You may have noticed an upturn in the fortunes of Premier League football club West Ham United over the past couple of weeks. But did you know that their improvement in form coincided directly with a team kart race and clay pigeon shoot?
Early in February, the relegation battlers were beaten at home by Birmingham City, before scraping a late draw against similarly relegation threatened West Bromwich Albion.
That’s when manager Avram Grant decided to introduce a brand new tactic; but not on the football field, on the kart track.
Grant took his underperforming athletes to enjoy a day of high speed karting followed by clay shooting. In his own words, the manager told The Telegraph “we decided to take the individuals to be as a team together”.
Since then the Hammers have picked up two very impressing victories, thumping Burnley in the FA Cup before doing exactly the same to an in form Liverpool in their last league game. It’s widely thought that their 3-1 demolition of Kenny Dalglish’s reds ranks as their best performance so far in the season, and Grant is in no doubt that the club’s rubber-burning, trigger-pumping day out has played a vital role in their sensational resurgence.
“It was good for the team. It was very successful. It was nice to see them enjoying themselves away from everything.”
Action-packed away days are a great way for any team or company to escape the rigours of their daily workload, and recharge their batteries so that when they return to work, they’re ready to give their best.
There isn’t a better way to turn your ‘individuals’ into a ‘team’.
Don’t believe us? Just ask the nearest West Ham fan.
If you’re interested in organising a lightning fast go kart grand prix, a spectacular clay pigeon shoot, an all guns blazing paintball war, a skydive or more, there are hundreds of options available through The Activity People, and you can find them all right here.
Karting is another amazing sport and is really exiting to practice