Team building activities in Ireland : Our top 5

Team building activities in Ireland : Our top 5 is a toe dip into the vast array of activities available to those that want to organise a worthwhile team building experience for members of staff. The range goes from sedentary to pampering and from gut busting to high wire adrenaline pumping.

We at Bigpotatoes have a list as long as Desperate Dan’s arm but today we want to focus your mind on our top five.

1. Go-Karting

This one always hits the spot and the beauty is that while it’s an adrenaline rushing activity it’s always safe. The Karts are low slung vehicles with small wheels, fitted with safety gear and impossible to flip over. There are plenty of karting tracks both indoor and outdoor and dotted around the country. When you arrive at the track you are fitted with a special suit and helmet and made to feel like Jensen Button. Once in the car you have two objectives, beat your team mates and beat the clock. Lots of hair pin bends, sweeping corners and straight sections for overtaking. So why wait. Bang… you’re off!!

2. Off Roading

This is an experience for the petrol heads. This is 4×4 off road driving that will test the skill sets of the most committed “would be” rally driver or adventure motorist. There are many venues around Ireland that utilise abandoned trails, bogs, small rivers, steep inclines, mud baths and obstacles with frightening names such as coffin and twister. There are different courses, some will suit more experienced off road drivers and others are for starlet drivers. The team will be enthralled with this activity and will usually do three circuits of a course while navigating through “gates” that are usually situated at the most awkward part of the course. You can hire a 4×4 at the venues or have a go in your mothers Toyota Yaris. That should be fun!! www.motorsportireland.com

3. Assault courses

This is the daddy of all team building activities. It is what separates the sheep from the lambs. Team building for the good, the bad and the ugly. No place for wimps. It’s up to your arse in mud and muck as you physically challenge the course, your team and yourself. This makes a mockery of jogging in the park. There are several events, team events that can be used for personal development and team building. Tough Mudder, Mudfest and toughest Muckers are a few. It’s messy, very messy and challenging but

the adrenaline rush compensates for looking like a hippo after a mud bath. Competitors and team builders should be sure to have their spinach, like Popeye, before they head on a 10 k mud run. It takes team building to a new level, if you survive. Other forms of assault courses are zip wire and obstacle courses. If any team member was not in the habit of making mud pies as a child they might prefer a jog in the park.

4. Zorbing

Team building for head cases would be an appropriate way of describing Zorbing. It’s high octane stuff where team members are encased in a giant see-through plastic sphere before being rolled down an incline at speed. Just you and your vomit to keep you company. You are of course harnessed but the “Gawk” is not. Its crazy stuff and very popular but give it a skip if you suffer from motion sickness. “Burp”.. Sorry!!

5. Sailing

There was a time where it was the preserve of the G&T brigade in their white slacks and plimsoles. Not anymore baby. Yacht racing is regarded as one of the top 5 most dangerous sports in the world. It’s a great team building sport. There are 40 different classes of craft that run courses. www.sailing.ie There is also a great social side to this sport and it ranks in our team building activities in Ireland, our top 5.