okansas.blogspot.com
Occassional thoughts about orienteering


Tuesday, May 15, 2007

5 ideas for getting Better

 

1. Ask an unscripted question.
2. Don't complain.
3. Count something.
4. Write something.
5. Change.

These are Atul Gawande's suggestions for becoming a "positive deviant" (which is, basically, a way of saying "becoming better").

Gawande wasn't writing about orienteering, but I think his suggestions can easily be used by an ambitious orienteer. A few examples illustrate:

Ask an unscripted question. Find someone after an O' race. Don't ask - how did it go? Ask them something different. Ask about their job or studies. Ask about their family. The idea is to make a connection with the person. Listen. Learn something you didn't know before. You'll make some connections. Making those connections makes orienteering more fun.

Those kind of connections aren't going to immediately result in becoming a better orienteer. But they don't hurt and as you make more and more connections, you're more and more likely to learn and to find people you can help or who can help you.

Peter G. once told me that he often makes a point of meeting someone at every event who he has never met before.

Count something. Count how many times you train orienteering. Count how many times you run up and down a hill during training. Count how many controls you find in a year. You'll find that by counting something, you learn something.

A few years ago, I read an interview with Bjornar Vlastad where he described how many controls he'd found in the 6 months leading up to winning a WOC. I started counting controls I found in training. Two things happened. First, because I was counting, I started doing more and more O' training. Finding more and more controls sharpened my technique. Second, I learned (though this took a bit longer) how much technique work it took to get in good technique form.

Write something. After each race, write a sentence or two about each leg on the course. Write about what you did or what you saw or who you saw or how you felt. Write about what you'd do differently if you had the chance. Just write something. Write notes on the back of your map. Or write them on your training log.


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posted by Michael | 8:54 PM

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