Combined Cadet Forces – How to utilise your Laser Tag Equipment to maximum effect
Point of Contact – Simon Adams (Former Contingent Commander CFAV – Mobile: 07761 682977)
In this post we are going to provide some key examples of how you can achieve the maximum benefit for your cadets, by purchasing Laser Tag Equipment (LTE) from Teamforce. There are so many ways you could get the most out of the LTE. To do this you will need to summon up your most innovative thinking skills as well as relying on tried and tested methods to recruit, retain and engage cadets. And of course, it helps if parents, families, and others in your organisation can experience the merits of LTE for themselves.
Fund Raising and activities for your CCF unit with your LTE
Many cadet units will quite rightly examine the financial implications of purchasing LTE, but this is one item of expenditure where it is relatively easy to not only recoup the costs of purchase, but to also use the kit to raise funds for your unit. So, here is a list of events that you should consider writing into your annual training programme to ensure you can raise those funds for your unit. Events in a typical school year are shown below and a small explanation of the aim of each follows.
- September CCF Open day. This is a perfect opportunity to market the benefits of being a cadet to newcomers and their parents. Set up a Laser Tag gaming area and let them enjoy some time together, whilst demonstrating the fun, active and teambuilding nature of cadets. You could charge a small fee of say £5 per person to go towards unit funds if desired.
- October/November Half Term – Parents v Cadets Laser Tag Battle. Invite those parents and cadets who joined in September to come and have a real laser tag battle in your gaming arena. This is another great opportunity for parents and their children to meet and enjoy some quality family time, but also with other cadets and their parents. Some trophies might be a good idea!
- Pre-Christmas Holidays – CCF Laser Tag Charity Event. Set your senior cadets the challenge of a joint fundraising event for the unit and for your chosen charity as part of cadets in the community. Getting cadet parents and the local business community involved with some friendly competition will be a winner pre-Christmas and make a nice donation to your chosen charity and unit funds. Ten teams of ten, playing on a 10 v 10 basis (1 hour session) from the local business community at say £250 entry per team equals a successful fundraising day (£2500). Providing other activities such as archery could keep the business guests entertained whilst waiting to find out the winners. Providing refreshments afterwards would be a nice touch to end the day.
- February Half Term – Inter Section Laser Tag Battle. This will be some great fun for the cadets, as something to look forward too and perhaps could become an annual competition. Keeping your cadets engaged and looking forward to events such as this all add to the cadet experience.
- Easter – School Staff Teambuilding. Allow teams of cadets to plan and organise a day such as this as part of their personal development. Staff in the school also deserve some fun and what better than some friendly laser tag gaming competition organised by the CCF.
- School Summer Fete. CCF event specific fundraising. Perhaps you are planning an overseas trip for your cadets and this event will be ideal for CFAV’s and cadets to provide a Laser Tag Gaming arena, where during allocated time slots, families and visitors can play some laser tag, with all funds going towards your event.
Using LTE as part of your normal training programme
Fieldcraft and Skill At Arms (SAA) – this is often what the majority of cadets join for and look forward to. The LTE is not there to replace the Cadet GP rifle and SAA, but you can integrate Laser Tag into these aspects of the cadet syllabus.
SAA – There are many ways the LTE can be incorporated into drills, such as reactions to enemy fire. By showing the cadets how to aim and fire correctly they will understand that correct aimed shots, using taught shooting positions will enable them to make more confirmed hits. Their results will be clear for all to see on screen via the LTE software Leader Board which many of them will be familiar with from online gaming.
- Practise cadets in many of the marksmanship principles, ensuring they learn to hold and aim the ‘Tagger’ (the LT weapon) correctly. This will instil the need for cadets to make good, aimed shots if they want to register a hit.
Laser Tag Medic Kit - Include an enemy type of scenario as part of patrolling and watch as your cadets put more emphasis into taking good fire positions behind cover and then work as a team to return effective section fire on the enemy.
- Use the LTE in a section attack type scenario where they have to capture an enemy position. This links well to the age old ‘capture the flag’ game that many of them will be familiar with from online gaming. You could take this a stage further, instead of using a real flag, by adding one of the ‘Digital Flag Devices’ we sell to really add a whole new dimension to the mission.
- Force on force – quick action. Using the LTE in a ‘turnkey’ mode the CFAV need only turn on the Taggers and using the ‘Pro Remote Control’ the instructor can have the cadets training or playing in a matter of minutes. In effect this means the Taggers are pre-configured with the Ammo loadout and health (lives) that you want and the cadets then engage each other in a force on situation, until the other team is either all eliminated, or they have completed the mission successfully. In this mode once a cadet is eliminated the Tagger will no longer work and the headband or Tac vest will light up continuously. They can only be ‘respawned’ through the Pro Remote Control. This is at the instructor’s discretion, or as per the mission constraints.
The Leader Board
Your cadets will be even more immersed in their training when they can see for themselves their results on the big screen Leader Board. You just need to set up your Laptop or PC and using the free software the instructor will be able to show the cadets on a large screen, all of their individual and team statistics from the mission.
The instructor can configure the equipment for a wide range of scenarios, even down to making each individual Tagger being programmed to function in a preferred way. If you want your cadets to only have 5 magazines of 30 rounds each as part of the weapon loadout then this can easily be configured. Perhaps you want to turn on friendly fire so the cadets know they will have to take care not to hit their own section or team. Another option could be to introduce a ‘Digital Medic Kit’ that can only be used if the cadet answers correctly to the instructor. First Aid questions relating to a first aid incident can be included as part of the overall mission.
The missions and scenarios are as flexible as you want them to be and most of them will require teamwork, strategy and planning to achieve the goal. Cadets will relish the flexible nature of the LTE. It can be configured in so many different ways, which ultimately is only limited by your creativity and innovation.
Summary
Hopefully, this has given you more of an insight into how the LTE can become a highly prized and useful asset to recruit, engage and retain your cadets. With the added bonus of using the LTE to create some memorable events to fund raise for your unit, it really is a sensible long-term purchase in so many ways. Click here to see an example of a package for cadet forces that is immensely popular, but you can of course ask us to help you to configure a package to suit your budget and needs. We are here to help.
