Discussion: Let's Talk Orienteering Speaker Series

Orienteering Canada has started a series of webinar style presentations via Zoom.

Last Wednesday (April 29th), I led the first webinar. If anyone missed it and is interested the webinar was recorded and is available here.

We had over 200 people participate. We will post information about future presentations here once details are determined.

More info about the Speaker Series in general ican found here: http://www.orienteering.ca/2020/04/talkorienteerin...

Well done Jeff and Orienteering Canada. It was a really good presentation and amazing turn out.

Join us for our next Let's Talk Orienteering Speaker Series

Thursday, May 21, 2020
5 pm pacific / 8 pm eastern

We love sprint orienteering. And why you should too!
When we think of sprint orienteering in Canada, we immediately think of the Greater Vancouver Orienteering Club (GVOC), host club of the popular annual Sprint Camp. GVOC is famous for inventive sprint formats and using even the smallest of areas for fabulous orienteering, year-round. Join us for this presentation with GVOC member Graeme Rennie. Graeme will talk about the basics (and not so basics) of sprint orienteering, tips for creating basic maps, a bundle of different formats for fun training and events, and how sprint orienteering can help build your orienteering club.

Register in advance for this Zoom webinar (at no cost) at this link

A quick reminder about our sprint focused webinar coming up on Thursday at 5 pm pacific - focused on a number of topics related to sprint orienteering.

GVOC does an amazing job of mapping a wide variety of areas, even small areas and using innovative formats to do orienteering in these areas. This can be a good way to increase and/or develop orienteering in a new area/city/region without the need/expense of creating larger traditional maps.

Register in advance for this Zoom webinar (at no cost) at this link

It would be great if you could record this talk and share it via Youtube. Thanks.

Yes we will aviadfuchs.

A big thanks to Graeme Rennie for this evening's presentation on sprint orienteering.

Next up.....
Wednesday, May 27, 2020 / 10 am pacific / 1 pm eastern
National Team Athlete Panel
Ever wondered what’s it’s like to train and compete as an elite orienteer? Join us for this panel discussion with national team athletes Emma Waddington, Robbie Graham, Christian Michelsen, and Emily Kemp. Moderated by Canada’s High Performance Manager, Jeff Teutsch, the conversation will cover everything from training routines and international racing, to travel and life with COVID-19 and without a racing season. With the wide range of topics this webinar should be equally interesting for aspiring your orienteers and for seasoned veterans of the sport.

Register in advance for this Zoom webinar using this link.

Boosting this for this next panel discussion on Wednesday. I'm looking forward to hosting this one!

Is it Wednesday or Thursday?

Wednesday

Apologies for the confusion. Yes it is on Wednesday.

Edit done.

This was an excellent presentation. thanks for sharing

AJ, I'm assuming you're referring to my Map Reading Theory presentation? I'm glad you enjoyed it!

Sorry for the late notice. I forgot to post here earlier. There is a presentation coming up later today:

Tuesday June 23, 2020
5 pm pacific / 8 pm eastern
Mountain Bike & Ski Orienteering
Have you ever wanted to branch out your orienteering expertise beyond just running? Tune in to the next installment of our Let’s Talk Orienteering Speaker Series to hear all about Ski and Mountain Bike Orienteering from some of our athletes! In two short presentations, we will learn more about Ski-O from athletes Milla Tarnopolsky and Robbie Graham who have both raced at a Ski-O World Cup. We will then listen to Molly and Randy Kemp present about MTB-O and their recent international races in Denmark. These presentations and the stories that accompany them will be interesting for all orienteers, no matter your background in skiing or cycling.
Register in advance for this Zoom webinar using this link. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information to join the meeting.

The next Let's Talk Orienteering presentation is July 21st at 8 pm eastern.
We’ll be talking with some Canadian orienteering families who have several generations involved in the sport. Join Emma & Mike Waddington, Rachel, Abbi & Brian May, Jan Erik & Oivind Naess and Kerstin & Ross Burnett. This moderated chat will talk about orienteering “then and now”, share some favourite memories and talk about growing up in an orienteering family.
Register in advance (at no cost) for this Zoom meeting at this link.

Previous presentations are available here.

This is going to be a fun discussion.

If you have questions you would like us to answer/address post them here and we will try to incorporate it into the discussion.

How do you encourage your kid to get into orienteering without pushing so hard that they rebel and recoil from it?

Maybe I shouldn't answer here. Maybe I should wait to hear from the panelists. But here is my view anyway.
With Hammer and his sister, the problem was mostly the other way around. They wanted to orienteer probably more often than their parents. We were learning the sport at the same time as they were.
Early success was certainly important.
They became good friends with other children. They saw many of these friends only at orienteering races.
The experience of taking part in large weekly races in Norway certainly helped. They saw that orienteering was a sport that was done by a large number of children as well as adults. (and at the same time and location)
There was also the opportunity to travel (even without the parents).

Oh, I forgot.
It was a sport in which they were better than their parents, by far.

A reminder about our multi-generation orienteering family presentation Tuesday evening.
Register in advance for this Zoom meeting at this link.

Enjoyed the presentation very much. Thanks.
But do you have to refer to those guys like Mike and Oivind, Ross and Brian as old timers? I still think of them as child and teen star orienteers.

LOL - Gord, I hear you!

This was a lot of fun! Here is a link to the discussion.

Thanks to Orienteering Canada for organizing. And thanks to those who attended. Lots of fun, kind of like a little family get together.

I LOVED it!

One little Q...
Unless I misheard, the question about guiding one's own children toward a love of orienteering came from Boris (presumably Inara's daddy), but I did not see him on the zoom participants list. Was there a way to participate without being on the list?

EDIT: Boris asked here.

Guy: see higher up in this very thread.

Boris: duh!
Edited...

I rarely get on AP these days, though I miss my O friends and should probably make more of an effort to keep up with all of you. This thread about getting kids interested and involved is important. We were advised early on to allow/help our children make friends among other O kids. Kids are more interested in other kids than in O, it seems, at least early on. Babysitting brings them together, and doing String-O gets them engaged with the fun of O. If they can develop friendships they will enjoy seeing and playing with these kids at events. Family events like the UNO Family Camping Weekend which hosts an annual Vampire-O, are a big plus. Lots of playtime and the thrill of night orienteering with us was an event the kids looked forward to every year. When our sons, Andrew and Ethan, got to be 10 +/- years old, they began to complain about going to O events. We told them that they didn’t have to orienteer, but they did have to go because Dad and I were going and they were too young to stay home alone. That took the sense of being forced to orienteer off the table, but invariably, when they got to the event, they wanted to orienteer. That got our kids going and then we sent them to their first Junior Training Camp without us being there. They loved it. Each amp they attended got them more fired up, and when they met John Frederickson ( former Junior Tram member (from HVO?)and amazing runner) they decided to go all in and start training. I have to say that the years of our boys’ competing were the best family years of our lives. Let me add that Carl became their personal O coach for a few years and the attention they got from him was highly valued. Most of the time! Good luck.

Can I say how much I enjoyed "meeting" the 4 orienteers of my generation, and your kids. I have met one or two of you in person but I know you in a different way through Attackpoint. And I enjoy following the fortunes of the new wave. My kids are a little older than yours, but we've had the same experiences, and I've lately been enjoying a "second parenthood" helping out at a high school. I follow AP because the North American issues are much closer to ours than say the Scandinavians with runnable forests all round and a 100yr-old history.