In the stretch zone

This article shares the experience of stepping out of a ‘rut’ – out of ‘safe’, habitual modes and methods of practice. When Liz, Letty and their students stepped out of what they had become accustomed to within UK Outdoor Education circles and into a style of programme delivery in Prague that contrasted sharply with their experience, it had great impact, and gave them food for thought in terms of their own practice. They were struck, for example, by the value placed upon play for play’s sake, and the opportunities for creative expression that their Czech hosts created within their programming. It is ever so easy – as Liz admits – to ‘bottle out’ of taking these kinds of risks, for all sorts of rational, logistical and emotional reasons. Here however, we see some of the upsides that can accrue to both those we are responsible for and also to us as practitioners, and as such Liz, Ludêk and Letty’s story stands as a clarion call for us – sometimes at least – to take the ‘unsafe alternative’.