Here you can find ideas and advice for orienteers who want ideas for training and for coaches who want to improve their understanding and communication.
You can also test yourself with our Workbooks and explore more material on our Resources page.
See the list of qualified coaches that can help at events, training events, training camps and more.
We recommend moving up a level once you have a good grasp of the skills required at your current level, and have proven your ability to yourself at a recent event by remaining in control of your navigation for the whole course and arriving at the finish line confident and satisfied.
Where are you at in your orienteering adventure? Don’t kid yourself, good navigation is hard to learn, and bad habits can be harder to unlearn. OrienteeringNZ is here to help you gain skills and confidence as you work through these techniques. Get in touch with a local coach for assistance or email Gene Beveridge for more assistance.
Once you’ve learned the techniques for white, test yourself with our workbook.
Orienteering maps are like a new language. Become familiar with the common symbols and colours before starting your course. You can’t expect to remember all the symbols, but familiarising yourself with the basic colour schemes and shapes is the best place to start.
Download the legend and learn the basic symbols
Download and read the legend, but focus on the most basic symbols as in the list of beginner symbols for white below. Memorise what you can. Do the colours and symbols seem logical to you? Get used to checking the legend whenever you are unsure.
Go on a map walk
For a beginner, it may not be completely obvious what is meant by some symbols. Common areas of uncertainty could be what counts as a vehicle track versus other size tacks/paths and what is a high fence versus a normal fence. You and a friend or coach may be able to walk around the area with a map to take a took at different features to see how they are mapped.
Maps can be different scales and getting a sense of how far 100m is on the map helps you keep track of your movement.
Get familiar with the scale in the real world
Stand in a known location and look at a distinct feature more than 50 metres away. Measure the distance between 2 points on the map.
Sometimes you will see a landmark before you see its symbol or colour on the map and sometimes you will see the symbol or colour on the map before you look for the landmark. You should get used to doing both.
Practise map to ground & ground to map
Walking with the map, identify obvious nearby landmarks and find them on the map, then find a nearby symbol on the map and spot the landmark that the symbol represents. Stay interested in matching things up, even if you get confused at times, and don’t worry about moving fast. This is hard work for the brain and you will get faster the more you practise.
A compass, if used correctly, is a very reliable tool for getting the map and your body facing in the correct direction, which should be done regularly as you move through the course, especially at the start of each leg.
Practise orienting yourself with a compass
Give yourself time at the start of each leg to align the north lines on the map with the compass needle. Check that the map around you makes sense.
A good connection between the map and the surroundings can give you good information to get the map and your body facing in the correct direction, which should be done regularly as you move through the course, especially at the start of each leg.
Practise orienting yourself with the map only
Give yourself time at the start of each leg to align the map to distinct features in your surroundings like paths, fences, trees, or water troughs by rotating it until everything matches. It may be helpful to place the map on the ground or imagine being a bird looking down on the land. This is hard work for your brain and you will get faster the more you practise.
Keeping your thumb on your current location makes it easier to find where you are when you look back at the map. This will help you avoid spending time searching the page again to find which part of the map you need to pay attention too.
Practise thumbing the map
Each time you look at the map update your thumb position to where you think you are. It’s easy to forget so practise practise practise.
Between every control you will need to know what safe landmark is best to follow. These safe landmarks that you can follow from one place to another are called handrails.
Plan with handrails
At the start of each leg, read the map to find the best landmark that will take you from your current control to your next. At the end of the leg, ask yourself if you felt confident following your chosen handrail.
Knowing what you are looking for in advance helps you recognise landmarks when you see them.
Plan with checklists
At the start of each leg, make a list in your head of the things you will see on the way to your next control. When you’re ready, make your way to your next control and check off the things on your list as you pass them.
Although the checkpoint is always directly in the centre of the control circle, the control description (always printed on the map and often available separately also) gives you a bit more information on exactly what to expect.
Practise reading the control descriptions on course
At the start of each leg, read the description of the next control. Does the description make sense looking at the centre of the circle on the map?
