Discussion: Training Courses at A meets

The Western States Championships was the first A meet my family attended. They had a "training course" Friday afternoon prior to the events on Saturday and Sunday. We found running the course very helpful in getting used to the terrain and map. My question is: Is this a usual occurence at A-meets?

Most A meets have do-it-yourself "model events", where you can get an idea of the local terrain and the mapping style.

The Western States meet in Tucson was definitely a notch above, in terms of their training courses on Thursday and Friday.

I thought the Tucson event was very well run in general. I probably have been spoiled and will have too high expectations of future events.

If you come to Laramie Daze / US Championships in August, there will be a full five days of training events! http://www.uschamps2008.com/

sounds good, we'll try to be there!

In Ottawa we usually don't have 'training events' before our A meets and that is because few people would use them but if anyone were to write, say they were coming in early and could they train on a local map we would get them what they needed, for sure. I'll bet most clubs that have access to public terrain could and would do that, too.
(That's Ottawa Ontario, not Kansas, Illinois or anywhere else the tribe of that name were chased)

World Ranking Events are required to have a model or training area, and the norm for most championship events seems to be to provide some sort of training area. For regular "A" meets, it is probably 50-50 or less.

It is also partly a volunteer / staffing issue for the local club to get someone at the site. Also, there has to be suitable area (similar terrain, by same mappers, that doesn't overlap the competition area.) Plus there is the matter of parking and access. Sometimes, a park is completely used for competition courses and there just isn't a suitable, accessible area left over for training.

For the Flying Pig in two weeks, OCIN will have a model area open Friday morning on an unused corner of the WRE map with 8 or 9 sample controls. There also will be a very small piece of the campus map for Saturday morning's sprint available for training (but without any sample controls).

In my opinion, the model is important to give visitors an idea of the terrain, the mapping style, and any local peculiarities. For example, the campus sprint has some low chain fences which pose an obstacle (and hazard) to navigation. Competitors should definitely take a couple minutes to get a look at how they are constructed. Many young, fit orienteers could leap over without slowing, but failing to clear the chain would result in a face-smashing fall. Likewise, attempting to use the chain as a step would likely be suicidal since it would swing away. By getting an advance look, you can make some decisions about how you'll handle them on the course.