ORIENTEERING
Advanced skills
By the time you need to know more advanced skills, you
will realise that there are plenty of people to talk to and plenty of books
available on the subject. Here are a few pointers to get you used to the
terms and phrases of some of the more advanced orienteering skills. You
will pick up more pointers if you look through the jargon buster.
A lot of the skills required by the more advanced orienteer are those already
leant by the beginner and the intermediate: they just need to be done faster
and more accurately. You will also need to be a bit fitter. Controls on
the advanced courses can be between any mapped features and legs can be
of any length, the quickest routes often avoiding any paths or easy line
features.
When you begin to do advanced courses it is probably better to be accurate
than fast. You will need to learn to balance your physical exertion with
your mental exertion. If you run too fast you will start to make stupid,
really stupid, mistakes. If you had all day, took a picnic along and could
walk slowly round the course you probably wouldn't make any mistakes. You
need to learn to get the balance right.
Other more advanced skills include:
- Thumbing the map - this involves
holding the map and compass in one hand and keeping either the thumb
or the corner of the compass on your
position on the map all the time. It is surprising how much time can
be lost just relocating yourself every
time you look at the map. A bit of simple maths. On a 6km course, if
it takes 3 seconds to locate yourself on the map every 100 meters you
will have lost 3 minutes. If you stop and take 10 seconds every time
you look at the map you will have lost 10 minutes. You need to learn
to read the map whilst moving. It is a skill I am still trying to get
to grips with, particularly given my poor eyesight. Too vain to wear
glasses whilst running!
- Plan ahead - not as easy as it sounds. Sometime before you reach each
control, perhaps when running on a track or struggling on an uphill
section, look ahead to the following leg, plan which direction you need
to go once you have punched the control.
Do not stand still at a control as a target for the other runners who
have yet to find the control.
- Collecting features - this technique involves
ticking off distinctive features on your chosen route as you pass them.
It gives you comfort that you are where you want to be. This technique
is often used in tandem with simplification.
- Simplification - On a long leg you may only need to "collect"
the large features. You can ignore small contour details if you know
you will soon be passing a large feature. Try not to clutter your most
import bit of equipment, your brain, with too much irrelevant information.
Once you reach your attack point you may
need to slow down and focus more on the smaller features. There are
some good map memory exercises that you can do to practice this skill,
some in the comfort of your home whilst enjoying a pleasant glass of
wine.
- Contouring - with practice you can use a contour
just like any other line feature. It is harder than it sounds as we
have a natural tendency to end up a bit lower than we started.
- Route Choice - the selection of the route
that suits you best. The best route for one person may not be the best
route for someone else. As the shortest distance between two points
is a straight line, the best orienteers will try and stay as close as
possible to the straight line. The better you get, the straighter your
route. That's the theory anyway.
- Look at and compare splits after an event
and see where you lost time. Splits are only available where electronic
punching is used. Local events do not always use this form of punching.
Some of the analysis that is available now is excellent. I like Winsplits
as it gives both time and position on each leg. If you followed your
selected route straight to a control, found it without any mishaps,
and yet you lost time to comparable runners it must be down to route
choice. Look at the route you took and compare it to the alternatives.
Did you try and 'run' through the dark green stuff? Talk to club members
on the same course and examine the routes that they took.
- Setting goals - Once you have advanced sufficiently to start thinking
about some of the more advanced skills and you want to compete rather
than just take part, you will probably want to start setting yourself
a few targets. A few simple guidelines:
- the targets must be realsitic and achievable;
- Think in the longer term rather than the shorter term;
- Must be measurable;
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