Misspunching is when you miss a checkpoint or punch another checkpoint instead of the correct one. If you misspunch you haven’t actually completed the course, so will not get a result. This sucks, don’t allow yourself to miss a checkpoint by checking the number on each checkpoint.
Practise checking the control codes on course
Check the number on the map and on the control flag at every control. Make good habits early.
Once you’ve learned the techniques for easy sprint orienteering, test yourself with our workbook.
Orienteering maps are like a new language. Become familiar with the basic sprint symbols and colours before starting your course. You can’t expect to remember all the symbols, but familiarising yourself with the basic symbols and colours, especially the out-of-bounds and uncrossable symbols, is the best place to start.
Download and learn the basic sprint symbols
Download and read the legend, but focus on the most basic symbols as in the list of beginner symbols for easy sprint below. Memorise what you can. Do the colours and symbols seem logical to you? Get used to checking the legend whenever you are unsure.
Download and learn the out of bounds symbols
In sprint orienteering you are not allowed to enter or cross certain symbols or colours for safety, fairness or legal reasons. Make sure you know what symbols and colours you are not allowed to cross. Go through examples with a coach or look over completed courses for examples.
Go on a Map Walk
For a beginner, it may not be completely obvious what is meant by some symbols. Common areas of uncertainty could be what counts as a vehicle track versus other size tacks/paths and what is a high fence versus a normal fence. You and a friend or coach may be able to walk around the area with a map to take a took at different features to see how they are mapped.
Maps can be different scales and getting a sense of how far 100m is on the map helps you keep track of your movement.
Get familiar with the scale in the real world
Stand in a known location and look at a distinct feature more than 50 metres away. Measure the distance between 2 points on the map.
Sometimes you will see a landmark before you see its symbol or colour on the map and sometimes you will see the symbol or colour on the map before you look for the landmark. You should get used to doing both.
Practise map to ground & ground to map
Walking with the map, identify obvious nearby landmarks and find them on the map, then find a nearby symbol on the map and spot the landmark that the symbol represents. Keep repeating this cycling. Stay interested in matching things up before moving on, even if you get confused at times, and don’t worry about moving fast.
A compass, if used correctly, is a very reliable tool for getting the map and your body facing in the correct direction, which should be done regularly as you move through the course, especially at the start of each leg.
Practise orienting yourself with a compass
Give yourself time at the start of each leg to line the north lines on the map with the compass needle. Check that the map around you makes sense.
A good connection between the map and the surroundings can give you good information to get the map and your body facing in the correct direction, which should be done regularly as you move through the course, especially at the start of each leg.
Practise orienting yourself with the map only
Give yourself time at the start of each leg to align the map to distinct features in your surroundings like buildings, fields, roads or paths by rotating it until everything matches. It may be helpful to place the map on the ground or imagine being a bird looking down on the land. This is hard work for your brain and you will get faster the more you practise.
Keeping your thumb on your current location makes it easier to find where you are when you look back at the map. This will help you avoid spending time searching the page again to find which part of the map you need to pay attention too.
Practise thumbing the map
Each time you look at the map update your thumb position to where you think you are. It’s easy to forget so practise practise practise.
Knowing what you are looking for in advance helps you recognise landmarks when you see them.
Plan with checklists
At the start of each leg, make a list in your head of the things you will see on the way to your next control. When you’re ready, make your way to your next control and check off the things on your list as you pass them.
Although the checkpoint is always directly in the centre of the control circle, the control description gives you a bit more information on exactly what feature the checkpoint is on or beside.
Practise checking the control descriptions on course
At the start of each leg, read the description of the next control. Does this make sense looking at the centre of the circle on the map?
Misspunching is when you miss a checkpoint or punch another checkpoint instead of the correct one. If you misspunch you haven’t actually completed the course, so will not get a result. This sucks, don’t allow yourself to miss a control by checking the number on each checkpoint.
Practise checking the control codes on course
Check the number on the map and on the control flag at every control. Make good habits early.
