Customer Reviews

Teamwork and Teamplay: A Guide to Cooperative, Challenge, and Adventure Activities That Build Confidence, Cooperation, Teamwork, Creativity, Trust, Decision Making, conflict

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Possibly a top five choice for those beginning an experiential-adventure education, resource book library.

Very good written and visual descriptions. In addition,the authors focused a great deal on assisting the reader in identifying and locating the resources and tools necessary for each activity and initiative. The detailed information is useful for both purchasing and creating additions to your equipment bag of tricks. This feature alone has been very attractive to those browsing through the book at our introductory level, facilitator workshops.

The book features a good blend of low prop, portable activities along with less-portable intiatives. Also, helpful variations of activities such as the spider web and bull ring are provided.

You may find less expensive, activity books, but this remains an excellent value as a quality resource book.

For those looking to begin a library - this is one of my top five recommendations. If you are an experienced facilitator, you will likely find good information, but you may not find the book as valuable as a less experienced facilitator.

Jim Cain recently conducted a workshop for our ACA group. He mentioned that the book came about because he was giving out a thick stack of hand-outs at his workshops that were darn close to a book. So he put them together and created this book. The energy and spirit that Jim shows in his workshops is clearly reflected in this book. Although nothing can really replace an "in-person" demonstration of the activities, this book gives clear explainations and examples in a "how to" format. Along with a section on how to build many of the activities with supplies easily available at many home improvement centers. There are activities for youth, schools, camps, corporate; large budget or small budget. This book is an excellent investment.

I try to keep up on new books, especially in the field of teambuilding and cooperative games. I picked up a copy of Teamwork & Teamplay about 3 weeks ago, and I am still finding wonderful ideas, activities and information throughout the book. I needed some new activities for my youth group, there were many in this book. I needed to find some ideas for other books on group games, and I found an extensive bibliography (just as promised). I decided to construct a few of the props myself, and found a well illustrated chapter on making your own equipment. I then tried to find a supplier of some specialty climbing webbing, and sure enough, right there in Chapter 8, I found dozens of places to buy equipment. Holy Cow, Jim Cain and Barry Jolliff, I've never seen a more complete manual in my 15 years of working in this field. Great Job, and if this program allowed more than 5 stars, I would easily suggest 10 for this effort. I'm going to empty off my teambuilding bookshelf, and just keep Teamwork & Teamplay up there.

I have worked on challenge courses for nearly ten years and used much of what I do there in my other life as a middle school teacher. This is the best single volume I've seen. I was thrilled to read up on some truly new ideas as well as most of the tried and true stalwarts. Too often I've bought a book only to find that it is a repackaging of ideas that have been around a while. There is some of this, but plenty of innovation. The descriptions are clear and Caine has provided step-by-step instructions for making all of the equipment described in the book. They also comprehensively list other books, equipment vendors, organizations, etc.

If you know someone who's budget allows only one book, this is a great place to start.

anyone who works with people in groups should have this book. not only do you learn activities, but you learn the how, what, when, where, and why for these activities. I have used several of the activities from the book with groups ranging from 10 to adult. Great job Jim and Barry.

I've worked with high school groups and some corporate groups in outdoor adventure education for more than 12 years and this book would have been most helpful earlier in my career. This is a MUST BUY for anyone who in involved in training or education. The vaule of the book is so much higher than the acutal price. Once again. This is a MUST BUY for your personal or business libaray.

Teamwork & Teamplay by Jim Cain and Barry Jolliff is one of the most complete texts I have ever read on the subject of adventure-based activities. The activities illustrated in Chapter 4 are numerous, and most were new to me. Chapter 5 shows how to construct each prop required for the activities, and the bibliography in Chapters 1 and 8 are without a doubt the most complete of any published to date. The writing style is easy to follow, and the graphics, photographs and illustrations make reading the book a joy. Every time I pick up this book I find more ideas for experiential activities. I would highly recommend this book for anyone wishing to increase their knowledge of the experiential training world.

Jim is able to capture on paper the energy and creativity that he brings to so many people. This book is highly useful for all educators, and people who think that learning happens in other places besides just in a classroom. The book is presented in a bland manner with no colour. The publisher should take full blame for that and should not reflect the lack of quality in the content. I eagerly anticipate the sequel which I know will come out soon as Jim travels the world sharing his ideas and learning new ones

This book is a tremendous resource for anyone who does teambuilding! Included are activities that can be done on a "shoestring" budget as well as some more advanced initiatives. Especially helful is a section with plans on building props for team building activities! A few "old classic" activities are included, but it mostly covers new activities.

The book that many of us started with. A comprehensive treatise on the key elements of building and executing a range of teambuilding activities from ice-breakers to a High Elements Challenge Course. A must for the personal libraries of everyone in Experiential Education.