Discussion: moving off quickly from controls - advice please

Every time I punch in at a control I have to stop, look at my map, place my compass along the line I want to run and orient the map according to north before I can run off again. I constantly see other orienteers run to a control, punch in and run off again without looking at their map or compass. I'd love to be able to do that. If I have an easy run on a long path or something I'll look ahead to the next control to have a route in mind before I get to my control but I still have to orient myself before I can follow that route.

I'm after tips for how to move off from one control to the next quickly. Should I look for a feature near the control in the right general direction then orient my map as I run to the feature? My difficulty with that kind of thing is that my compass needle moves a fair bit as I run but I'm beginning to wonder if I should just use it to point me generally in the right direction and not get too hung up on following as close to the correct bearing as possible.

I'm also wondering how far ahead on my map should I be looking? Is it better to practice making a decision quickly at each control or to look ahead and plan ahead on the map?

I suggest that you analyze what you do just before punching in control. What do you do when you spot control? Do you just run in? I am willing to bet $5,- (US or AU - your choice) that once you spot control or feature that control is placed at you just run into control, punch and then you start planning for next leg.

When you spot control location navigation for current leg is over and many orienteers (including younger version of me) don't bother looking at the map till the punch in control. There is no need to check map for current leg however time could be utilized to start looking route options for next leg.

When I was 14-15 I still felt it's a minor miracle that I found control and I'd sprint last 30-50 yards to control. Then my couch taught me to start checking route choices for next leg once I spot control or control location instead if accelerating to control. Before punching I already know which direction I need to go out because older wiser me would not sprint to control during last 30-50 yards but start planning next leg.

* edited for spot<=>stop :)

Stop=spot a couple places above in Gil's response. :-)

As I approach a control I look to see which way I will be heading out (left, right, straight) and move off quickly before doing any more bearing setting. But I rarely set a bearing. I use a thumb compass so I automatically thumb my map with the map folded along my current line of travel. That helps to get me headed off correctly. I'll refold the map after I've moved away from the control just punched. Also, I rely more on terrain reading than exact bearings so often just use a general direction ("am I stil moving northwest?").

I clearly remember hearing a talk by Ted de St Croix a few years ago, in which he says he stops and WALKS the last 5 meters or so into all controls. He spends that time refolding his map, and determining the exit route to get him to the next control. This allows him to punch and be off to the next control at full speed immediately afterwards.

My technique (and I'm not an elite) is simply a matter of having looked ahead to get a general direction of the exit out of the control sometime prior to my arrival and then heading roughly that way after punching. Like Janet I use a thumbie and my exist are fairly rough as are my general bearings for that matter. The angle of exit might then be "adjusted" as I go and pick up more terrain details. Sometimes this might add a small arc into my route but it is rarely significant. If you have your map oriented and address it frequently enough then this should be easier than navigating anywhere else between the controls since you know exactly where you are (so long as you are at the right control). If I do stop at a control it is generally due to fatigue as it seems a mentally convenient place to stop although it is the worst place to stop for a competitively minded orienteer as it may help to give the location away to one of your fierce rivals. Also remember the golden rule not to go faster than you can navigate regardless of where you are on the course, generally not a problem for me as (lack of) speed is generally my limiting factor.

Hope my ramblings haven't confused you even more. Good luck, like everything you will get better with practice.

I forgot to say.....that as a fairly slow orienteer I am amazed at the number of faster orienteers I often gain ground on by my (mostly) continuos movement through the control site, so it is definitely a good skill to learn.

Every time I punch in at a control I have to stop, look at my map, place my compass along the line I want to run and orient the map according to north before I can run off again.

Before you can take the (good, I think) advice listed above, you have to be able to re-orient and re-fold your map on the move. If you aren't able to naturally and quickly do this, then that's what you should practice -- re-orienting should be natural and not require stopping, whether it's before the control or after.

You can practice this at home. Take a map with a course on it and your compass, stand up, and face the correct direction for the first leg, with the map oriented properly in front of you. Then quickly re-orient yourself and re-fold for the next leg, then the next, etc. I used to do this as an activity with a class of kids (in the classroom) and I think it helped them quite a bit -- they were definitely competitive about being the first to face the right way. ;-)

I rely mostly on knowing where I am coming from, which helps greatly in knowing the general bearing to follow on the way out. If I miss a control and mill around a bit looking for it, I might not be as smart about knowing which direction I arrived in, particularly in a relatively bland area. So more attention to compass and map orientation is indicated there.