Once you’ve learned the techniques for yellow, test yourself with our workbook.
Orienteering maps are like a new language. At yellow level you can stick with the same common symbols you would have become slightly familiar with at white level, but now that you have more orienteering experience you should understand these common symbols more clearly than when you first started.
Download and learn the basic symbols
Download and read the legend, but focus on the symbols for yellow in the list below. Memorise what you can. Do the colours and symbols seem logical to you? Get used to checking the legend whenever you are unsure.
Between controls you will need to choose safe landmarks such as tracks, fences, streams and forest edges to join together and follow.
Practise combining simple handrails
At the start of each leg, read the map to find the best combination of landmarks that will take you from your current control to your next. At the end of the leg, ask yourself if you felt confident following your chosen handrail.
An attack point is the closest feature to the control that you know you can find easily. Using good attack points gives you more confidence in the final 50 metres to the control.
Practise using simple attack points
Identify your attack point at the start of each leg and navigate to the attack point as if there is a control there. Then do the remaining distance from the attack point to the control.
Use your compass to help you move in the right direction, while on safe features like tracks and fences and while cutting corners for short distances.
Practise short compass bearings
Give yourself time at the start of each leg to line the north lines on the map with the compass needle and align your body in the direction of the leg line. Check that the map around you makes sense.
Recognise when it is shorter to go cross country rather than always following the safety of handrails like tracks, fences.
Practise cutting corners
From your safe handrail, decide on the best place to cut the corner and use the compass and the map to get your direction right before you leave your handrail. Not all yellow legs lend themselves to corner cutting, a courses planned for this purpose by a coach could be beneficial.
Planning what features you will be using in advance helps you make a safe plan that is best for you and gives you confidence.
Make a checklist
To simplify your job, list the handrails and the attack point before you start each leg.
Map memory
To simplify your job, list the most memorable handrails and the attack point before you start each leg.
Although the checkpoint is always directly in the centre of the control circle, the control description gives you a bit more information on exactly where the checkpoint is placed. The is the same idea as practised at white level, but the checkpoints will be a little harder at yellow level.
Practise checking the control descriptions on course
At the start of each leg, read the description of the next control. Does this make sense looking at the centre of the circle on the map?
Once you’ve learned the techniques for moderate sprint orienteering, test yourself with our workbook.
Orienteering maps are like a new language. At yellow level you can stick with the same common symbols you would have become slightly familiar with at white level, but now that you have more orienteering experience you should understand these common symbols more clearly than when you first started.
Download and learn the intermediate sprint symbols
Download and read the legend, but focus on the basic symbols as in the list of basic symbols for yellow below. Go through examples of how best to use certain features by talking to a coach or looking over completed courses if you have kept the maps.
Download and learn the out of bounds symbols.
In sprint orienteering you are not allowed to enter or cross certain symbols or colours for safety, fairness or legal reasons. Make sure you know what symbols and colours you are not allowed to cross. Go through examples with a coach or look over completed courses for examples.
Planning what features you will be using in advance helps you make a safe plan that is best for you and gives you confidence.
Simplify the map
For a section of a course, chose just one feature or a set or related features to use for navigation. You can even prepare a special map with most of the features removed to increase your focus.
Examples are:
- Paved, roads, driveways and paths
- Buildings and canopies
- Vegetation, trees, bushes, gardens
Make a checklist
To focus on what is important, list the handrails and the attack point before you start each leg.
Map memory
To simplify your job, list the most memorable handrails and the attack point before you start each leg.
Although the checkpoint is always directly in the centre of the control circle, the control description gives you a bit more information on exactly where the checkpoint is placed. The is the same idea as practised at white level, but the checkpoints will be a little harder at yellow level.
At the start of each leg, read the description of the next control. Does this make sense looking at the centre of the circle on the map?
Once you’ve learned the techniques for orange, test yourself with our workbook.
Understanding the different colours and symbols on an orienteering map and what they look like in the terrain.
