Bosses encourage quarreling employees to bury the hatchet with ax throwing competitions for team building outings
- Event organizers claim that ax throwing’s surge in popularity could be team building
- Participants learn to throw 8-inch axes safely in just 15 minutes
- Wooden targets are three meters away and success depends on the throwing technique
Bosses encourage executives to bury the hatchet over bureaucracy by organizing ax throwing competitions for team building trips.
Traditional recreational activities like building rafts and climbing walls are giving way to occupations begun by loggers in the Canadian wilderness.
Event organizers claim the popularity of ax throwing – one venue quadrupled in the past year – could possibly be due to executives wanting to get rid of the pent-up frustrations that festered during the lockdown.
In just 15 minutes, participants learn to safely throw 8-inch hatchets, known as angel axes. Wooden targets sit ten feet away, and success depends on technique rather than brute force.
Bosses encourage executives to bury the hatchet over bureaucracy by organizing ax throwing competitions for team building trips
Those who show skills with smaller hatchets eventually become double-headed Nordic axes 16 inches long that are cast from four meters and twist two or three times before embedding themselves in the target.
Matthew Griffin, owner of Lumberjack Ax Throwing, based in Cardiff, said, “We have seen a massive surge in popularity since the lockdowns. We used to have around 40 people a week, but now we’re seeing around 700 a month and we want to open a second venue.
“It’s a very inclusive sport, and on the company side we had shy and calm employees who excelled at ax throwing and who really grew in self-confidence.
“We also had a few bosses who didn’t like to lose to employees who definitely loved being able to win with axes.
“You get all sorts of frustrations worked out – and maybe even more since Covid.”
Anna Stephenson, owner of The Great Barn, a corporate event venue near Aynho, Oxfordshire, said ax throwing had become a hit because office groups were tired of events like clay pigeon shooting and raft building.
She said, “It’s an exciting sport, but if you are overly aggressive and hurl it, it doesn’t work. So it’s a great balance for the staff. ‘
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