I think Cristina's advice is the most insightful, reflecting more listening than talking, and therefore probably most applicable to your (Mindabout's) situation.

Progress is made one step at a time, and you have to recognize YOUR next step, not 10 steps ahead.

Whether entering or exiting a control area, this is not the place to be pushing the limits of your technique, where the consequenses of mistakes are highest. Yes, this is where you might notice deficiencies compared to others, but the bulk of the time difference is the rest of the course, orienteering independently, where you don't have direct visual comparisions.

All good advice, (which I have not always successfully followed over the years). But stopping at a control to plan your next leg is sometimes not a bad thing. Especially if the leg involves significant route choice and you haven't yet figured out the optimum route. I always enjoy the legs set by good course setters (like EricW!), where we are lured into a seemingly obvious control exit that is not the best route.

Moving quickly away from control should not be a separate goal.
Of course I suppose you are not picnicking there, otherwise, make a few steps aside, and plan your route to the next one before leaving the control.

Attempt to plan on direction of leaving the control before actually finding it is more likely to produce an error than to save time. Thinking that you are exposing the control location to your competitors, and must leave it asap appears naive, you are after all competing only with yourself.

I've been an orienteer for 45+ years now, the last 3-4 years I've done all my events with a GPS clock so I can use QuickRoute to analyze what I've done:

(My QR archive is here.

Like Mindabout I tend to spend a bit more time getting out of the control than running into it, but this is a matter of about 2-3 seconds or so. I will stand still for up to 5 seconds if the next leg is very complicated and I haven't had time to analyze it properly during any previous easy running.

@yurets

"naive" isn't a word I'd use to describe my attitude. Misguided perhaps. Over-competitive, especially given my limited talents. definately yes.

Probably more disappointing to me, and partly why I try and get the hell out of there, is the fact that sometimes a challenging control has its precise location given away by there being a number of people stationary there planning their next route. I like to find it on my own merits and having this happen detracts from my personal satisfaction, but then we are all different and of course it all depends on how big (number of competitors) the event is and the likelyhood of this happening.

This is also a big issue for me. When I spot the control, I turn into a squirrel-chasing puppy and do not plan my next leg, or even get oriented, until after I've punched. I even tried to delegate this moving-off duty to my teammates during a recent team event, haha. I don't like standing there and letting everyone else know where the control is.

But I didn't even realize until now that I get mesmerized by trying to sprint in to a control - that's so much "free time" I could be using to plan the exit! :) Thanks for the advice from Janet and Cristina's re-orienteering exercise. I will play with that!

I would say in orienteering you are competing with other people. I presume that's why they're out there.

They are out there to laugh at you running from a control in an opposite direction

The plan for leaving a control needs to make sense, but it can often be rather general, e.g., "toward the clearing", "uphill", "roughly southwest", "along the reentrant". If you find that you need to be on a precise compass bearing when leaving the control a lot of the time, you may want to rethink the way you are navigating. There are some short, technical legs where that's called for, but for most controls, the first part of the leg is just taking you toward some largish collecting feature anyway.

The plan for leaving a control needs to make sense in terms of how it helps at the other end of the leg. There's no point going anywhere until you know the control feature you are looking for and the attack point you are going to use. Then you can start worrying about how to get t your attack point and what you will see on the way.

Leaving in a rough general direction often works (it's pretty reliable in Western Australia where the forest is pretty flat and often open), but particularly in steep terrain or areas with highly variable vegetation can quickly commit you to a route you don't really want to be taking.

A lot of good advice here, you do have to have it done before you get to the control. And if you haven't already done it, once you've seen your control is the ideal time.
Cristina's right though, it all stems at being able to re-orientate the map naturally, check your compass leaving the control, but you should already have an idea where you're going. The compass is just to check.
I'm no expert, but that's what works for me.

I use heavily JJ's approach for the first 5 - 10 meters leaving a control: "uphill", "roughly southwest", "along the reentrant", "back from where I came".
Then I switch to the technique I have chosen to navigate that leg.