Read and discuss the common symbols
Download and read the legend, but focus on the most common symbols as in the list of common symbols for orange below. Review all these symbols and then discuss the different contour shapes with a coach. Go through examples of how best to use certain features, especially contour features.
Understanding what common symbolic control descriptions mean is helpful for knowing precisely where the control is placed.
Check descriptions on course
At the start of each leg, read the description of the next control. Does this make sense looking at the centre of the circle on the map? Visualise the control placement.
Read and discuss the control descriptions
Download the file below and take a look through the official symbolic control descriptions. Can you relate them to the symbols on the map?
Once you leave the safety of major handrails like tracks and fences, a good compass bearing can help you move in the right direction through the terrain.
Practise intermediate compass bearings
Pay great attention to your compass at all times. Take the time to align your compass, your map, your body, and your eyes. Check features in the terrain to get feedback on how you’re tracking.
Getting comfortable with a thumb compass
Simplify your navigation with a compass that is designed specifically for orienteering. Most critical parts of orienteering navigation happen with the map, so a compass that keeps your attention in one place is a smart idea advantage. A compass with a stable needle is also essential for anyone how stays on the moving while navigating.
Relating the map to landforms (hills, depressions, slopes, etc) allows for confident cross-country navigation.
Go on a map walk
Go for a slow walk on a map. Notice all the distinct features around you. Spend extra time comparing the height of hills and looking at the shapes of the contours. Understanding contours is the biggest learning challenge for orange level orienteers and without this skill you will not be able to move on to red level.
To know where the control will be placed you need to convert the map into an image in your mind of how the terrain near the control will look.
Visualisation
Before navigating to the control, list all the major features close to the control and imagine what they will look like so that when you get there you will recognise it easier. You should consider the size, shape and proportions of the features to form a good mental image.
Magnification
Use a magnifying glass to have a good look at some control circles on the map. Get used to using the magnifier when it’s needed and rotating it to the side when it’s not needed.
An attack point is the closest feature to the control that you know you can find easily. Using good attack points gives you more confidence as you navigate the final step to the control.
Plan and practise with intermediate attack points
Before you start each leg, choose the best attack point and plan a route to get to the attack point before moving on to the control.
Between controls you will need to choose safe features such as ridges, slopes, streams, and vegetation changes to join together and follow.
Plan and practise with intermediate handrails
At the start of the leg, choose the best route and identify lines in terrain to run along like imaginary tracks to make navigation easy. These lines could be easy to follow like tracks or fences, or harder to follow like vegetation changes or a line of hills. When you get to the control, think about which parts of your route were safest and easiest, and which parts were slowest and riskiest.
Linearisation
Plan and simplify each leg into lines such as tracks, fences, ridges, valleys, edges of distinct areas, or a number of smaller features in a row. Follow these lines through the terrain to make navigation easier and give you confidence.
Dividing a leg into smaller sections between distinct landmarks helps you avoid big mistakes and gain confidence. These distinct landmarks are called stepping stones if they can be used to know exactly where you are.
Plan and practise with intermediate stepping stones
Choose a route and identify all possible stepping stones before you start each leg. These should be obvious or distinct features that you can navigate between confidently. If you lose contact, return to the previous stepping stone and do that section of the leg again.
A catching feature is something very obvious behind the control that can be used to relocate quickly if you overshot the control.
Plan and practise with using catching features
At the start of the leg, identify the catching feature behind your control and navigate loosely to it, before relocating on the catching feature and finding the control from there.
Aiming off is purposely aiming right or left of your target (usually the target is the control) knowing that you will hit a distinct feature to the side of the control and then know which way to turn to reach your ultimate target.
Plan and practise aiming off
At the start of the leg, identify the place where you will start your bearing from and the distinctive feature you will be aiming towards. Execute your plan.
There may be multiple ways to do a leg, each option with different challenges that should be compared before committing to one route over another.
Test and compare intermediate route choices
Do a course with interesting route choices with a partner or group to compare the speed and safety of the different options. Discuss the pros and cons of each route before and after each leg. Identify any themes that tend to lead to good or bad outcomes.
