Coach Education Day, Sat 9th December-Scottish Orienteering

Coach Education Day, Sat 9th December

A mixed group of coaches from nine clubs across Scotland gathered at Stirling University to improve their knowledge and understanding of orienteering coaching through presentations, practical work and the exchange of experiences and ideas. The sessions were led by Lynne Walker and Ross McLennan, with contributions on the Sprint O format from Andy Kitchin and Night O from Dick Carmichael.

Practical coaching exercises

The mix of coaching abilities allowed the morning session to have two separate threads, for Level 3 and above led by Lynne, and for Level 2 led by Ross. In the Level 2 thread the focus was on practical aspects of mounting a coaching session for a group of orienteers moving up from Yellow to Orange standard. Firstly, we revisited and revised preparatory work and then developed ideas for exercises that would be suited to the use of the Stirling University campus. There was consideration of safety, map quality, the nature of the group, visiting the venue, etc. as components of the preparation. There was an interesting discussion on the integration of compass and pacing work into training given that Orange courses might include short cuts across country and aiming off. It was argued that a correct understanding of the use of compass and pacing is essential, but not to place over-reliance on it at the expense of navigation by reading the features in the landscape. Even at Level 2 there are different views on how much compass work to include in coaching. In the end we all agreed that the skills must be taught but, ultimately, the individual orienteer must judge on the balance of their use. Out on the campus, exercises designed to introduce aiming off, route choice and mixed leg lengths were set up by the course participants and critically evaluated.

UK Coaching Certificate

This paragraph may not be true and is being resolved at the moment. In the afternoon we received an update on the current developments in the UK Coaching Certificate. British Orienteering is returning to its own scheme of coaching levels although they will relate to the levels within the UKCC scheme. In the meantime, the accreditation of coaches is likely to be delayed.

Sprint-O

Andy Kitchin (pictured), with the help of a presentation prepared by Murray Strain, gave a comprehensive description of Sprint O, the skills required for it and specialist training methods. The technical, physical and mental attributes required of a runner are all rather different in this form of the sport. When seconds count, the better of two equally feasible route choices is the one with fewer corners in it! Away from elite orienteering and back to Level 2/3, some of the training exercises for Sprint O, such as map memory and reading the map on the run, can be equally useful.
Download the Introduction to sprint presentation (4MB)

Night-O

Finally, Dick Carmichael gave an enthusiastic explanation of how Night O really is different, not only in the preparatory work for the event but also in the overriding importance of simplification of the navigation when out in the forest. Level 2/3 orienteering techniques come into their own in Night O. A summary of Night-O in Scotland is now available.

All-in-all, a day packed with useful information, healthy discussion and fruitful exchanges of ideas.

by Roger Scrutton.

Martin Dean’s view of the Night-O presentation

Dick Carmichael of TINTO gave a presentation on night orienteering - a branch of the sport in which he has many years experience and for which he has a great passion!

Dick commented that many orienteers regarded night O as the “ugly duckling of the O world” - exemplified by the fact that there are world championships in foot O (by day), bike O, ski O and trail O; but not in night O! He pointed out that the IOF had little, if any, information on night O on their website, but that the situation is better in Britain; where both British and Scottish Championships are held annually. He also noted that the SOA have rules and guidelines for night O.

Dick pointed out that participation in night events is low and speculated that this may be due to fear of the dark, injury worries or lack of events! He pointed out that injury worries are largely addressed by the use of a quality headlamp and suggested that whilst the initial outlay is not inconsiderable, this can be justified because they do last many years! Dick also made reference to the recent successes of the Deeside Night League and the Fight With The Night series (run by Edinburgh University) and questioned whether the time is not right for a Scotttish Night League.

He then analysed routes taken by competitors using the RouteGadget from the recent Tinto Twin Night Event at Stone Hill - an event he planned. Dick pointed out that night orienteering punished poor technique much more than in day events, required the use of attack points and compass skills; and developed route choice judgement because longer, path routes are often much faster than more direct forest routes at night. Finally, Dick outlined the opportunities night orienteering provides for coaches developing athletes technical skills. He then gave the coaches present the opportunity to put some of their night O skills into practice by running a 2.6k, 4 control course that he had laid out in the University grounds.

Photo of author Posted on 10th Dec 06
by Lynne Walker - Scottish 6-Day company Chairman

Filed under: Coaching/Training • News

Scottish Orienteering