For the above to work smoothly, I find time to plan the next leg as soon as I have settled and began execution of the current leg. (eg: while running on a trail, going uphill, running to an obvious catching feature)

For me, if I don't have a plan of execution for the next control by the time I see the flag, I have not done my navigation properly, and I feel I am doing 'catch up', instead of 'plan ahead' orienteering.

I think at this point it's also worth pointing out that I've seen a lot of really great orienteers stand still to read their map and make a route choice. Even WOC medalists during a medal-winning run. Just about everyone has a point where the upcoming leg requires a little bit of standing time to figure out. For the very best it's not very often at all, but for mortals it's more (like for me in Norwegian terrain!). The important thing is knowing where your threshold is so that you don't just run off wildly instead of spending 2.2 seconds to figure things out.

I am a simple man so I try to remember and understand only two things at a time when I am racing. 1) what I am doing now 2) what I will do next when the current task is done. So, when approaching a control the 2 is either direction and feature I am going to aim after I have punched or it is ~ turn about that direction, walk and try to make a decent route choice this time. Sometimes (usually) next leg is simple enough and stopping is not needed or the walk is just one step long. But some legs are so complex I have find it's better for me to "give up planning ahead" and focus on current leg properly and shave all possible seconds there and use those seconds for making the route choise (and get some o2). I have find I either make half-assed route choice or execute current leg poorly if I always force myself doing route choice in advance.

I've seen a lot of really great orienteers stand still to read their map
and
But some legs are so complex I have find it's better for me to "give up planning ahead
+1 for both comments. That's where the experience and discipline comes in to recognize the complexity when it's there and stop to properly plan.

I guess the really great orienteers are the ones who have learned the difference between time wasted standing still and time invested standing still!

I thought really great orienteers are the ones who have developed habit of winning races

I think, to most orienteers, including the winners, winning would be very much a secondary goal compared to executing a race perfectly and finding all the controls without wasting any time.

When approaching the control, have a quick glance at where the line leaves the circle to give a you a general direction where you are headed out. If the next leg isnt too complicated, thats most likely the direction you need to go anyways, and usually you can figure out where to continue going after that.

I've found Sprint Orienteering to be good practice for planning ahead and for 'fast through controls' because: 5 sec/control is much more costly; easier navigation makes planning ahead easier; and lots of controls for practice in a short period of time. Select suggestions from above, practice in Sprint, and try out which work for you in regular O'.

Lots of good advice above. Another concept is to think about the course from attack point to attack point, rather than control to control. Do your pausing at the AP. May seem to cost you time as you practice, but as time goes on your pauses will diminish. And get a better compass, there's no excuse for a needle waving about.

All advice provided in this thread reminds me another thread where orienteering was compared to golf and it's so fitting. Each hole or each leg golfers or orienteers start from the same starting point and goal is to end up the the same place. Execution in the middle might slightly differ based on individual athletes skills, habits, strength and weaknesses but similarly skilled athletes will arrive at flag almost at the same time or use the same amount of strokes to get to the hole.

I don't like Orienteering compared to golf. Sorry to the offended.

Its a valid comparison when you are talking about Happy Gilmore

Thank you for all the advice and ideas. I read them all and went off to a street and park event and I feel I used my time better. I made a conscious decision to look ahead to my next control and decide a route choice once on my way to my current control. My fitness is poor and I usually get puffed and start walking at some point between controls so this time around I capitalised on that time by using it to look ahead. So, its a bit better than I was doing before but once I get my fitness up I'll need to learn to do it whilst running.

Christina I really like your advice about refolding the map. I had already been doing a little practice at home with old maps re-orienting myself for each leg but hadn't been focusing on getting the map folded fast. I did a little practice with that before I headed out and getting that map refolded going into the control ready for the next leg sure helps.

I hadn't done many street and park events until recently and I do think they're helping me become a better orienteer (more map reading, less reliance on a compass bearing) but not sure that it will really help in forest locations. In those locations I have trouble picking out which paths are mapped and which stream, boulder etc I'm passing so often I'll get lost, return to my previous control and then run on a bearing - even if its through thick vegetation it can be quicker for me.