Jiu-jitsu Zombification & Other Off-Mat Dojo Team Building Activities
Everyone has different reasons for joining a martial arts school beyond learning the skills being taught. Some want to improve their fitness. Others want to meet new people. Some just want to get out and try new things. Others want an adrenaline rush.
At our dojo, we like to create opportunities to expand our students’ horizons by doing different types of activities outside the dojo together. This past weekend a group of us took part in “Run for Your Lives,” a zombie-infested 5k obstacle race. We put together a team of people who have trained at our dojo and completed the race together. We also played the roles of “Jiu-jitsu zombies” for some of the later races, when runners came face to face with our “undead dojo” many paused to re-group and psyche themselves up to make the run through our group, making the zombie experience that much more entertaining.
Not only did we all do the race itself, we also trained up for it ahead of time, improving our fitness so we could all give our personal best on the day. Overall, we had an awesome time despite being chased, cut, bumped, bruised, muddied and even electrocuted during the race. The event was held near Seattle so we all camped there for the weekend too. Check out all the photos from the event on our Facebook page.
This is only one example of the types of events/activities we do as a dojo. We have also played paintball and gone on hikes. Most weeks we go to our local restaurant for wing Wednesday. And every year, we hold our annual dojo BBQ and Christmas party. Having these types of events and activities gives our students more ways to satisfy some of their reasons for joining the dojo in the first place. It also helps them get to know each other better so that our training becomes that much more enjoyable. It’s always more fun to train with people you can call your friends, especially when safety is a concern with in a potentially dangerous activity such as a martial art.
Does your dojo offer extra-curricular events and activities beyond ones directly related to training? Please share your experiences in the comments.
We're proud to announce that Lori O'Connell Sensei's new book, When the Fight Goes to the Ground: Jiu-jitsu Strategies & Tactics for Self-Defense, published through international martial arts publisher Tuttle Publishing, is now available in major book stores and online. More about it & where to buy it.
You guys could feature in a zombie film, especially Lori ;). Never heard of a zombie run but it sounds like fun. We don’t do a lot besides regular training and occasional seminars: a drink at the end of the season and that’s about it. I’ve been pestering my sensei to organise a BBQ at his home but he’s redecorating his lawn atm so I don’t think it’s going to happen soon. Still it’d be fun to train first and then eat together. It’s a good idea to organise extra activities and it’s great when training partners become friends aswell.
I hope you got the stains out of those gi’s easily.
This is the run we participated in: http://runforyourlives.com. It was a lot of fun. As for the stains, we all used old gis that we were willing to sacrifice for the event. They cut them up and stained them completely so there was really never any hope of using them again. All in good fun! 🙂
Right you are. What’s the use of living if you can’t have fun once in a while?
I’m a fan of zombie movies (the apocalyptic genre in general) and after seeing one I sometime wonder how I’d fare in such a situation. Of course it’s purely hypothetical (nuclear war or being hit by an asteroid are far more likely and the chances of surviving that are slim to none) but it’s still fun to entertain the notion. Somehow I don’t think jujutsu would be very effective against the living dead (except maybe to escape) but I’m fairly sure escrima would come in handy, at least when practiced with a machete or sword. If you’re not squaemish take a look at this video-demonstration of a machete involving a dummy head: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WlLY5WRxTec. Is it me or is this guy enjoying himself just a little too much?
Kidding aside, some math geek actually did a simulation on the consequences of a zombie outbreak: http://mysite.science.uottawa.ca/rsmith43/Zombies.pdf. Guess what, the odds aren’t good for the living since with each bite the human population would decline and the zombie herd increase in numbers. The only real solution would be the aggressive pursuit and eradication of the zombies before they multiplied. All hail to escrimadors and gun-nuts everywhere since they are our future saviours when all hell breaks loose.
Too bad they didn’t use this line of thinking in high school or I might just have shown a genuine interest in math ;).