Many thanks to Isabel for this inspiring report on the Orienteering Foundation Training Day last Saturday (1st Nov)
While there are great opportunities for juniors to participate in orienteering coaching through regional junior squads, and some super introductory support for adults just getting started in orienteering, there is generally less available for adults with a decent level of orienteering competency, who want to further improve their skills. The Orienteering Foundation holds an annual coaching day which is excellent for filling this gap – although of course once per year is hardly going to make radical, instant improvements to one’s skills. This year the coaching was at Black Beck woods, near Bouth (South Lakes). The area used was only about 1km square but was perfect for practising skills in technical terrain. Coaching was tailored to suit your own needs; if you weren’t sure what you wanted to practise, the coach, Derek Allison, would talk through what you find easy and hard about orienteering and suggest some exercises to suit you. If, like me, you knew what you wanted to practise, he could support in that way too.
In technical areas, I struggle not to micro-navigate the entire course. This is slow and inefficient and so I knew I wanted to practise techniques for simplifying navigation in technical areas, while still having confidence in where I was. Derek set this up for me by asking me to talk through how I would navigate the first leg of one of the exercise loops. Once I’d told him (and it turns out I could verbally simplify it pretty easily), he took the map off me, asked to tell him what my plan was again and then told me to put the map in my pocket and go on and navigate the leg. – Then repeat at each control. I was slightly flustered at this prospect, but coaching is exactly the place to try new things and so I took a deep breath and got on with it. Despite feeling a bit unconfident as I executed the leg [a different exercise to the one on the photo of the map], using just my memory and my compass – north to the end of the marsh, then WNW and turn north again after passing the second spur; up the re-entrant and control on the crag top right of the re-entrant – I was amazed and super-excited to find that despite doubts along the way, I arrived bang on to the control! Then map back out of pocket, plan the leg to the next control, focusing on key navigational features, the compass bearing and what the control feature would look like; memorise; map back in pocket and off I went again. With things distilled down to three or four key points, I found I could run a lot more than usual and could spot what was going on around me better, so could easily spot my tick-off features. Yet again, the control appeared exactly where I expected it. The smile on my face got even bigger and I practically danced around the rest of the exercise! It felt like a complete revelation.
Through the day, I completed two more training loops, continuing to practise this skill. It was so much fun to run with my map in my pocket and still be able to spike controls! There were times when I definitely felt doubtful and had to practise trusting in my plan and my compass bearings and keep going – and every time it paid off. Between exercises, there was time for de-brief with Derek and also an opportunity to meet and chat with the other (all adult) orienteers who had come along to the coaching – a really nice way to meet people from clubs around the country, with many having travelled from well outside Cumbria for the coaching. We also discussed the importance of really accurate and regular compass bearing checks, and talked about things you might be looking out for when map-geeking before an event. For those who find getting lost is a more regular part of their orienteering experience than they would like, Derek also went through a great relocation strategy with them.
Today at Lakeland Orienteering Club’s Wansfell and Skelghyll Woods event, I put my new skills from yesterday into practise and they definitely helped! I still had to remember to have confidence in my plans and not be drawn into ticking off every little feature along the way, but it paid off and I was especially delighted with one, diagonal, uphill leg which required an accurate compass bearing and with little other features to help. I was confident my bearing was really accurate and that I was keeping it accurate. As I got closer to the control, there were lots of confused looking orienteers casting around for it. A quick check of my map and I felt I hadn’t gone far enough (but wasn’t 100% sure) but as I had confidence in the accuracy of my bearing, I trusted my plan and continued on up over a little convex slope and there was the control! Very pleasing indeed and I had dibbed and was well away, leaving a big gap between all the people now behind me.
I’ll need to keep practising these new skills, but the great thing is, I now understand how to simplify and execute a simplified leg… Something I could have gone years more without knowing had I not been to the coaching. If you want to improve, or refresh any of your orienteering skills, or sense you could be better still at your orienteering, I thoroughly encourage you to take up opportunities to be coached; it’s not just practical, but it’s intrinsically rewarding to discover your own progress, and also very sociable too.
Border Liners Orienteering Club 