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Rope spaghetti

Tackle a tangle in this rope coiling relay.

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You’ll need

  • Lengths of rope

Before you begin 

  • Use the safety checklist to help you plan and risk assess your activity. There's also more guidance to help you carry out your risk assessment, including examples.
  • Make sure all young people and adults involved in the activity know how to take part safely.
  • Make sure you’ll have enough adult helpers. You may need some parents and carers to help. 
  • This is a great activity to run during an online session. Check out the advice on using Zoom and other popular digital platforms and the guidance on being safe online.
  • Consider finding a larger coil of rope and slice it up to send to everyone to use for this activity.
  • For the game, consider timing each person for each coil or seeing how many times they can coil the rope correctly in 1 or 2 minutes.


Planning and setting up the activity

  • Find some lengths of rope that you might use on camp or for activities. If you’ve got some older, more worn out lengths of rope, include these.

Can you coil?

  1. Explain to everyone that when storing lengths of rope, we should always assume that the next person to need the rope will be in a hurry and won’t have time to untangle knots or binds. Making it easy for the next person to take and use the rope is important, as they’ll know the last person took care of it and that it’s safe for them to use. Checking for frayed ends, strands and any snags is also important.

It might be a good idea to show everyone an example piece of rope that’s not been cared for properly. Rope with frayed ends or worn strands is harder to use and dangerous if it has to hold any weight, as it could snap.

  1. If rope is suitable to be used again, explain that it should be coiled when it’s stored, to stop it getting tangled. Demonstrate how to coil a rope properly. This should be done by hanking or coiling the rope.
  2. Everyone should take a length of rope and practise coiling it. When they’ve tried this a few times, they should place their rope uncoiled in the centre of the activity area.
  3. The person leading the activity should mix up the ropes where they’ve been left, so that they’re well tangled (like spaghetti). Ask if anyone could easily return and take back the rope they just left.

Shift the spaghetti

  1. Split into groups of four. Explain that on 'Go!' one person from each group should go to the tangled mess of ropes, take a length and return to their group.

Everyone should take care when untangling the rope and be careful of other people who are also trying to take a length of rope. A helper should supervise the pile to make sure no one’s at risk of tripping or being knocked over.

  1. Once each group has a length of rope, they should coil it neatly and place it in a pile where they’re standing. If they notice any damaged or frayed rope, this should coil it and place it in a separate pile, so that it can be repaired before it’s used again.
  2. Continue until the tangled pile is gone and the ropes have all been neatly coiled with the groups.
  3. Each group should count up the coils of rope they recovered. See how many each group got. Have the groups compare coils to see if everyone used the same technique. Below are some recommended ways of coiling rope.

So long as the rope’s tidy and ready to be used again, that’s all that matters.

  1. Everyone should now take a look at the damaged lengths of rope. The ends of the rope could be spliced or whipped to prolong its use. Take a look at Whipping into shape to see how to do this.

Ropes that are damaged in the middle shouldn’t be used, though they could potentially be made into two shorter lengths of rope by cutting the rope in half and sealing the loose ends.

Hanking or coiling a rope

  • The best way to store rope is so that it doesn’t become twisted or tangled, as this means that when you come to use it, you don’t have to spend time untangling it first. This simple coiling technique is one way to store the rope, which should keep it neat and tidy, ready for the next time.

Spooling rope

  • Winding the rope onto a spool like a giant sewing thread is one way to store it. This can make the rope more impractical to transport, but will keep it from tangling. Where the rope is used for tasks like marking boundaries, this is a particularly useful technique as the spool can be rolled along the boundary, leaving the rope behind it as it goes.

Whipping and splicing or sealing

  • Whipping and splicing are two ways to finish the end of rope to stop it unfurling with time and use. Check out Whipping into shape for more on whipping and splicing.

Reflection

Taking time to tidy up after using something can seem like the least fun part. But having to clean up or tidy something before you’re able to use it spoils the fun just as much. By making sure equipment is tidy and safe each time, we can help prevent accidents and keep everyone safe, and also make sure that all tools and materials are ready to go for whoever or whatever comes next.

Safety

All activities must be safely managed. You must complete a thorough risk assessment and take appropriate steps to reduce risk. Use the safety checklist to help you plan and risk assess your activity. Always get approval for the activity, and have suitable supervision and an InTouch process.

You must run your activities in line with the Safeguarding Code of Conduct for Adults (Yellow Card) and report any concerns to the UK HQ Safeguarding Team.

Active games

The game area should be free of hazards. Explain the rules of the game clearly and have a clear way to communicate that the game must stop when needed. Take a look at our guidance on running active games safely.

You could try some different methods of coiling or hanking, like the sinnet knot.

The thicker the rope and cord you use to practise these coils, the easier it’ll be to understand the structure and process of the coil. It’ll also make tying it less fiddly.

All Scout activities should be inclusive and accessible.

Scouts Quartermaster Activity Badge
Scouts Pioneer Activity Badge

Look at some of your other equipment and explore ways that you could store, maintain and care for it more responsibly in the future.

Encourage young people who are comfortable with ropes and knots to support the rest of their team by sharing their skills.