It's All About The Noodles

If there were an award for most valuable piece of equipment related to COVID-19 operations, the undisputed winner would be the pool noodle. Their versatility and adaptability has made them an every program and low ropes training all the time item. And as a result, we have bought a bunch of them (and then made sure we purchased some more before they disappeared for the season).

The first thing to know about using pool noodles during COVID times is that they need to be full-length. Many organizations cut them in half for ease of storage. These days you’ll want the entire 53” (4 ft plus) available to you to promote physical distancing. It’s not six feet but by the time you add in an extended arm or two, you’ve achieved the required distance. The second thing to know about pool noodles is that come in different diameters. Smaller hands – such as Grade 2 students – find it much easier to hold onto the ones with smaller diameters. Finally, a variety of colours is useful. It helps people remember which noodle is “theirs” and makes it easy to designate groups. Plus it looks good in photos.

Here’s how we have used our noodles…

Individual Arm/Hand Extenders. With a pool noodle in hand, I can tag you without needing to touch you (or even needing to get close enough to breathe on you). As an additional bonus, classic multi-It tag games such as Freshness and Everybody’s It now seem epically more intimidating and fun when everyone is holding a noodle. Remind people that noodles are tagging devices, not swords. And as always, aim below the waist -- don’t be tagging people in the head.

Buddy Rope. Pool noodles allow you to “hold hands” without holding hands. And their reduced flexibility means adjacent hand-holders won’t drift closer together over time. In circle based games and initiatives such as Needle ‘n’ Thread tag or Earthwinds it’s helpful to clarify that the noodle in the your right hand is “yours” and your left hand should be receiving a noodle from someone else.

Physical Support. The stiffness inherent in a pool noodle allows it to be used as a semi-rigid railing in low initiatives such as Zig Zag or Ridgewalk. Since the noodle isn’t stiff enough to be used as a walking stick the group still needs to cooperate. And group members have a way to provide one another with physical support while maintaining physical distance. The larger diameter pool noodles are stiffer and hence are ideal for this use.

Safety equipment. When you can’t touch some other thing with your hands, you might just be able to manipulate it with your noodle. Something like a polyspot supporting loaded mousetraps. Or a ball that needs to travel from one partner to another without touching the ground – using both partners’ noodles you can build a pretty nifty track. Similarly two people using two pool noodles have a set of tongs.

Mannikin limbs. Granted this one seems a bit weird and a bit belated given that Halloween was last week, but we actually stole this idea from first aid instructors. As a result, folks in last week’s Ropes Course Instructor training and Level 2 Re-fresh & Re-Cert rescued Fred or Ethel. Apparently first aid instructors put gloves on the hands and boots on the feet but we didn’t get that fancy -- stuffing half length pool noodles into stockings (at least 2 per limb) is not as easy as you might expect

Finally, after you’re done with your pool noodles, wash your hands and wipe them down with a disinfectant wipe.

Written by Kathy Haras, Ph.D