Alpha Cards – Free Training Game

This includes: Instructions, pack of Alpha Cards and a score Card.

Resources Needed – you will need to print the alpha cards onto card. Cut them into individual letter cards. This means you will have a pack of 48 letter cards. You will also need a copy of the scorecard for each team participating in the game.

Instructions – arrange participants into pairs. However, the game can take a long time to complete if you have more than four teams so you should consider having larger teams if you have a large number of participants on the programme.

Settng up – hand each team a scorecard. Arrange for a representative of each team to draw an Alpha card from the pack. When the first card is drawn someone from the team must write the letter in the first box in the ‘letter’ column of the scorecard. Do not return the card to the pack.

The second letter is then drawn and is written in the second box. Continue doing this for all 10 letters.

Explain that you will shortly be giving participants a subject heading relevant to the days training and will be asking them to write something in each row about the subject. It can be a word sentence or phrase.

If they cannot start the sentence, word or phrase with the letter they can include it somewhere in it, however, this will not score so much.

Time Limit – explain that you will allow five minutes for the activity. Scoring Now explain the scoring which is as follows: 2 marks if your point begins with the letter 1 mark if your point does not begin with the letter but contains it. 1 bonus mark if your point is unique (i.e. none of the other teams got that point for this letter)

Explain that you will not be managing the scoring as this will be the players themselves. This works by each team reading out their first point in turn. If the other teams all agree it is a valid point then you write the appropriate score in your score box. The other teams can challenge your point and if they agree that it is not valid or a repeat of a previous point you made, you score zero for that row.

At the end of the game the teams total their scores. The team with the highest score is the winner.

Not surprisingly, it is scoring and challenging that takes the time with this game. This means that you may have to intervene if participants are taking too long.

Subjects – explain that you will give a subject which will be related to the training programme. Do not reveal the topic until the last possible moment as you want participants to think quickly once the game starts.

Possible topics you can choose for almost any course you run:

• Things we remember from the course
• New things we have learned
• What we will do differently as a result of this course
• Our list of don’ts as a result of attending this course
• Our list of do’s as a result of attending this course
• What we have learned about ourselves as a result of attending this course