Sunday 20 November 2011

Polar Expedition Training

I've always been a great believer in making training tough, realistic and comprehensive. This achieves several things. Firstly, participants get to know about all the skills they need and have the opportunity to get to grips with them. Secondly, they get to know which skills they are lacking and are able to concentrate on addressing these needs (with my help of course). For this to be effective I nurture an atmosphere of what I call "brutal" honesty, where people feel comfortable in accepting and talking about their shortfalls (which we all have, me especially!) Thirdly, these new found skills are practised to the point of becoming semi-automatic. I believe this is essential in keeping safe within these environments which are inherently unsafe. An excellent example of this is practising for the POLAR BEAR ENCOUNTER. It is my view that unless the team practises getting up at 04:00 hrs when everyone is shattered, bleary-eyed and really doesn't want to move out of the cocoon of their sleeping bag having struggled most of the night to get comfortable, then they are not in position to be effective and efficient at doing so when it really counts. Fourthly, they get to make their mistakes in a controlled environment, where we can all learn from them if you analyse and talk about the exercise properly, afterwards. Finally, teams gel together in a deeper, more considerate and sensitive way than when in normal society. Mother Nature is a natural leveller, stripping away the facades of normal living and getting down to the real self. There's no room for bluff, spin, ego, agenda or delusion. All these vanish and people are left to confront themselves; unplugged, as it were. Experiencing this is both cathartic and ultimately empowering as it develops a much better person during the process. Additionally it can be great fun! The latest Ice Warrior Polar Training is now available for booking.