Association Circle

All players form a circle. One in the circle says a word to their neighbour. The neighbour associates a new word with that term and says it to the next player, and so on.

It is not important to come up with the most original associations possible. The basic rule is: there is no "wrong" answer. This is meant to switch off the "censor in the head". Repetition of terms already said is also allowed.

What matters is finding a common rhythm and the emergence of a certain flow of terms (flow). You will see that at a certain speed it is easier to associate, since thinking is made harder.

You should make sure to really associate to the last word heard, and not to a word that came up 2 or 3 stations earlier.

Advanced players should pay attention, in the exercise, to associating preferably more to the "image" than to the "word". Example:
- "Fire brigade" - "car" is a word association ("fire engine" is a term)
- "Fire brigade" - "high-rise" is an image association (the fire brigade puts out a burning high-rise)
- "Snow" - "Oh dear" is a word association (rhyme)
- "Snow" - "Yeti" is an image association (in the snow stands a Yeti)

Variants

First you only mentally associate a term, then on this you associate a further one which you say out loud.
Example:

A: "House"

B: thinks "key", says: "metal"

The players have to associate, in each case, to two terms.

Everyone grooves into a common tempo with a shared, simultaneous finger snap up and then down. When everyone snaps up, the player whose turn it is says a term, and when everyone snaps down, the same player says another term that has nothing to do with their first one. The next player has to, snapping along, associate to both terms.

Example:

A says, while snapping down: "Water", then snaps up and says "sack race".
Neighbour B now associates, snapping down, "transparent" and snapping up "children's birthday party". Etc.

See also Associating; Association Circle with Repetition