okansas.blogspot.com
Occassional thoughts about orienteering


Monday, April 17, 2006

Two projects

 

I've spent some time in the last day thinking about two projects. One is to work on a map of the KU campus. We plan to use the map for December's Kansas O' Champs. The other project was an idea I've thought about off and on for years -- to collect information from a bunch of different sources on "high performance" programs and create something like a menu of options.

The mapping project is pretty self explanatory. But, the other project probably takes some explanation.

I have a standard set of questions for thinking about how people train. Take a look at H is for Hammer to get an example.

The idea for looking at "high performance" programs would be to develop a similar list of questions and then answer them for a bunch of different programs (say, GHO, the French National Team, OK Linne, Texas Junior O' Camp, and so on). Answering these questions for be fun and the work could be easily farmed out to three or four interested people. It wouldn't really take much time -- maybe a month to get a good set of questions, maybe a month to get some answers, and maybe another month or two to make sense of the information.

At the end, you'd have a set of descriptions of different programs. You could find commonalities and differences. You would almost certainly get some good ideas. And, maybe most importantly, you'd probably be able to get a good idea of what it takes to implement different ideas.

The outcome of this sort of project, would (or rather "could") be a menu -- a bunch of different ideas with different "prices." I think that would be interesting and useful.

As I wrote, this second project has been an idea I've thought about off and on for years (since at least 1989), it came back to mind when I was reading some discussion on Attackpoint about USOF plans and high performance programs.

I posted a comment to the Attackpoint discussion and made two points: (1) that instead of rushing a plan, it might make sense to identify some different options for USOF to consider (which would probably involve something like the project I described above) and (2) that in my experience the membership of USOF is supportive of the "sport side" of orienteering.

My ideas went over like a lead balloon. Vlad didn't actually dismiss the idea, but didn't embrace it either. That doesn't bother me at all. In fact, I think Vlad would probably be receptive to at least some of what I'd like to look at. I've got a lot of respect for Vlad and he's often got some very interesting (even good!) ideas. Sergey dismissed my second point (I'd even go so far as to say he ridiculed it). Now it may be childish, but when I read Sergey's response, I just thought, "to hell with it." My second thought was that if Sergey is right -- that only about 4 percent of USOF membership supports O' as a "sport" -- it would be irresponsible to advocate for the organization to treat O' as a sport.

My mapping project will certainly be more rewarding. So, on with the mapping!

posted by Michael | 7:49 PM

0 comments


Comments: Post a Comment
March 2002April 2002May 2002June 2002July 2002August 2002September 2002October 2002November 2002December 2002January 2003February 2003March 2003April 2003May 2003June 2003July 2003August 2003September 2003October 2003November 2003December 2003January 2004February 2004March 2004April 2004May 2004June 2004July 2004August 2004September 2004October 2004November 2004December 2004January 2005February 2005March 2005April 2005May 2005June 2005July 2005August 2005September 2005October 2005November 2005December 2005January 2006February 2006March 2006April 2006May 2006June 2006July 2006August 2006September 2006October 2006November 2006December 2006January 2007February 2007March 2007April 2007May 2007June 2007July 2007August 2007September 2007October 2007November 2007December 2007January 2008February 2008March 2008April 2008May 2008June 2008July 2008August 2008September 2008October 2008November 2008December 2008January 2009February 2009March 2009April 2009May 2009June 2009July 2009August 2009September 2009October 2009November 2009December 2009January 2010February 2010March 2010April 2010May 2010June 2010July 2010August 2010September 2010October 2010November 2010December 2010January 2011February 2011March 2011April 2011May 2011June 2011July 2011August 2011September 2011October 2011November 2011December 2011January 2012February 2012March 2012April 2012May 2012June 2012July 2012August 2012September 2012October 2012November 2012December 2012January 2013March 2013April 2013May 2013July 2013September 2013
archives
links