okansas.blogspot.com Occassional thoughts about orienteering
Saturday, August 10, 2002
Talking while orienteering
A day or two ago I wrote about talking to yourself as a way of holding (or recovering) your concentration. It reminded me of an experiment Damon Douglas did.
Damon was US Team coach in the late 1980s. He spent a lot of time trying to learn about orienteering and figure it all out. He spent time at the Olympic training center in Colorado Springs. He went to a pre-WOC training camp in Sweden in 1988 and interviewed runners and coaches from other countries to learn what a coach should do.
He also got Peter Gagarin to carry a tape recorder around with him while he ran a course. Peter talked about what he was doing as he ran the course. Peter kept up a running commentary by describing what he was doing, what he was looking for and what he was thinking. Listening to the tape while looking at the map was quite interesting. It seemed like you got a good sense of how Peter orienteered.
Did Damon ever get other runners to carry a tape recorder? Have other coaches used the technique?
posted by Michael |
7:24 PM
