Occassional thoughts about orienteering
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| okansas.blogspot.com Occassional thoughts about orienteering |
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Wednesday, November 26, 2003 Luck? I'd say skill and preparationIs turning over the map, finding the start triangle and finding the first control on the map luck?From a discussion that started this morning on Attackpoint: ...if participants start to look at the map after the start it is like a lottery: some of them may find the first leg on the map immediately by chance and for others it might take 5-10-15sec.... ...And under a stress the possibility of accidental error is very high. Striking example is Event in Kent, October 25, first day where the first control was just in 100m from the start so many people just did not see it on the map and ran to the 2nd control by mistake losing 2-3min and more. Take a look at the map from Kent and the first leg. Does it take luck to turn over the map and quickly see where the triangle and first control are on the map? I'd say "no." Finding the triangle and first control takes skill and preparation. Mary watched the start of one of the Possum Trots (a mass start race) a couple of years ago and was stuck by how quickly the better orienteers turned over their maps and made a decision about where to go. Orienteers who weren't as good had to look at the map for a while to find the triangle, then find the first control, then start running. The better orienteers found the triangle quicker. Sounds like "skill." If something is a skill you can practice and improve it. I'd bet that spending a lot of time looking at maps and doing O' technique training would sharpen your ability to find the triangle. You could easily design training to emphasize the specific skill of finding the triangle. Any training that involved picking up a map, quickly orienteering it and finding the triangle would do it. Is finding the triangle a skill worth practicing? You probably can't earn much time. But, it is so easy to train (you can work it in with any technique session in the forest or in the armchair) that you may as well. In the case at Kent, you could prepare to make finding the triangle a lot easier. The Kent map is an old map. You could buy a copy from the organizers or look at it online before the race. I carried a piece of the map with me to the start on the first day and knew, before I started, that the start area was at the bottom of the map on top of the hill. When I turned over my map I immediately looked at the right part of the map to find the triangle. I was prepared. I'm convinced that finding the triangle and first control quickly take some skill (which you can sharpen with practice) and a bit of preparation. That's not luck. By the way, to see the whole discussion, go to "Start procedure on US orienteering events" at Attackpoint. posted by Michael | 1:08 PM 
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