Theme

Teamwork

Age Range

7-18

Type

Games

Number of Participants

4+

Timescale

5-10 minutes

Quick overview

Testing their problem solving and teamwork abilities, the young people must untangle themselves from one another.

Game type

Energiser/Trust-building

Participants

6-10 per knot

Supplies you’ll need

None.

Game run-through

Have the young people stand in a circle and put their right hand into the circle.

With their right hand they must hold the hand of someone opposite them in the circle. If there is an odd number, one person will have no hand to hold and that’s ok.

Once this first step is done they then put their left hand into the circle and must hold the hand of someone else, emphasise it can’t be the same person. If you have an odd number during this second step, the person who had no hand to hold in the first round now holds two hands in this second step.

Once you’ve assured they all have both hands holding someone else’s, reveal their challenge is to try and unknot themselves without letting go of one another’s hands. The challenge itself should be enough of an objective but if you want to make it into a competition you could add a time limit or if there are enough people you could make it a race between several groups.

Safety and safeguarding

As more people get involved in the knot, movement is harder to do. With larger groups its best to only allow one person at a time to move in the knot.

As this game requires difficult movements, ensure that the group isn’t too close to any walls or things they may fall over or into.

As the game requires a lot of physical contact, we suggest that as leaders you keep a supervisory role as this just ensures you aren’t caught up in any unwanted situations.

This game is not appropriate for those with broken/sprained bones or those who require the use of crutches or wheelchairs.