Discussion: best coaching tip.

What has been the best coaching tip you have ever received or handed out?

My first ever coaching tip i received was to always orient my map to north.

Lets get a good list of tips and someone might collate them and publish them sometime.

Plan a leg 'backwards'.
Focus on Control Circle; then Atttack Point; then route.

R.T.F.M.- Read the $#% map

it never fails

Coaching.. What's that?

keep it stupid simple.

Yeah I love C.A.R!!! (control, attackpoint, route) but not too good at remembering to do that.

run around in the terrain before you go out so that your feet are wet/muddy/dusty/sandy/what ever before you even start. Saved me so many times as that way i didn't care to run right through a marsh or something to keep my bearing (before i would run around and then mess up, silly i know)

Do lots of hard work, the rest will come.

What doesn't kill you makes you stronger...

Run mass start races with people better than you.

Don't just look under your feet - try to look up and see as much as you can around you as you are moving through terrain. (PG, US junior training camp at Northfield Mountain, 1996 (?))

Have variable speeds.

Keep your eyes up, see the terrain. ( BorisGr, Jukola 2005. which apparently is recycled knowledge).

As soon as you aren't sure where you are, the best thing to do is backtrack to the point where you last knew where you were on the map (the sooner you recognize that you're lost the better). It saves so much more time than wandering around aimlessly, hoping that eventually you will match the map and the terrain up again (or just stumble on the control). It can also prevent you from wandering way of course, or even off the map! (I think this came from Pavlina Brautigam during JWOC in 2000)

Traffic light orienteering. Each leg has speed sections: green (run as fast as you can), yellow (be carefull, more map reading, expecting to hit, see, pass a feature and need some attention to the map and/or ) and red (tricky sections, approach to tricky controls, difficult terrain) sections.

When planning your route (backwards as pointed in an earlier post) figure out the transitions to the different sections on the leg. When you reach a transition lets say green/yellow slow down and be prepared to expect/do whatever the reason for the yellow section.

Taking compass bearing.( Azimuth):
1. Stop or slow down when taking the bearing to increase its precision.
2. Look further ahead on the bearing line and select a tree to run to.
3. Run as fast as you can to the tree (this is an orienteering free distance that you can run as fast as you can.)
4. Look at your bearing and select another tree.
Repeat 2 - 4.

Variation of this is when you are closing up to the chosen tree (say 10, 20 meters), look right behind the tree and choose another tree. Then just continue running full speed to the second tree. This saves the time to look at your compass bearing every time. Be carefull with that in dense forests when zigzaging to the selected tree.

Know the direciton you need to leave the control you are approaching. A look at the map and the next control direction before reacing the control saves you at least couple of seconds of standing and looking at the map at the control.

This goes along with the rule to have your plan for the next control ready before reaching the current one.

Olly
R.T.F.M.- Read the $#% map

Second that.

If you are in a yellow section of a leg make conscious effort to look at your map at short intervals. You should be running slower than you can and would like. If in red section, you better be moving with speed that you can read comfortably the map.

Use your tumb/tumb compass edge to point where you are at the moment and hold to it while you run. Next time you look, your eyes can go directly to your tumb/edge and you don't loose time relocating yourself on the map/leg your are currently running.

"Develop good habits" - it's a generic advice I received from my orienteering coach. His reasoning was - when you get tired, overheated, dehydrated, stressed, etc. and can't think clearly your subconscious takes over and subconscious starts executing whatever habits you have developed (imprinted).

Don't hit the trees, they slow you down.

Relevant from today's "quote of the day:"
Human beings, who are almost unique in having the ability to learn from the experience of others, are also remarkable for their apparent disinclination to do so.
- Douglas Adams

Never go faster than you know where you are on the map.

stop running, go orienteering :)

"Look as far as you can", by french team orienteers.


Also there was another motto for french juniors, "c'est pas la bolivie ici" (roughly "Bolivia is not here"). It's a mnemonic sentence which stands for C PA LA BO LI VI I CI:

C = Condition physique (physical shape)
PA = Point d'Attaque (attack point)
LA = Ligne d'Arrêt (catching feature)
BO = BOussole (compass)
LI = suivre les LIgnes (follow lines, or linear features)
VI = adapter sa VItesse (adapt your speed)
I = Itinéraire (route choice)
CI = Concentration Intense (intense concentration?)

Short, quintessential version: PA LA BO LI (attackpoint, stop lines, compass, linear features)

It's from the old french junior website, full of precious hints on orienteering, unfortunately only in french.

