Lapdog Experience

The night before arriving at Lake Lanier to participate in the Lapdog Rope course experience, I had a cold and was not looking forward to going through a simple rope course that may take 15 minutes. I was totally wrong, as I will begin to explain. I arrived at the meeting area and immediately migrated to my classmates from school. As we got suited up, I was expecting an easy course. As we walked down to the course, I began to underestimate my original assumption, but still didn’t think it would be much of a challenge.

We got up to the course, and that’s when the challenge began. The counselor our group was assigned set out certain guidelines we had to meet as a team to get past each obstacle. On the first course, we had to use a rope with a person on the other side to get to the next portion of the course and we were not allowed to use our ropes that attached us to the wires above or we would have to go back. It took a few times for us to get used to relying on our partner, but we made it. Next, trust really came into play when a few people were blindfolded and we had to get them to the other side in order to progress. Feedback was key in getting past this, and communicating effectively was key in improving this. After that portion, we had to maneuver through the next portion by staying connected at all times and not letting go of the person next to you, or the group would have to start over.

The entire experience was challenging, and even painful as some times, but the trust we formed and the teamwork we had as we progressed through the course was the best teamwork and communicating I have ever used. I discovered that I have an amazing group of people that I get to work with, and that trust and communication are important parts of working as a team. I wouldn’t change anything, and I would definitely do it again.

The leadership in our group was phenomenal! Leaders came out of our group as soon as we got into the first portion of the course. We had to communicate when slack was needed and when someone needed to increase the tension of the ropes. That was key for keeping each other balanced. It is difficult to gain their trust, but once you learn it is required in order to progress, you begin to communicate to each other and a strong trust is built. The hardest part of the day was to trust in the other person. Once that was established, it is a lot easier for the other person to trust you.