Training Log Archive: barb

Just had a good phone conversation with the parent of a junior with a lot of potential in the Seattle area. The father is on the COC board; Rick Breseman is the potential coach. Exciting.
Also got email yesterday or the day before from a junior in Georgia who is interested in trying out for the JWOC team and wants to know what to do.

C • David's Photos Are Awesome 3

Conversation with my son David yesterday:

The grand vision is to voxelize Boojum Rock LIDAR data, import into some Minecraft-building software (?), set up an orienteering game (he says there are already games like Hunger Games, where your avatar gets materialized in a ring in the middle of the terrain and then you run around getting stuff and fighting each other), get a lot of Minecrafters to play it, then put on an event for real in the forest where the winners in the virtual world get a slot in the real world event, and market regular orienteering to them all. There are over 45,000,000 registered Minecraft users, of which nearly 8,000,000 have bought the game. In the last 24 hours, 14,000 people bought the game. It's an open-source world building and exploration game. David knows a lot about it. Could also do a Catching Features version.

The game itself, the real one, in the woods, would ideally have live GPS tracking and the ability to be online in the woods at the same time that the game is being played, and see avatars for the real runners in the virtual world. It would be great to have live headcams on all the real players and be broadcasting that as well. Sometimes I imagine teams earning points, and more points means more money for the charity/non-profit of their choice.

Here's a mockup of the poster:

C • David's Game 3

Ooo. Phone call: storm advisory from the city of Cambridge for next week's storm. Strong winds, heavy rain, flooding, downed trees and powerlines. Move valuables out of basements. Remove leaves and debris from storm drains near our property. Secure furniture, bring items inside to minimize damage caused by flying debris. Have non-perishable food, bottled water, flashlights and first aid kits.

My notes from the OUSA board meeting. May be fairly illegible in places.

C • notes 2

Guy, Erin and I have weekly meetings. Erin thinks big. Which is what his contract says he will do. The contract has an addendum with the goals he's laid out, working backward from 10-year goals. The 10-year goals include the idea that half a dozen clubs will have a program bringing in and spending at least $50k (each) on junior development. And we'll be rocking it at JWOC. (B finals and above for all! Top 5 team!) There are also 3-year and 1-year goals.

Every week there is some new idea from Erin, and the rest of us react with some surprise and skepticism, but after a few minutes, or after sleeping on it, I become converted into a raving fan and a believer.

Two Erin ideas this week.

First idea: 2-3 weekends with junior training camps next spring. Each weekend would have a camp in three places: east coast, west coast, middle of the country. For example, the first weekend it might be Seattle, Boston, St Louis. Second weekend might be LA, Harriman, Minnesota. Maybe Colorado, Texas, Florida. Erin himself would be at one of the three places, and the planning and coaching would be coordinated. Maybe senior team members would be involved. Earlier, maybe February in Tucson, there would have been a coaching clinic. These camps don't have to be as "major" as the Blue Mountain camps have been in the past (though they could be), with solid fun and training and play from Friday evening through Sunday afternoon, with housing and board -- but they could be. Instead they could be less formal, just day camps in the area. But they should be open to all comers, all juniors. Ideally they'd take place the weekend before an A meet.

Second idea: Weeklong convention next summer for US and Canada together - lots of opportunities for people to learn (coaching, mapping, orienteering, ...); work with vendors (GoPro, gear, ...). Similar to conventions we've had in the past perhaps, but bigger, and with a real strong focus on coordinated action for the coming year to recruit and train juniors. OK, the rest of this paragraph is me riffing on this idea. I'd like to see specific out-of-the-box ideas for how you recruit. Examples: (1) Develop a plan to approach 50-100 cross-country coaches across the US, and have a strategy and materials for doing that. (2) Create some Hunger-Games-like event, highly watchable, maybe only say "orienteering" in the fine print, with amazing PR, and a goal of setting up events in half a dozen places, televized, reality-show like. (3) Have ARK there and make it really easy for people to sign up there and get trained to franchise it. Could be end of July around the BAOC meet or PNWOF or somewhere else.

Plus a bonus idea from me.

My idea for the week was to set up an exchange program for high school students. This was spurred by an email that we got from a 16-year-old Finnish high school student (and orienteer) who would like to live with a US family next year. It would be great to have a bunch of strong high school orienteers on exchange programs here in the US, living with orienteering families and training with the local juniors. And it would create stronger ties so that our juniors could go and train in Europe. I exchanged email with Youth for Understanding, and we could work through them. They provide a ton of support for both students and host families. (For a price.) If we recruited host families and students through orienteering clubs and connections, YFU is fine with us doing the matching ourselves and they provide the support and infrastructure. Oh, and if anyone in the Boston area wants to host this kid, let me know. Or anywhere in the US - I'm just feeling possessive because I'd love to see a strong Boston-based group of kids training together.

And my idea from last week:

Equip kids with GoPro (share it around the country) and GPS; they go out on a local course. We put together the video with the GPS dot on the map as people have been doing (eg see OUSA front page for an example). Then we get the junior and Erin (or a senior team person) to provide voiceover discussion as we review the course. One of these films is posted each week. 52 juniors get some fame and glory, and everyone gets entertainment and hopefully some training and orienteering tips.

C • YFU 20

Just walked into the kitchen to make some toast. There was huge carton of Goldfish crackers next to the toaster. Isabel eats too many crackers, especially Goldfish and Cheezits. I keep telling her not to eat those things but Dave keeps buying them. After NAOC she actually said that she wanted Dave to get her some trail mix because Erin suggested eating something more healthful. She doesn't listen to all my nagging for years, but a single dropped comment from her coach...

Anyway, back to this Goldfish carton - I realized it had writing all over it in marker, and here is what it says: "Start HERE: Dear Izzy, so basically, you are the best player on our entire team. You are the heart and the soul! And it doesn't hurt that everyone loves you. I mean I guess you are kinda cool. JK YOUR FLIPPING AWESOME! And a little birdy told me that you loves goldfish. So I hope that you love LOVE LOVE this! You ARE the coolest pseron! Get Psyched!"

Trail running with David at Boojum Rock. Yes, this is a big deal, to get David out there! We talked the whole time about how to create an orienteering-like game in Minecraft. I think David might actually do it.

work school

The WIOL league in the Seattle area will produce some strong juniors the next few years. Hopefully Erin will get the training plans and weekday trainings and local coaches into place when he goes out there this November, if it hasn't already happened by then. So far he has draft training plans from roughly 20 kids around the country. Which is working pretty fast, given that he's been working for about 3 weeks now. In those three weeks he also ran two training camps, held meetings at two A meets, drafted the junior development team & standing team applications, and the athlete code of conduct, sketched out the perqs of development team, attended an OUSA Board meeting, coached at NAOC including picking relay teams, helped edit the rules, touched base with the OUSA coaching certification people, ran in the meets himself, and set up the technology subcommittee (so far Anna Schafer-Skelton and Dave Yee). I like how he stations himself at the spectator leg so he can coach from there. Izzy said his voice was the only one she heard on that section.

Got that Kenyan chain letter about orienteering.

C • chain letter 3

My favorite photo from the weekend is Neil's

C • O-pourri 18

Sprint at NAOC. Made an error going to 5.

Isabel beat me in all three races this weekend.

GreenY - Sprint - Splits