Unless it is really raining, lose the plastic map case before you start. Then fold, fold, fold your map, gently down your course.

While you're completing one leg, refold your map, with North along the two side folds, to reduce the size of the map to just the new leg. Not only does this focus your eyes on the leg itself, but gives you a sharp, easy North reference line for those using a thumb compass.

Concentrate! Concentrate! Concentrate! I never make mistakes, except when I don't follow this rule - which is often.
Mindsweeper, you must have been playing CF too much.

Careful. We don't want to learn from this.
- Bill Watterson

You can't run up a reentrant, and you can't run down a spur. (This requires some explanation, which I'm too tired to provide right now.)

is that cant or shouldnt? im sure you can run up or down them but at your own peril due to them branching off as you get further down them or up them.

I have to agree with Ricka and Acampbell

CAR (Control, Attack Point, Route) is the best piece of coaching knowledge I have received. I'm not sure where it originated but I learned it from Bob Turbyfill.

It forces me to plan each leg and stay focused. A good, easy acronym.

Never give up. No matter how many mistakes you are making, others may be making more.

due to them branching off

Precisely.

JJ - I have never heard that advise before ...it is extremely interesting. I do tend to run along, but above reentrants ...mostly to avoid debris that accumulates in them, but also to stay high where more can be seen. But when on a spur are you suggesting to just take a bearing instead of trying to follow the spur?

Clark - who gave you advise to fold a map like that? You would need really big hands to also be able to thumb where you are wouldn't you?

Bill

You can't run up a reentrant...

Hmmm... Are you are saying that running up a reentrant entails more navigational risk than running down because re-entrants present forks to those running up?

Unless it is really raining, lose the plastic map case before you start.

But be careful! An experienced orienteer did this on the Long course at the 2006 North American O Champs. The race directors waited and started to worry just a little. When I had to leave, I found her about a kilometer away walking along the road. Her map was soaking wet and missing a large triangle representing about 2/3 of the map area - turns out she'd slipped while crossing a marsh and had to bail out to a far-away road that she vaguely remembered.

The principle is that reentrants branch when you're heading up them, and spurs fork as you head down them. It's a generally safe (from an engineering perspective, one might use the term "stable") navigational move to "run down a reentrant", since you won't accidentally head down the wrong one — in fact, if you're in the wrong one, you may get funneled into the right place as you head downhill. The reentrant forms a reliable handrail. But it's not so straightforward to just head up a reentrant, as you can easily go up the wrong branch if you aren't paying close attention. The same principle applies in the opposite direction when it comes to running up and down spurs: up is okay, but down is risky. Now, if you've got a good map, adequate experience, and visibility is adequate, you can keep track of exactly where you are, and this advice is a bit less important. But when it comes to, e.g. the middle of a Rogaine, when you have a map that may not show some of the smaller features, and you can't see very far because it's dark, this concept becomes critical.

strange, I was under the impression one should do the opposite: run up reentrants and down spurs...

gives better visibility when you need it, and less risk of unnecessary climb... shouldn't make mistakes when going up reentrants in any case cos you can't run *that* fast...

Here is California we teach to run the spurs rather than the reentrants (up or down) because of the possibility of rocks, debris or steep sides. But for milder terrain JJ's tip makes navigational sense. I had never heard it.

It's good advice for those who are learning, intermediate level orienteers. And in the dark, it's often wise to revert to intermediate level techniques.

Don't try it in Australian gully/spur terrain. Here the rule is definitely up spurs, down gullies. If you follow a spur downhill downunder you could easily take the wrong one and end up 500m from where you want to be, with a deep gully between you and the correct spur.

In many Australian gullies its difficult to stay on the 'main one', as many tributaries actually look bigger than the main stream at the junction.

There is a 3rd part to the rule - through saddles. Saddles are safe - they're good things to look for when making route choices.

NB You don't have to be 'in' the gully, or 'on' the spur, so long as you can see them - that way you avoid the vegetation that often clogs gullies or the rock outcrops that often make the spur line hard going.

Run to the middle of the circle as fast as you can.
Repeat.

I agree with JJ that down reentrants and up spurs simplifies navigation, but the rule I have been taught when attacking a control is a little different.
If given an attack point choice for a control, approach it going up both on spurs and, reentrants.

Reasons: You are moving much slower going up. There is more time to look at your map and the terrain. Going up you are looking at the terrain you are approaching from a more leveled and natural angle then when going down.