Distance judgement is about understanding the how distance on paper relates to distance in the terrain, and what that looks like in specific types of terrain.
Test and practise approximate distance judgement
From a place with a good view, identify a feature in the terrain more than 50m away and find it on the map. Measure the distance on the map and run or pace count the distance to your feature.
Relocation is how you use the terrain around you to work out where you are when you lose map contact. You’ll also need to overcome the urge to search nearby by falling back on a reliable process.
Intermediate partner relocation
To regain contact with the map and to minimise time lost you need to find an obvious and unique feature or combination of features and get high to get a better view.
Following a systematic process for each leg can help keep your brain on task and keep your priorities clear when you are tired or near other orienteers.
Common mental systems you may have heard of are:
- RACE / CARE
- DARCE
- DSK
Test different mental systems
Find a system you are interesting in trialling and repeat that system for each leg and review at the end of the course whether you felt more or less confident. Use local races to try new systems in a race context.
Once you’ve learned the techniques for moderate sprint orienteering, test yourself with our workbook.
Understanding the different colours and symbols on an orienteering map and what they look like in the terrain.
Read and discuss all of the symbols
Cover all the symbols in the legend by naming them, describing what you might expect to see in the terrain and go through examples of how best to use them.
Download and learn the out of bounds symbols.
In sprint orienteering you are not allowed to enter or cross certain symbols or colours for safety, fairness or legal reasons. Make sure you know what symbols and colours you are not allowed to cross. Go through examples with a coach or look over completed courses for examples.
Understanding what common symbolic control descriptions mean is helpful for knowing precisely where the control is placed.
Check descriptions on course
At the start of each leg, read the description of the next control. Does this make sense looking at the centre of the circle on the map? Visualise the control placement. Get used to checking the control placement column in critical situations like a control on one side of an uncrossable wall.
Read and discuss the control descriptions
Download the file below and take a look through the official symbolic control descriptions. Can you relate them to the symbols on the map?
To know where the control will be placed you need to convert the map into an image in your mind of how the terrain near the control will look. This is especially important when there are out of bounds and uncrossable features near the control.
Visualisation
Before navigating to the control, list all the features close to the control and imagine what they will look like so that when you get there you will recognise it easier. You should consider the size, shape and proportions of the features to form a good mental image.
Experiment with magnifiers
Use a magnifying glass to have a good look at some control circles on the map. Get used to using the magnifier when it’s needed and rotating it to the side when it’s not needed.
Finding reliable attack points, handrails and stepping stones is not a major challenge in sprint orienteering. Instead, most navigation errors come from missing a critical decision point or misreading critical details on the map when having to make too many decisions in a short period of time. Therefor, we must have a way of planning thoroughly, even when you don’t feel like you are going to get lost.
Map memory
To simplify your job, list the most memorable handrails and the attack point before you start each leg.
Find your speed limit
Start slowly on a well set sprint course that forces you to make critical decisions to avoid long routes or traps. Get into a focused routine where you can completely plan a leg before arriving at the previous control. Increase your speed if you can without taking risks and stay committed to planning ahead.
Planning legs backwards
If you plan a leg backwards, the exit direction will be the last thing you plan, and so you will know your plan is complete in before you leave the control. Complete a sprint course planning legs backwards and ideally planning them in advance enough that you have finished planning before you get to the start of the leg. This might feel worse at first, but it’s great practise event if you don’t chose to plan backwards in a race.
The attention you place on planning ahead will detract from more immediate navigation, so must be done as efficiently as possible. To aid this, we can improve our brains processing speed and we can also reduce the amount of decisions that we need to make.
Forced Simplification
For a section of a course, chose just one feature or a set or related features to use for navigation. You can even prepare a special map with most of the features removed to increase your focus.
Examples are:
- Paved, roads, driveways and paths
- Buildings and canopies
- Vegetation, trees, bushes, gardens
Progression run
Start a course slowly with thorough navigation and gradually speed up as you go. As you go faster you’ll have to practise processing information faster and disregarding non-critical information on the map. The progression will also help you find your limit, which can guide your risk tolerance when racing.
