BAM Adventures About

BAM Adventures

Becoming A Man Adventures

Vision

BAM Adventures (Becoming A Man Adventures) specializes in building strong father and son relationships through weekend retreats and a unique curriculum that can be used at home. The BAM Adventures movement, however, stretches far beyond weekend retreats. The entire BAM Adventures system gives fathers, sons, and families the tools and strategies to develop a new community of men—one committed to doing great things in this world and inspiring the next generation of men to do the same.

Our mission is to equip fathers to empower a new generation of strong healthy men (mentally, physically, and emotionally) to be leaders in their family, work, communities, and around the world.

The Origins of BAM Adventures

During the last decade, we saw a trend among young men that caused us to have great concern. Young men were struggling to grow into strong healthy men. The pattern was prevalent in every age group from elementary school to post college. It continues today.

There are many reasons for this trend, but the major issue is the decreasing relationship between fathers and sons. Simply put, a growing number of young men are being raised without a positive male role model. Sometimes the father or male role model is present physically, but not present emotionally. Other times he is not present at all. This issue crosses all racial, cultural, and socio-economic lines.

We discovered another trend while doing retreats. Most dads have never been taught how to help their son on the journey to manhood.

That’s why we created BAM Adventures—To provide a healthy and constructive framework for fathers, stepfathers, guardians, and mentors to confidently interact with their sons and provide the guidance and positive accountability needed to build strong healthy men.

The BAM Adventures Philosophy

The Four Keys to Building Healthy Men

At BAM Adventures, we believe there are four keys to building healthy men:

1. Adventure

2. Mentors

3. Community

4. Challenges/Adversity

Men of every age need these four elements to remain vibrant and emotionally alive. All of our resources and retreats have these keys for building healthy men at the core of their structure. Whether it is the Great Father Son Adventure Race, the construction and destruction events, or father and son trivia, adventure is a central part of every event.

Fathers are the primary mentor for sons. The BAM Adventures retreats and resources create a structure and system for fathers and male role models to mentor their son.

During a BAM Adventures event we build a community of fathers and sons that support each other on the journey to manhood. Facing challenges and adversity is much easier when you have a mentor and a community of other fathers and sons for support.

Core Principles

All of our weekend adventures and material are designed to:

1. Empower the son

2. Strengthen the bond between the father and the son

3. Provide an adventure!

The "Do and Discuss" Method

The secret to our very successful weekends is our unique "do and discuss" method. Pairing father and son activities with pre-planned discussions, we break down barriers and create meaningful conversations that build lasting relationships between fathers and sons.

Growing up with four males in a household of five, we know the unique challenge of getting guys, young and old, to open up and talk about important issues. The key, we discovered, was doing things together before we talked. When we actively did something together, whether it was throwing the baseball or putting together a puzzle, the communication barriers began to break down, and we were more comfortable talking. Thus, we created the “Do and Discuss.”

The “Do and Discuss” method is exactly what it sounds like. Father and son do an activity and then talk about a relevant topic. The activity can be ANYTHING and the topic of discussion doesn’t have to be serious at all. The combination is magical for getting guys to talk. When the activities are real adventures, like they are on a BAM Adventures retreat, then the discussion is even more lively.

What Makes Us Unique?

Fortunately there are many groups doing father son retreats, but there are three things that distinguish our business from others.

1. Sons take the lead in all BAM activities. Whether it’s in a discussion or a scavenger hunt, sons are the ones taking the lead. Through taking charge, they learn leadership skills and gain confidence in their ideas and actions.

2. Conversations. Our unique discussion guides take the guesswork out of talking with young men about important topics.

3. Unforgettable projects and activities. Our weekends are packed with out of the ordinary activities and projects that fathers and sons participate in together.

In the end, we take the guesswork out of helping build men out of boys so that you can enjoy the process of helping your son develop into the man he was created to be. BAM Adventures provides all of the structure, organization, and processes for fathers and sons to experience a relationship changing adventure.