On September 1, a team from The PRactice packed their bags at short (and we mean short!) notice and flew off to Colombo and from there to Bentota for the annual Royal Challenge Clash-a-thon, a grueling two-day competition that pits corporate teams against each other in a test of physical toughness, mental agility and, most importantly, teamwork!!

We chronicle the team’s journey through the five stages of the competition below:
Round One: A Bears and Bulls stock market exercise where the team had to trade Rs 3000 worth of stock. The trading decisions were based on data gathered from specific information hubs and/or derived from solving puzzles. The team had to aim to grow their original amount of Rs 3000 to Rs 20,000.
Analysis: The team played it safe, making smaller trades of a share or two where the upside was limited. Sandhya and Karan who took on the role of “stockbrokers” were clearly risk averse and this was reflected in some of the decisions. The team was also poorly coordinated at this point and did not approach the challenge in this round with a clear game plan.
Position after Round One: 15th or 16th
Round Two:
In this stage the team faced a mix of physical activities combined with light engineering tasks. After every physical hurdle that they cleared, they were given a piece of equipment with which they had to complete three assigned mechanical activities.
Analysis: The team was working better together in this round but strategy was still lacking. Everybody jumped in to contribute wherever and however they could. A more effective approach might have been to assign a specific role to each member.
Position after Round Two: 14th or 15th
Round Three:
This was the Scrabble round! The entire team set out in the search for a mission statement and this involved filling in a Scrabble board. The team with the best (most complete) board stood to win.
Analysis: This round found Sandhya in her element as someone who has played a lot of Scrabble in the past! However, to create the perfect scrabble board, she needed every member of the team to run, crack codes and collect bonus tiles. There were bonus rounds that the others completed in order to win better and more tiles that would facilitate the word creation on the board. One bonus round even had Shaifali jumping into the pool to grab some tiles from the bottom! Karan, on the other hand, sprinted four times between two properties on the beach with a flashlight in hand! By now, team members really knew each other’s strengths and each person had a clear role to play.
Position after Round Three: 8th! (High point of the competition: The team won first place in this round and got special mention for this big move up the rankings on the closing day)
Round Four:
The team tested their gaming luck while playing other teams in a board game of cops and robbers.
Analysis: This round was the team’s undoing. There was a large element of luck involved in this round and it deserted the team during this round.
Position after Round Four: 11 or below
Round Five:
The most physically demanding stage, the final round was a pure endurance challenge involving a combination of kayaking, cycling and running. Astha cycled close to 20 km in this round while Chaitali sprinted down the beach sand despite a bandaged foot! Omesh and Aseem proved to be mean kayakers and came through with a powerful showing! The team had to assign 2-3 people for each activity. After covering a considerable distance on land or water, the team met at a mid-way point where they had to solve puzzles before heading back. They could opt to switch roles at this point. Once back, the team had to head to the beach and solve a case – a whodunit. Finally the team had to tie a set of planks together that they could then walk on to reach the finish line: The team finished fifth in this round!
Analysis: The team was really operating at its optimal best at this point with the members pushing themselves as hard as they could.
Position after Round Five: 9th!!
A COUPLE OF LESSONS LEARNT: No matter how strong a person is, it is the combined strength of the team that really results in progress and success. And while some teams didn’t win any of the rounds, their performance was consistent throughout. In the final analysis, this consistency may have been more important than see-sawing between brilliance and mediocrity.
TEAM MEMBERS TALK ABOUT THEIR EXPERIENCES……
ASTHA:
What was the toughest challenge in the competition for you? And the most satisfying moment?
For me the toughest challenge was the first one, bulls and bears, because none of us really knew too much about the competition and what to expect. The challenge required a lot of team coordination, physical exertion and smart aggressive trading. I think we wasted a lot of time just trying to figure out what to do and in hindsight could have done a lot better if we spent just 10 minutes in the beginning trying to figure out how to crack the challenge, prioritized a little bit and had each team member take on a specific task. We were just so excited and anxious to get going that we ran all over the estate without being too effective. We did however learn a lot from the first challenge and improved immensely over the next 4 stages.
The most satisfying moment was the end of stage 5 or “Tour de Bentota”; it was the perfect end to the clash-a-thon. After biking 15-20 km, solving a murder mystery, walking across the beach on wooden planks and then running the last leg of the race the challenge ended with the perfect sunset on the beach. All the teams were so excited to have completed the challenge that everyone jumped into the sea to cool off.
SANDHYA:
Summarize how the team changed (in the way you worked and gelled together)
from stage 1 to stage 5.
