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.