Handcuffed exercise – solution and ideas

What is the solution to the handcuff exercise?” This seems to be the most searched team-building question lately, so here’s the answer.

Setup

The handcuff exercise is a very old activity. Usually, the handcuffs tie two people, as shown in the drawing. The task is not to remove the handcuffs but to disconnect the two individuals. It may seem like an impossible task, but it can be quite fun, especially if you do not know how it works.

Solution

To free yourself, put a sling through the rope tied around your hand, move it over your hand, and then pull it out again. Voilà! You are free. Check the drawings; they help. It’s important to keep your fingers together, unlike in the drawings.

Use

It is a simple exercise where you basically only need shoelaces. If you, as an instructor, do not want to worry about the rope yourself, you can simply hope that the participants have shoes with laces on them. Now, you might think that because the solution is so easy, everyone who has ever done it will instantly solve it. Surprisingly, this is not the case. I have had people in my training sessions who claim they have done it, but just can’t remember how it was done

Tips

There are many ways to further develop this exercise:

1. Before running it, ask who has done it before. For those who have, tie their hands behind their backs. This makes it a little tougher.

2. You can run the exercise with just one person by tying the rope around a pole. For the exercise to work, you need to tie a Munter Hitch. This is important; do not just put the rope around a pole and expect people to escape from it. Check out the drawing.

3. Don’t have a pole? No problem! Just tie a regular overhand knot onto the rope and ask a person to untie the knot without removing the handcuffs. It is easier if participants work in pairs: one is handcuffed and the other is not. Or even better, ask them to tie a knot onto the handcuffs after the pair has solved the basic “free each other” exercise. Check out the drawing.

You can find every solution by taking the rope through the loop that is tied around the hand and then back.

Enjoy!