What I learnt from the USC-summer party

There ain’t no party like an Urban Sports Club party – probably because no other company is full of people happy to belly-flop into pools of mud, scale 20 foot walls, crawl under barbed wire and run a 7 km obstacle course.

The USC summer party was packed full of activities. Our 100-strong team completed the XLETIX Challenge, went paddle boarding, swam in 2 different lakes, played beach volleyball and had a ping pong tournament followed by an epic BBQ and after-party. It was a big day and one thing’s for certain – team USC has a helluva lot of energy.

And with that in mind, here are 10 lessons I learnt from attending the Urban Sports Club summer party:  

1. Teamwork makes the dream work

The XLETIX Challenge is an obstacle course designed to push you out your comfort zone and to the edge of your physical limits. You run in teams of 4 or 5 and many of the obstacles are only possible with the help of others.

As a result, I learnt very quickly that what seems impossible can be achieved with teamwork – things like scaling a 10 metre vertical wall, or clambering over a giant rotating cylinder into ice cold water.      

2. Team USC is made up of a group of very special people

It’s not often you find a group of people who are all happy to get out of their comfort zones and dive face first into muddy water, manoeuvre themselves over a pile of old tyres or dive fully-clothed into a lake – all before lunch. Everyone helped each other complete the challenge and our team spirit was unbreakable – no man was left behind (…apart from one man, actually. See lesson 3).    

3. Eat breakfast before an Urban Sports Club summer party

Breakfast is an important meal in any day, especially the day of a USC summer party. Sadly my team lost a key player to the breakfast Gods. About 5km into the obstacle course Ramar began to feel faint and had to get whisked off by medics to get food as his blood sugar was, I quote, “dangerously low.”It later transpired that he had not had breakfast. I caught up with Ramar after the incident to get his thoughts.

He said: “Well, I’m not usually a person who needs breakfast, but that day I learnt a lesson: if you participate in an Urban Sports Club summer party you will likely get the feeling that you would kill for a single banana, especially if you didn’t have breakfast that day. So make sure you eat something!”

4. You won’t get hypothermia from swimming in ice water but that doesn’t mean it’s a pleasant experience

The XLETIX Team make sure that you aren’t dry for a single minute during this challenge. One of the obstacles involved us diving under a tyre into large buckets of water. It was only when I was in the second tub of water that I realised it was full of ice. Surprise! But on the plus-side I didn’t get hypothermia.  

5. USC summer parties are a good place to face your fear of heights

I hoped the XLETIX Challenge would be made of light obstacles that I could navigate with a bit of can-do attitude. Unfortunately that wasn’t the case.

One obstacle involved climbing up a 10 foot wall. But, luckily, there was no time to think about it – I was legged up by my teammates and then stood on a tiny ledge to help pull them up – and, miraculously, my fear of heights vanished.

Another obstacle involved walking over a thin beam 15 feet off the ground with only a flimsy amount of netting to save me from certain death. But I did it (kind of – I edged over it on my bum).  

6. …And your fear of enclosed spaces

One obstacle required us to swim on our backs under a metal cage with very little space to breath. As I dived under my ears were immersed so I couldn’t hear anything, but I knew if I panicked the water would splash up and I wouldn’t be able to breath at all… so I kept calm and carried on. …So basically if you attend a USC party be prepared to face your mortal fears.    

7. Sometimes, but not always, it’s okay to stand on the co-founder of your company’s head

Towards the end of the race we were faced by the most challenging obstacle on the entire course – a near vertical 20 foot slope that we had to somehow climb up. We’d just dived in muddy water so everybody was dripping wet and had zero grip on their shoes. Members of the USC team were flinging themselves wildly at the slope only to slide down in defeated heaps onto the floor below.  

Eventually the team made a human pyramid which we were able to climb up. It was then that a large percentage of the company, including myself, stood on our co-founder Benjamin’s head.

We caught up with Benjamin to get his thoughts on being stood on by his team. He said: “Being a founder also means being a solid foundation for others. When my team used my shoulders and head as a staircase to climb the wall, I took my role very seriously. And I was proud to call myself the muddiest team member.”  

8. It’s possible to swim with football boots on but that doesn’t mean you’ll go very fast

Some of us knew what to expect from the XLETIX Challenge as the obstacles were posted online. But they threw in some surprises to keep us guessing. One of these surprises was to swim fully clothed into Motzener See for about 10 minutes onto a pontoon, dive off it and swim back. Luckily it was just after we’d plunged into ice cold water – the temperature of the lake was perfect and warmed us up.  

9. There’s no ‘I’ in team, but there is an ‘I’ in wine and that’s also important

After we completed the XLETIX Challenge we were whisked off to enjoy one of our newest partners, Strandbad Friedrichshagen. The team were exhausted but still mustered the energy for stand up paddle boarding, beach volleyball and ping pong. This was followed by a delicious BBQ, an epic speech from our founders Benjamin and Moritz and, of course, lots of beer and wine.      

10. Team USC are exceptionally good dancers (especially when there’s an open bar involved)

As we learnt from our Qigong class, everything in life must have balance. The USC team enjoy sports but they also enjoy parties and some of the shapes being cut on the dance floor would’ve put Beyonce to shame. Is there anything the USC team can’t do? Apparently not!    

Does this sound like your kind of party? Urban Sports Club are hiring and we’re looking for talented individuals who don’t mind diving in ice cold water every once in a while.

Take a look at our open positions – perhaps we’ll see you at the Christmas party where we’ll be bungee-jumping off the TV Tower… (that’s a joke. Or is it?)