Discussion: Introductory O Clinic

Next month we are going to co-host a day of orienteering with the local triathlon club, whose members are mostly unfamiliar with O. We also hope to attract newbies of all ages from the community, since an article about O and the Caledon Navigators club will appear shortly in a magazine that is delivered free to 22,000 area households. The format of the day will include a 90-minute intro clinic in the morning, then a 90-minute score-O in the afternoon, where the regular orienteering community will mix with the novices. Since the triathletes wanted 2.5 hrs of afternoon training, we'll probably add an optional, spectator-friendly sprint at the end of the day.

It's a great opportunity to get strong athletes and juniors to try O, and we want to make a good impression for the sport. My question is... what do we do at the clinic? We expect to have a mix ranging from fit athletes to hikers to children. Does anyone have a template or outline for a 90-minute clinic that would be suitable for a group like this? Or even just a good idea or two? I think we should be able to get several experienced orienteers to help, so we could break up into smaller groups for some practice after learning the basic principles.

one exercise i have never tried but think could be good is as follows:
have a short loop with 4 or 5 controls with handrails to follow between each conrtol.
There should be a large feature say 50m from each original control and a small technical feature 30m further on.

Exercise consists of three loops to be run relativley quickly:
First loop is the handrail loop, second loop run to controls on the big attackpoints, third loop run smoothly to the technical controls.

The idea is to train breaking down a technical leg into not-so-difficult pieces. And to show that it is possible to run technical legs fast.

DVOA runs clinics and corporate events routinely, and, I am sure, if you post your question on the E-board at www.dvoa.org (as not many DVOAers read attackpoint) many good suggestions will be offered.

I would divide up the families and children from the triathletes. IThe parents will be content to spend more time getting instruction, the atletes and kids want to get out and run.
What I do is- Go over what is O'. Then go over map and symbols (not them all , but the basics, trails, rocks cliffs buildings, water, swamps, maybe green vs white)
Then everyone goes as group to about 3 controls. I have a special 3 control course for this (these controls may be part of the other courses). I try to construct legs which use some basic skills, and introduce orienting the map (I don't usually use compasses) and some sense of scale and maybe pace count. This will keep the runners from going off the map to the first control, I hope. I like to have the last control of the 3 offer some kind of route choice, even if it's just with a swamp or pond to go around.
This usually takes about 1 hour.

Neil's idea I think is great for experienced orienteerers. In fact I think I could use this at a club or junior training. The first course is what we would call a white, the next an orange (seldom set this way, but is what I think we should be focusing on at that level) and the last advanced (brown, green red blue ).

I was thinking about this topic this weekend. As a part of the introduction I would show one of the many videos that have shown up on AP. 1-2 minutes, and they really portray some of the fun of O that is difficult to convey in words or with beginner activities required to build skill.

does anyone have ideas how to put this topic( stories, ideas, link to the videos ) in a nice place ? ( or is already somewhere ? )
as I just started a new club , soon I'll like to use all info that can be available..

SLOC puts on 1-2 clinics per year. I've run a few of them. Our standard outline is something like this:

• Introduction (brief as possible)
  
• Map scales and symbols (10 min)
  
• Talk through a few legs - emphasis on handrails (10 min)
  
• Star course - 4 or 5 controls, coming back to S/F between each to talk about what went right/wrong (30-60 minutes)
  

The last bit is important. Being forced to describe what they actually did gets them thinking much more critically about how they approach each leg. I always encourage them to run the legs by following handrails even if that means stopping to read the map and running some more. I don't think you can overstress handrails to beginners.

This is typically followed by some sort of meet or training event.

From recent experience, two comments which apply even to urban parks, certainly to woods.

Beginners might not automatically first even consider "What are we looking for?", but they quickly learn that reading the clue is useful. However, "What do you expect to see along the way?" is definitely not a natural instinct for most beginners. In 'clinic', ask them to describe, "From #2 to #3, what will you see?". (hand-in-hand with Eric's 'hand-rail' advice.)

