Ropes Course Provides New Opportunities

Story by Kate Murray

Along with all the new construction, the Plymouth School District attained a rope course near the south end of the high school’s football field. This large edition was made possible because of a federal grant, which funded not only the ropes course but also other additions, such as the new equipment in the weight room. Physical education teacher Bob Weix wrote to the Carol M. White Foundation to get more adventure education and lifetime fitness equipment into the school district.

While physical part of the ropes course is a main factor, it isn’t the only thing to be taken account of; problem solving activities, building trust, cooperation, and trusting in people are huge aspects of what the ropes course is about.

“[The ropes course] is a great opportunity to give kids self confidence and the ability to push themselves beyond the limits they think they can do…”commented the pep grant coordinator Wendy Schlies.

While it’s all well and good to climb up a telephone pole and walk across a wooden beam, it wouldn’t be a safe idea to that on one’s own; they would need to have a belayer on the ground ready to stop them from falling. A necessity to every ropes course is belayers. He or she is the anchor to the rope, which the climber is attached to and makes sure they will not fall. Also, if a climber gets nervous they are there to help boost moral and give support during the expedition.

Students from Plymouth High are employed as the courses belayers. These students had to learn commands, tie knots, how each element works, safety procedures, and take a written exam before they were allowed to work. This however isn’t close to what it takes to be certified to run the course.

That takes forty hours of training, which includes twenty-five climbs to the top of an element to learn set up and take down of the actual ropes and hardware. There is also a rather extensive writing portion. Individuals in the district who are certified to this extent would be an elementary physical education teacher, two middle school teachers, and all five of the high school’s physical education teachers.

Zane Eaton, a senior at PHS, is also a belayer for the ropes course. Eaton says that he learned to become a belayer because, “Climbing is awesome, and this course is great compared to other’s I have climbed.” Eaton also thinks that everyone should “ Get out here and get up here.”

The people who run the ropes course have a philosophy: Climbing should be challenging by the climbers choice, no one who works at the ropes course wants to make the climber uncomfortable.

Schlies explains, “Challenge by choice is just giving kids the choice to climb as high as they feel comfortable if a child or adult gets half way up the element and says ‘That’s it I don’t’ want to go any further.’ we encourage them to go a couple steps more is possible but its ultimately their choice and if they want to come down they can come down.”

Weix thinks that Challenge by Choice is a good aspect of the course and that “Challenge by choice works...its all positive and about people motivating one another.”