okansas.blogspot.com Occassional thoughts about orienteering
Monday, November 17, 2003
Three thoughts - GPS, course setting and team building
Take a look at this GPS track from a mountain bike O' race. I found it most interesting to let the animation run, then look at the route choices (I find watching the little animated dots appear a bit of a waste). Being able to see the biker's speed along the route choices is slick (different colors indicate the speed).
I've talked about direction change and course setting before. The number of direction changes is one of my quick-and-dirty measures of course setting. I'm not sure if direction change itself is important. There isn't anything wrong with it, but I'm not sure it really adds much to a course. Direction changes don't cause good courses. Direction changes are a symptom of good courses. Course setters making good use of an area will often (maybe even usually?) have direction changes.