I find compass or no-compass a tough call. Even in parks or on trails, matching the map to the ground seems very difficult for many youths and some adult beginners. As they turn, so does the map. For them, "Use the compass to keep your map oriented north" can be very useful. Perhaps first encourage no-compass, but be ready to introduce it to those who need it - but don't let them shoot those azimuths.

It's too bad most thumb compasses aren't cheap, because it seems to me that they're the perfect tool for beginner clinics. Or at least, something with just a needle.

I lent my mom a thumb compass to my mom for the 1000 Day. She found it quite intuitive and simple. Then this Saturday I had a panicked call from her because she couldn't figure out what to do with her baseplate compass. Someone had shown her how to take a bearing with it the previous week and she assumed that she had to do that. Once I managed to convince her that she really could ignore the numbers and all the little lines and things that moved, she was fine. And she wanted a thumb compass. ;-)

I think it's good for newbies to have something with which to orient the map, because initial map reading skills are sometimes so poor that people can't be expected to orient off of the terrain. If they can manage to keep the map oriented, then they'll hopefully have an easier time of noticing that the stuff in front of them is "in front of them" on the map, too.

For kids and other beginners I find this type of compass useful. Not too expensive either - in Sweden you get a package of 10 compasses for SEK 900, which would be around $12,50 a piece.

I've given many introductory orienteering classes, and I usually do something pretty similar to what ebuckley described (except that I don't use a star course). I'm not confident that I've arrived at the most effective formula, but it seems to work okay. Here are a couple helpful things I do now that took me a while to adopt but seem obviously beneficial in hindsight:
1. Start the hands-on practice with a map handling and orientation course, where there are 4-5 controls in a loop within sight of each other, maybe with just 30-70 meters between them. That way, the students can focus on proper mechanics--map orientation, thumbing and folding--without being distracted by actually having to find anything. I usually explain why it's important to do these basic things right, to head off the inevitable feeling that some students have that such an easy "course" is a simple-minded waste of time. I usually do this exercise using a 1:1000 scale map, so that the students have enough paper to work with.
2. At some point early in the training, ideally before the novice orienteers have had the chance to develop bad habits, the instructor walks a few legs of an easy course with the students following and listening to the instructor talk about what s/he is doing. This sort of example can help dispell the inevitable points of confusion that arise when students listen to even the clearest explanations of how to orienteer properly.

bubo, unfortunately, the Silva model 19 is hard to find in the U.S. (because Brunton has apparently chosen not to import them.) I would gladly pay $125 for a pack of 10.

Yeah, so would I. Let's have someone send them to us.

But not in carry-on luggage.

My compass made it through, although I was the subject of a random bag search on the way back from the Sprint Series Finals. Since the new prohibition on liquids and gels in carry-on luggage, I hadn't thought about how the compass capsule contains a flammable liquid--which most people would probably consider more dangerous than toothpaste or sunscreen. Scandinavians, however, are crazy about tanning and like orienteering, so maybe they would consider the sunscreen more dangerous.

ebone, barb>>
The compasses are sold online by Letro Sport. I suppose you could try there.

In teaching my kids to orienteer, I find that the compass is too distracing for them. It seems to occupy their attention at the expense of the map. My solution is to send them out with only a map with an arrow drawn toward the sun for use in orienting the map. Yes, this has obvious limitations but (when the conditions are right) seems to work for short beginner courses. Without the interesting mechanical thing in their hands they are more focussed on the map and terrain (i.e. paths). I've even taught them to move through short stretches of woods on a constant bearing by using the position of the sun relative to your intended direction. This is easiest when you are heading in a direction where you can see your shadow. Now I just have to solve their pricker and burr issues, I was thinking plate mail might work...

A few years back I was on a course that had a long leg through fairly vague terrain. There was, however, a distinct stream junction 800m into the leg and I figured if I could hit that quickly, I'd be able to navigate the remaining 400m OK. I started out on compass bearing, but then noticed I was running directly towards my shadow. I picked up the pace, chasing my shadow and hit the stream junction almost exactly. It was one of the few times I've ever had fast time for a leg on a blue course.