The PRactice team that participated in the Clash-a-thon had absolutely the right mix to potentially win. We had an indifferent start where clearly we had no idea of the expected level of performance. We underestimated the bonus rounds and had absolutely no co-ordination as a team. Not surprisingly we fared badly and placed in the bottom five. Stage two we were better prepared, understood our strengths better and worked better as a team but there was a gap in co-ordination. While we worked as a better unit it wasn’t good enough. Stage three was when we got it bang on, we cracked all the bonus rounds, coordinated better and were more focused. We topped this stage and got a special mention at the end for one of the best scrabble boards the judges had seen. Stage 4 – we were plain unlucky, it was a game that was based purely on luck with little strategy and we didn’t make it past the Round Robin stage- a pity because at this point we were ranked 8th and looking good enough to end up in the top five. Stage four saw us drop in our ratings. The toughest stage, Stage five involved kayaking/cycling/running/ solving puzzles and the final run to the finish. We rocked as a team and came in fifth – clearly the result of us planning better, coordinating better and working on our strengths and weaknesses.
KARAN:
Was there any time when you felt stretched to your endurance limits – when and why?
Actually I never really felt that I was stretched, simply because my body is conditioned and prepared to take on more. As I am quite regular with my fitness regimen and have been doing it for almost 10 yrs now with different sports backgrounds, I was fine with all the physical challenges, and was willing to do a lot more if needed.
But the task of running around 4 km on the beach in Stage 5 was quite new, interesting and a few new muscles were put to work. I thought every task was great fun and we kept motivating each other, which brought out the extra bit required to push up our ranking to what we ended with.
ASEEM:
How has this competition changed you? And the way you view team work?
I feel more confident about myself. Before we started all the running around, I was not sure if I would be able to keep up with the physical and mental demands of the competition and although I feel I didn’t do as well as my other team mates I did perform better than I expected.
As far as team work goes, Sandhya had outlined one simple rule before we started the competition – “Don’t lose your cool”. And that, I feel, is the most important thing I have learned on this trip. To remain calm and composed under pressure is the key for a team to function smoothly. I feel we were able to identify our shortcomings, work on them and lift ourselves to the level we wanted to be at only because we all took responsibility for our failures and kept egging each other on to aim higher and strive for more.
CHAITALI:
Describe your high and low points from the competition.
Starting off on a positive note, the high point was that throughout this competition, our team functioned as the best team! While we had our share of ups and downs, the way our team stuck together through every stage was awesome! We did not fall prey to the blame game – that was the high point for me at least as I could feel that it kept the team motivated! Ours was the only team with four women, and we still finished ahead of numerous other teams who were more male dominated. And TPR was absolutely fabulous in helping me out with my injured foot.
While there was no really low point in the competition from a personal standpoint, it was stage 4 – a game of cops and robbers that hit us hardest. We didn’t do too well with that game and this kind of changed the stand for us. While we didn’t perform too well and it was a low point in that sense, it definitely helped us to plan better and to optimize our team resources for the final stage
Note: Chaitali hurt her foot on Day Zero and completed all the physical challenges (including a lot of running) with a painful, swollen foot.
SHAIFALI:
Was there any point when you were scared or anxious? How did you overcome this?
Before I answer your question, I just want to highlight that I’ve been a National Level Swimmer, broken and made a couple of records at both State and National events during 13 years of my professional swimming career. As a sportsman, the concept of being scared doesn’t exist as we are trained to meet challenges head on and to give more than 100% of ourselves to each task. At this event, each stage was different and exciting. The strategy was to excel in each task so as to achieve a higher overall rank and bigger lead. The only times I felt anxious was when we were waiting to find out our ranks after each round and our final position at the end.
This event has been life changing for me, as it’s not only about team building and team spirit but also about developing smart goals and going after them at each stage in your life.
OMESH:
Did you find out anything about yourself that surprised you? Or about your team members?
We were a team of 7 out of which I only knew Sandhya, Astha and Karan (over the phone). For such a new team, to stick together without ego clashes and frustration was amazing to me. At no point was anyone blowing their fuse. We knew we were one player down even before the event started (with Chaitali’s foot injury). Still that never slowed us down at any point as we worked to our strengths. Something that surprised me about myself was the fact that although I am bad in board games when playing my friends, I could play at par with executives from Morgan Stanley, ANZ etc!
There were other things that surprised me about each one of us. Chaitali – for her die hard spirit despite the injured foot, Karan – for his stamina and running, Aseem – for taking up any challenge with a smile, Shaifali – for being a mermaid in water – such a graceful swimmer; Sandhya – a complete motivator and strategist with fabulous vocabulary (Scrabble champ); Astha – for being an awesome cyclist and athlete.
CONGRATULATIONS TEAM 26 !! GREAT JOB DONE!