O-intervals
Short courses with breaks in between enable you to keep your speed high and so you will have to process information faster and disregarding non-critical information. Also, each time you start, you’ll not have any routes planned so will have to navigate even faster to build up a buffer each time.
Practise strategic themes
A challenging sprint orienteering leg will have routes with a mix of desirable and undesirable characteristic and it can be overwhelming to comprehensively access each route of every leg. For an entire course, chose all route that optimise for one theme, like smooth running, less detail, or avoiding narrow passages.
O-intervals with lead in
Set up O-intervals with an obvious way to run 400m very hard before hitting the start triangle. You should be struggling to maintain your speed when you start navigating and will have to have an entrenched, but simple process in order to navigate smoothly.
Review past courses
Improve you brains processing speed and pattern recognition by reviewing old race maps. These can be races that you have run or maps you have never seen before. Repetition is key to training the brain.
There may be multiple ways to do a leg, each option with different considerations that should be compared before committing to one route over another.
Test and compare route choices with a partner
Do a course with interesting route choices with a partner or group to compare the speed and reliability of the different options. Discuss the pros and cons of each route before and after each leg. Identify any themes that tend to lead to good or bad outcomes.
Practise strategic themes
A challenging sprint orienteering leg will have routes with a mix of desirable and undesirable characteristic and it can be overwhelming to comprehensively access each route of every leg. For an entire course, chose all route that optimise for one theme, like smooth running, less detail, or avoiding narrow passages.
Set sprint courses
Good sprint courses are created by a systematic process of placing controls in order to force the orienteer to plan thoughtful routes between controls. Set sprint courses to put yourself on the side of course planner and sharpen your awareness of the challenge(s) that each leg is centred around while disregarding the details that only clutter the picture.
Taking advantage of areas of easy navigation to plan challenging route choices or take a closer look at narrow gaps or uncrossable features later on in the course is a worthwhile use of attention.
Extra planning
Set a course much longer than you intend to complete and try to plan ahead as you orienteer. You will have to thoughtfully manage switching your attention between your immediate navigation and planning ahead and additionally take advantage of areas of easy navigation to make big inroads into the planning.
Safe zones
Review a course before starting it and circle or highlight places where there is a low risk of making navigation errors. You may have to plan some routes to do this, but try to keep planning to a minimum and do not look at the control circles. Run the course and ensure that whenever you are in these safe zones you are planning ahead.
Forked Barriers
Mass start a specially prepared course with a group who run at a similar speed to you. The course should use artificial barriers to force runners into one route choice over others. The catch is that, like a relay, there are different courses, only it’s the artificial barriers that are different between courses and the controls are all the same. This works best in areas that already have a lots of natural barriers.
Relocation is how you use the terrain around you to work out where you are when you lose map contact. There is a lot of strategy here that can help you overcome emotional decision making.
Partner relocation
To regain contact with the map and to minimise time lost you need to find an obvious and unique feature or combination of features and get away from buildings and detailed areas to get a better view.
Following a systematic process for each leg can help keep your brain on task and keep your priorities clear when you are tired or near other orienteers.
Common mental systems you may have heard of are:
- RACE / CARE
- DARCE
- DSK
Test different mental systems
Find a system you are interesting in trialling and repeat that system for each leg and review at the end of the course whether you felt more or less confident. Use local races to try new systems in a race context.
Once you’ve learned the techniques for red, test yourself with our workbook.
Understanding all the different colours and symbols on an orienteering map and what they look like in terrain
Read the full legend
Download and read the complete legend and then discuss the different contour shapes with a coach. Go through examples of how best to use certain features, especially contour features.
See the official ISOM 2017-2 document here.
Understanding what all symbolic control descriptions mean is helpful for knowing precisely where the flag is placed.
Check descriptions on course
At the start of each leg, read the description of the next control. Does this make sense looking at the centre of the circle on the map? Visualise the control placement.
