Discussion: Important Skills

I always meant to learn to touch-type.

Yes, touch typing is handy at the moment - although it would be good to see what l have typed :)
(actually its not that bad now, but just sayin')

Instead I've been working on my touch-map-reading. For some reason esp sprint planners think everyone can read maps designed for 20-year-olds.

Its part of the challenge. If you can't read tiny print, with wishywash similar colours ,you lose. Survival of the fittest.

Not sure if you saw the 1: 15 000 version of Split Rock for the Aust Long? I found myself inferring the rock detail, because I surely couldn't actually read it on the run! Surprisingly, my guesswork mostly turned out ok...but it did feel a bit like running blind, at times.

I did see that. While l could read the large features, l couldn't read any of the fine detail around the controls and would have been completely useless. It was hard enough to read this detail on the 1:10,000 map. I was impressed by anyone that successfully got around that course.

A section of the Cootamundra map was on rockman's Service card. It seemed to entertain the orienteers for quite some time. The rogainers were quite perplexed.

"For some reason esp sprint planners think everyone can read maps designed for 20-year-olds."
This has bemused me for some years. It seems to me that the ISOM paid more attention to minimum gaps than ISSprOM, or am I missing something. Too many sprint maps are made as a scale representation of an aerial photograph, rather than making them as a topologically correct but exaggerated map of the gaps between buildings. Staircases get my particular ire.

TinyToes. I am glad to hear the service had a map theme, and that it was the Split Rocks area. Safe travels to Rockman.

Invis - staircases? I had to take my glasses off and hold the map to my nose to see the staircase features for one control at Charles Sturt.

My remarks about touch-reading are largely based on NZ. Perhaps Australia is more understanding of older orienteers. Can anyone give me the scales at which the ISOM maps for the Oceania carnival were presented, by age class? And ditto for the ISSOM or ISSprOM maps.

It varied between events. Oceania middle was 7.5k for M55A and older and W35A and older. Similar sort of arrangement for Oceania Long, except that it was W45A and older for women. As an M60 I ran 10k on the Oceania relay, the Oz Long and the mid-week granite event. I ran 4k for the Oceania Sprint and 2k for the mid week sprint. On the first weekend the print run was more important than the scale. M60 had a readable print at 10k. M65 had a much less readable print.

I think at Split Rock the 1:15 was almost more readable than the 1:10 as the printing was better. I don't think there's was a practical reason it couldn't be 1:10 for everyone.

So if 1:10 for everyone (ISOM), why not 1:2666 for everyone (sprints)? OK I jest. But at least for older orienteers.