Some knots are just fun to mess around with. You might also want to give the boys a small piece of rope to carry in their pockets, telling them that it is their "Pet Rope". Explain the history of the knot.Ī timber hitch can be used for pulling a log, but it was also the knot that the English Archers used to tie their long bows with. Try and find ways of using the knot for the purpose that it was intended for. (I tried spaghetti, we were indoors and it made a big mess! It might be better out-doors, but it doesn't hold very good -I'm thinking that a flat pasta like Fettucini might hold better.) Go over knots from the previous week, but find ways of kicking it up a notch! Use bandages, or use licorice string. Keep new knots down to no more than one or two a week. (Keep them handy they can help the boys remember which end goes where?) Use colored Sharpies to mark each boy's ropes. Start by having them whip the ends (If you decide to use synthetic rope? Burn and whip.) A simple whipping or better yet a West Country Whipping is a good way to get started. Give each boy his own rope or better yet two ropes. Rope and knots were one of the first tools that man had. Sailors still use rope (OK Line!) Cowboys use rope,guys who climb mountains use rope. If they had never sailed? America would never have been discovered. Sell them the idea that without knots and rope the sailing boats would never have been able to sail. Have them imagine building the Pyramids and how much rope and knots were used. Not something that you are going to beat them over the head with at a couple of meetings.Įxplain to the boys how important knots and rope were. Start by making rope and knots a theme for a month. Young Lads are blessed with wonderful imaginations. Something that you might or might not yet have mastered.Ĭhances are that you are going to get very frustrated and the tiny attention span that you do have will very rapidly fade. What you are being asked to do requires a lot of hand/eye coordination. You are been given a lot of very specific instructions, which you are supposed to remember. It did take me 30 minutes to untangle and untie the 300 odd feet of rope wound and woven aroung the tree. It took 10 seconds to escape (I admit to flexing in order to create slack between me and the tree), and I've been lead to believe that the photos will haunt my future. The meeting finale was all the cubs tying the leader to tree. I plan to make this a regular game and hope to advance their skill level by requiring the use of all the knots at least once.
They had a blast, but the escaping only took about 15 seconds. Then the team to untie their prisoner first, wins. Teams have five minutes tie a volunteer from the other team (usually the worst knotter) to a tree. They surprised me with their bowlines, though which I thought was a more complicated knot.ĭivide into teams. And I have little faith that they'll retain any of it. I had to demonstrate individually to each scout at least twice to get a square knot.
#Boy scouts knotes and when to use them manual#
I was aghast at how inable my bears were to tie simple knots! Great hand and eye coordination for the computer games, but NO manual deterity with a piece of rope.
Only real problem with this race is you need a leader on each rope to judge if the knots are tied correctly before the rope is tossed.Īfter the first meeting you try this, you can do it at subsequent meetings, only switch it to rescue the bag of candy - put a small bag of candy with 1 Hersey's Kiss per scout on a chair that they need to rescue. Winner is the first team to get their bowline to the baby. Wear a diaper if you're really brave Have the Scouts standg the appropriate distance from the scouts and then have them toss the coiled rope to the baby. Have a leader wear a baby bonnet and have a pacifier. Have them tie one end of the joined rope off to a pole using a two-half hitch and put a bowline on the other end. Your better knot tiers will invaribly help the slower ones out, which is really the goal here. Each scout on the team must add at least one rope to the string. They'll need to join all the ropes together using sheetbends to reach the baby. Divide the Den into two teams and give the Scouts one or more length of rope each. We do a relay race called rescue the baby.