Makos go down deep in preparation [Nelson Mail]

The Tasman Makos may have stuck their heads up this year as they tackle the premiership division in the ITM Cup but yesterday they went underground.

As part of a team-building mini-camp at Lower Moutere's Whenua Iti Outdoors, the team went caving on Takaka Hill.

Co-coach Kieran Keane said he jumped at the chance to send his boys underground as he was a keen caver when he was a teacher, but that not all his squad shared his enthusiasm.

"Jimmy Cowan said to me, ‘KK, I'm going to flip if I go into those caves - I'm going to lose the kumara.' But you never know with him if he's telling you the truth - he's a bloody scream. He might have just been trying to get out of it." Co-coach Leon McDonald said Cowan was not the only nervous Mako.

"A few guys were pretty apprehensive about it. Jimmy Cowan is claustrophobic, so he was nervous all day, but the boys would support him and hopefully make him proud as punch that he did it." The squad split into two groups and when not squeezing through tight spaces on Takaka Hill, they competed in a series of problem solving challenges at Whenua Iti.

General manager Mark Bruce-Miller was running a challenge where teams had to use spouting to transfer ping-pong balls between buckets 20 metres apart. The balls had to be moving at all times and players were not allowed to step on the bark, or "swamp of doom", surrounding logs and platforms.

Bruce-Miller said the aim was to "challenge their communication and get them to come up with a creative way to do a pretty simple task. One of the more experienced teams had a bit of a meltdown and only got four balls. That shows you need to communicate to do it effectively."

New Mako Ben Tyler joined Robbie Malneek and Tevita Cavubati in getting 18 ping pong balls transferred in 10 minutes and afterwards said he thought his group "could have done better" in what he described as "problem solving under pressure".

Tom Marshall, who along with Vernon Fredericks directed a blindfolded Bryce Heem as he pieced together a giant jigsaw puzzle was more impressed.

"Chunk, you nailed it!" he called to Heem. "I don't know that I would have got that myself with a blindfold."

McDonald said the mini-camp was a great way to get his team who have come from all over the world to gel quickly.

"We're pulling a team together and we've got our first game in a week," he said.

"By making them a bit vulnerable we try get to know each other and do some problem solving and have some fun - there's not a ball on the ground. . .

"We're trying to freshen them up so hopefully they don't feel like it's another day at the office".