “mispers” along a path would make for an interesting exercise.
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