Clean-Up with Technique: Two-Person Mat and Hurdle Carry

Packing up the track equipment becomes practice in safe lifting in pairs and groups of four. Heart rates come down while students learn to lift heavy objects without hurting their backs.

How to play

1. Demo: the teacher shows a two-person lift: feet apart, bend the knees, neutral spine, count to three and lift together (2 min).
2. Hurdles in pairs: carry them by both ends at a walk and stack them in place (2 min).
3. Mats in fours: one person per corner, with a leader calling lift, walk and lower (2 min).
4. Cones and close: pick cones up in a squat, not by bending the back, and each pair names one fix they gave their partner (2 min).

Rules

• Never drag mats along the floor.
• Lift and lower on the leader's call.
• Walk at all times.
• If a load is too heavy, ask for help.

Variations

Adaptations

• Limited mobility: leads the carry as the caller or carries cones on their lap.
• Back injury: observes and corrects posture.
• Deaf or hard of hearing: count down on fingers instead of calling.

Learning goals

• Apply safe lifting technique.
• Coordinate as a team to move loads.
• Gradually bring activation down.

Equipment for a class of 25

• crash mats: 2
• low hurdles: 15
• cones: 20

Teacher tip

Say where everything goes before starting so there's no jam at the storage room. The usual mistake is lifting with straight legs: stop the carry and redo it.

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