Learn from rules
Go through the complete IOF document of symbolic control descriptions. Name and visualise all of them.
Relating the map to landforms (hills, depressions, slopes, etc) allows for confident cross-country navigation.
Go on a map walk
Go for a slow walk on a detailed map. Compare the height of hills and look at the precise shape of the contours and formlines.
Control picking
Develop a clear mental image of all the contour features, how they relate to each other and how you will flow through them. You should flow though control sites just as you flow through the rest of the leg.
Holding a straight line is essential for navigating confidently in both detailed and vague terrain.
Practise advanced compass bearings
Pay great attention to your compass at all times. Take the time to align your compass, your map, your body, and your eyes.
Bubble controls
Pay great attention to your compass at all times. Take the time to align your compass, your map, your body, and your eyes. Identify key features in the bubble and spot them as early as possible.
White out
Pay great attention to your compass at all times. Take the time to align your compass, your map, your body, and your eyes. Identify key features on the other side of the white out as early as possible.
Exiting
Align your map to the next leg and see your exit before you punch the control.
On the line
Keep moving yourself back onto the line by using firstly your compass, secondly by aiming for the features ahead of you, and thirdly by referencing your position from the features beside you.
Curved line
Stay on the line by knowing exactly what feature you are heading for next and what should be either side of you as you move along the line.
To maintain high confidence and speed you need to select visible and unique stepping stones and handrails.
Instructional
Identify the most visually unique features and instruct your partner on what to look for. Guide them around the course by relating their movement to key features they can see. You must stay behind them and cannot point to features or tell them which direction to more. Swap roles every 2 controls.
Out of bounds
Plan your route through the out of bounds areas by identifying places where there is a risk of accidentally touching an out of bounds area. Identify highly reliable features to help you avoid touching an out of bounds area.
Inverse corridor / referencing
Look as far as you can to check your position relative to features either side of you. Adjust to the left or right to stay on the line.
Rapid redraw
Draw the map for your partner with 3 colours in 3 minutes. Make the navigation easy by identifying key stepping stones and handrails.
To flow through a control with high confidence you will need a distinct and unique attack point to guide you in.
Practise using attack points
Before you start each leg, choose the best attack point and plan a route to get to the attack point before moving on to the control.
Traffic lights
Identify an attack point before you start each leg and navigate a full speed to this points before slowing down and doing the final section into the control very precisely.
Having an accurately calibrated sense of distance is crucial to navigating confidently in detailed and vague terrain.
White out
Pay attention to your direction and the distance covered to know when you should be arriving in the control circle.
Relocation is how you use the terrain around you to work out where you are when you lose map contact. There is a lot of strategy here that can help you overcome emotional decision making.
Advanced partner relocation
A partner will take your map off you and take you to somewhere within 250m of your control, ideally at high speed, before giving you your map back. Relocate and find your control by getting high and/or find distinct features to help. Get used to getting to the most distinct or high feature you can see as fast as possible before spending much time reading the map.
Identifying the key features you need to get to the next control and using them to navigate rather than reading every feature along the way prevents you from getting overwhelmed in detailed areas.
O-intervals
Focus on just the most important features (and maintaining direction) and read the map with urgency. Think of it as a navigation interval.
Tennis match
This is a kind of O-Interval with a partner. Run fast and read the map with urgency by focusing on just the most important features and maintaining direction.
Pressure start
By starting close together in high speed training (less than 1 minute apart) there is extreme demand on the orienteers ability to stay focused on simplifying navigation. It’s important to practise getting more confidence from the map (as opposed to more wishful thinking) as the best response to stress.
Rapid redraw
Draw the map for your partner with 3 colours in 3 minutes. Make the navigation easy by identifying key stepping stones and handrails.
To know precisely where the control will be placed you need to convert the map into an image in your mind of how the terrain in the control circle will look.
Control picking
Develop a clear mental image of stepping stones and handrails, how they relate to each other and how you will flow through them. You should flow though control sites just as you flow through the rest of the leg.