If you are not where you thought you were, and recognize that you are going into denial ("it must be around here somewhere" when clearly the terrain doesn't match up), verbally say "stop", out loud, to get yourself to admit you have messed up and get on track to correcting yourself.

Unless you are looking for a cliff, I always thought that given the choice it is better to attack from above because you can see more.

in the case of the Aus Easter 3 days check the control number. check there is a flag attached to the stand and check if there is a SI unit on it.

catherineols

Watchout - if your talking on course you better go here

Thanks Catherine. I'm willing to admit I'm off-course, but I can never make myself STOP; so the verbal might work for me. But grunting "STOP" could be real disconcerting to another runner just ahead of you:).

Simplify the map Especially in granite terrain

also- don't buy cheap control discription holders which break half way through a course

keep your focus, when all those about you are losing theirs

Say what control number your at out loud when you punch. Or example if your at your control number 6 say 6 out loud to your self. Helps you keep track of what control your at so you don't skip over a leg (ex. when i skipped over my control number 9 at the 2006 US champs, might not have done that if i said that out loud)

Ah of course (re: disturbing other runners). But the few times I have had to do this, it is usually because I am in completely the wrong area and nobody is around!!

Is there a rule of thumb of when to take a longer path vs. going straight through the thick forest/ground cover? I think I've been trying to crash through too many woods and prickers.

The rule of thumb is to take the fastest route, depending on your strengths. If you run fast, a longer trail route may be faster. If you lack confidence in your navigational skills, a longer but safer route (e.g. with a strong attack point) may prove to be faster.

about the taking the map out of the mapbag: don't they often seal the mapbag so that you can't get into it without scissors or a knife? And if not, do you take it out before the last beep without looking at the map, or just let it be part of your time?

You could probably tear it open along the seam, with some combination of fingers, fingernails, and maybe teeth. But regardless, this advice makes no sense to me unless you don't sweat, you never trip and fall, you never slip in the mud and get any on you, you never get scratched or poked and bleed on your map, etc, etc.

The bag is there for a reason. If your bags never get wet, dirty, or scratched, maybe this will work for you. It would most definitely be a recipe for disaster for me, as long as the maps are printed on paper.

I recall a time when folks were experimenting with printing maps on waterproof media. I don't know what became of that, but it doesn't seem to have caught on. I don't recall now, but maybe there were other issues, like maybe waterproof wasn't mud-proof or something. I'm sure JJ or someone from the mapping cartel could tell us why waterproof media didn't catch on.

I think it's a combination of a) added expense, and b) it's not something offered at the local copy shop, where maps are increasingly printed these days. Alberta did it a few years back for the APOC week, but they bought their own laser printer to do it. I've done it myself once, for a canoe-O, using an Epson waterproof inkjet with Teslin paper, and I was quite satisfied with the outcome — I think it's the best choice for canoe-O, which has somewhat different requirements.

I never take a map out of the bag if one is provided, and often bring my own one along for minor events or trainings. I refold my map for every leg, so that I can use my thumb compass more easily. This folding tends to wear holes in the map, or erase detail along the lines if it's not in a map bag. I think it's just such an easy way to keep your map clean and safe.

I agree with Heffer, I have trained without a map bag before and there is not much left by the end of the race. If you desire to go the route of no map bag, test it by training with it in all environments, including the unfortunate ones such as falling with it. If it works for you then, use it.

About waterproof paper: there have been some in Europe recently as far as I know. In France we have Preac, a polyester paper. Some problems at first with colors and erasure along folding, but those seem to be solved. However the map has a tendency to rebound once folded. Cheaper than paper + plastic also.

But the Swiss apparently have a very good solution: it's called pretex, waterproof, no problem with folding, you can even use it at home on a laser printer with decent quality.

here in Germany there is often used pretex, it is really handy, waterproof, tearproof and easiely to fold. It costs like 10-15 cents per A4-sheet, so I think that is not much more than normal paper plus plastic bag. And you can print it with a normal laser printer in good quality.

Nevertheless I agree with Heffer. It is no problem to fold the map within the bag. And you never know if you "hit" a puddle or fall into a swamp or something. Also, if you get sweaty hands you don't ruin your map.

But to come back to the topic of the thread, a good advise is not to loose your map! Once on a race I found one in the forest and another time I spoke to a runner who had to gave up the race because he realised he lost his map and couldn't find it back. To loose your control description is also a bad idea, although the time I did it I could finish the last 15 legs without problem ;-)

everything is already said. But add this: "Train hard - win easy".