On 7 & 8th February, the National Cadet Training Centre (CTC) Frimley Park, flung open its doors and welcomed local Football team Woking FC, for two days of team-building exercises and fun.
Organised with the idea of building lasting relationships between the two organisations and raising the profile of CTC in the community, the days were planned with military-style precision, to ensure the players received the full Cadet experience.
As well as key teambuilding exercises, essential for footballers on the pitch, the 16 to 19 year-olds from Woking’s Academy got to try Laser tag, carrying out a series of attack versus defence operations, which included manoeuvring in pairs, providing covering fire and tactical positioning.
Not surprisingly, one highlight of the two days was an inflatable “sticky” dartboard which required participants to kick the Velcro ball and make the bullseye.
Reflecting on the two days activities, WO2 Eddie Murray, training sergeant major at CTC Frimley agreed the football players had particularly benefited from the Army Cadets’ focus on teamwork.
‘When carrying out command tasks they had to start working with each other’s strengths.
A player, for instance, might be robust physically but he may not be a problem solver; their teammate on the other hand might be good at logic.
During the task, they had to let their teammate come to the fore to solve the problem. Going forward that player now understands that “my teammate possesses a strength that I don’t have”. ‘
Woking FC Academy manager Scott Harrison said ‘It was great to witness the different traits and characteristics that these activities brought out in our lads – things that might not be apparent in training and games.
‘We need better communication and more leaders on the pitch, and we noticed a couple of lads who were able to demonstrate these qualities during the tasks.
We can now build their confidence by saying “You did really well at that task, so now you’ve got to take those skills out onto the pitch”.’
All the footballers particularly enjoyed the laser tag.
‘It’s a defence and attack kind of situation and that’s what we do in football training – you have to defend or attack the goal,’ said Scott.
‘It would be fantastic to do more of this kind of teamwork at the start of the season and it’s great that these activities were led by professional Army Cadet course leaders with a trained background. ‘