Without a good plan is it easy to react to surprises in the terrain by making features fit the map even when you are in the wrong place. Losing confidence also commonly causes orienteers to slow down, even if going too fast wasn’t the cause of the low confidence.
Short leg planning
Before you get to each group of controls you must have planned every detail of your route through them. Take the longer legs at an easy pace and lift intensity through the controls if you can. Prior planning is not be used as memory, instead it is to identify the key features in advance and to increase familiarity during execution.
Traffic lights
Identify risks before you start each leg and plan how you will manage your physical and technical intensities to maximise confidence and reduce the chance of losing control. Find opportunities to run fast when navigation is safe and focus on precise navigation when there are risks.
Long leg planning
Use the short leg to plan the long leg. Be disciplined and take the short leg slowly if you need the time to plan ahead. You must have the whole long leg planned before you finish the short leg.
Extra planning
Set a course much longer than you intend to complete and try to plan ahead as you orienteer. You will have to thoughtfully manage switching your attention between your immediate navigation and planning ahead and additionally take advantage of areas of easy navigation to make big inroads into the planning.
Safe zones
Review a course before starting it and circle or highlight places where there is a low risk of making navigation errors. You may have to plan some routes to do this, but try to keep planning to a minimum and do not look at the control circles. Run the course and ensure that whenever you are in these safe zones you are planning ahead.
Following a systematic process for each leg can help keep your brain on task and keep your priorities clear when you are tired or near other orienteers.
Common mental systems you may have heard of are:
- RACE / CARE
- DARCE
- DSK
Test different mental systems
Find a system you are interesting in trialling and repeat that system for each leg and review at the end of the course whether you felt more or less confident. Use local races to try new systems in a race context.
The fastest route for one orienteer, may not be the fastest route for you. Also, the potentially fastest route may not be the route that is fastest on average because making mistakes can be very costly. Understanding the considerations and how to balance them will help you make smart route choice decisions.
Set courses
Good route choices are created by a systematic process of placing controls in order to force the orienteer to plan thoughtful routes between controls. Set courses with interesting routes choice options to put yourself on the side of course planner and sharpen your awareness of the challenge(s) that each leg is centred around while disregarding the details that only clutter the picture.
Know your strengths and weaknesses
Write down or discuss with friends or a coach which of the following are your strongest and weakest attributes. This is is not exhaustive, just an example of some factors that may influence route choice decisions.
| Physical | Technical | Mental & emotional |
|---|---|---|
| Speed on hard surface | Compass bearings | Excitement control |
| Speed on trials | Detailed contour interpretation | Concentration when near others |
| Speed in terrain | Height judgement on slopes | Resilience to negative thoughts |
| Endurance | Experience in similar terrain types | Ability to refocus after a mistake |
| Comfort on steep decents | Familiarity with local mapping style | Experience in high pressure situations |
The ONZ Coaching Framework outlines the expected skills and qualification requirements for the 4 different coaching roles.
Foundation, Development and Advanced Coaches work for clubs, while High Performance Coaches work for representative teams and High Performance squads. All 4 roles are important to the operation of clubs and ONZ and it is essential that those who like coaching find the right role(s) for them.
FAQ
Do I need to progress through the levels sequentially?
No, as a potential coach we want you to decide which qualification is best for you based on your orienteering skills and coaching competencies. The qualifications are not levels of superiority. Read the job descriptions and have a think about how you’d like to contribute. You should apply for multiple qualifications separately if you are likely to be in multiple roles.
I’m a skilled orienteering coach already, what is the benefit of me being qualified?
Firstly, it’s important to Orienteering NZ that new and seasoned orienteers are treated equally when applying for a coaching qualification. Secondly, Many of the qualification requirements are about communication style and consistency with the online resources. Getting qualified is not about testing your knowledge of orienteering, it is about understanding our recommended approach to communicating to all orienteers, especially newcomers, and supporting other coaches and the broader system.
For information on the Coaching Framework and how to use it, or to provide feedback, please email Gene Beveridge.
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