Green Bar Bill's Patrol Corner

This month marks the midpoint for football’s gridiron warriors while the boys of summer culminate their season with baseball’s fall classic. So it’s fitting that Athletics is October’s suggested troop activity. Create patrol team spirit by having boys practice several fun activities in preparation for an interpatrol field day at a fall camp-out.

Frisbee Golf. Lay out a 9- or 18-hole course. The “holes” are trees, small buildings, large rocks, patrol flags, etc. Mark each one with a colored cloth. Make the course challenging by using such “hazards” as ravines, streams, and slopes. Players count their strokes from “tee” to “hole” as in real golf.

Divide Scouts into foursomes or twosomes. The team with the lowest score gets 100 points for its total team score, or set some other value.

Double Action Volleyball. Put two balls (of different colors, if possible) in play simultaneously, one from each side. Points are not awarded until both balls are dead. Play 5- or 10-point games for faster action.

Everybody Up. This initiative exercise is a good way to introduce the idea of patrol cooperation. Ask two Scouts of about the same size to sit on the ground or floor facing each other with soles of their feet touching, knees bent, and hands tightly grasped. From this position they try to pull themselves into a standing position. If they succeed, ask another Scout to join them and try standing with three Scouts, then four, etc. As the group grows, each player must grasp the hands of another person and maintain foot contact with the group.

Ideas for improving patrol teamwork, adapted from material by the late William “Green Bar Bill” Hillcourt or from other sources, appear periodically in this column.

 


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