Future of Orienteering

[Kitch]

Associate orienteering with AR
that is an utterly [nope] idea.
what are we saying if we do that ?
'hi there we're orienteering and we are such a sorry excuse for a sport that we want to hang on to the coat tails of AR because it is popular and we want to be too'
[nope]ing bol[nope]s
spineless wannabees

you've really pissed me right off !

orienteering is a great sport in its own right,
see the passion of the people that use this site
see the achievements of the orienteers that compete outside of orienteering
as international fell runners as adventure racers, as cross country champions.
We can do their sports before breakfast, they can't do orienteering
The only crap thing about Orienteering is its ability to capture the imagination
thats what needs to be fixed.

Orienteers are the best navigators in the world.
I did an adventure race, billed as the 'ultimate test of endurance and survival' Afterwards they asked if thats is what it had been. My answer was it had been a test of endurance, but not of survival. Why ? becuase they completely failed to penalise navigational mistakes made by other teams.
navigation is a fundamental skill for survival -
people that get lost get dead.

[Mrs H.]

I like that passion - and of course he is utterly RIGHT - personally I would like to know what BOF spends its £850,000 annual income on - especially as our most junior competitors have to fund their own international careers - ie £500+ for the honour of representing your country at the World Schools etc - even to the tune of having to buy your own England shirt for last year's Interland and JHI - and even then they didn't arrive in time - wot a shower - something for our kids to aspire to eh? We've seen the passion - where's the pride?

[Steve O]

I think it's really important to boost the number of kids in general by getting enthuiastic people to go into schools to introduce them to the sport, ideally young people who the kids can "realte to." In fact some people from Edinburgh have expressed an interest in the past (if you still are Brooner , Rocky or anyone alse can you talk to ken Daly soon please)

But perhapswe face some obstacles in our ever increasingly over protectitive society.
I read somewhere once that a lot of parents are terrified by the prospect of letting their kids run around a forest on their own as they consider woods dangerous sinister palces where strange men hang around

[Wattok]

I have to say that i'm with schnitzy, duncan and kitchen on this one. I agree that it is all about the image and razamataz.

The current image from looking at the bof site and compassport is of people wondering around random places with a map in weird clothing. The way to go is definitely the extreme, try it if your hard enough image that schnitzy and kitchen was talking about. Its definitely true though that it is 20-30 age group going on about the whole image thing but not doing anything about it but i think there are people who are out there that are prepared to do something if asked. There are elites out there making videos of their training that will make the best want to do our sport (i heard a rumour about bj and bogle and others). A perfect example of the way to go with videos is on the PWT site (go to the nopesport links) i think thats a good start. also check out the videos on extreme channel on sky (if you have it). it shows you how other people are trying to raise the profile of their sports.

Nopesport is another good example of trying to raise the profile of orienteering and trying to move the sport with the times.

I'm a firm believer in razamataz to spice up the sport! i think all what is needed has already been said at various times on forums here (commentary, more spectator controls, radio controls, cameras on competitors) but they need to be put into practice all the time. raise the bar for all competitions. I appreciate that lots of this takes money and BOF are key in providing this but they need to put the money to these ideas and not other things. Even to put a big effort into one big event a year and make it real spectacle for all to see.

finally i think that bof need to stop worrying about all this 'can't put pictures of recognisable people' etc. because that is the future of this sport. You seem have to ask permission to cross the road these days!

The ideas are here BOF, take a chance and try them!

[Steve O]

Just a couple of quick points.

Razamataz - the more the better. We definately need some Tour de france style podium girls as well.

O-Kit - A lot of club O kit dosen't seem to have come on much in the last 10-20 years. Ultrasport, responsible for a lot of it really need to think about some new, improved materials. In fact more competition from other manufacturers would help

[brooner]

In fact more competition from other manufactures would help

it's coming... one day...

[PeterG]

I think one problem is that there's no country-wide policy for attracting new members (at least that I know of). Some clubs are putting a lot of effort in while others none. My club back home (WAOC) has done a lot recently to try and bring new junior members into the sport including a number of volunteers teaching one PE lesson a week for a term at a local private school. I'm told that this year the kids in the year below were eagerly anticipating the classes despite the fact that there was no confirmation that they would run again. The crucial element here was that it was real orienteering taught real orienteers. My secondary school dropped orienteering as an activity after a year because none of the students wanted to spend a PE lesson on compass bearings and answering general knowledge questions at each control.

As well as attracting new members to the sport its important to keep them, something that EUOC has failed to do this year despite quite a healthy intake in September. Again referencing WAOC, our summer events on parkland within local towns (Cambridge mostly) tend to attract a large number of non-orienteering familys, especially if the weather is good, but most of these people have no interest in the elite side of things or the travelling and most don't renew their membership. The people who do stay on tend to be those who get involved with the club both socially or competitively.

As has been said before, most orienteers cross over into other sports and are members of other sporting clubs. How many of these people would be prepared to run introductory sessions targeted at the members of their other clubs (i.e. concentrating on how to transfer skills from, say, fell running).

Throwing money at the issue won't help. Those who will really inspire other people to take up orienteering are those who are passionate about it themselves and, in my experience, they are prepared to do it for free beacuase they love the sport.

[pyrat]

Just a quick point:

Attracting fell runners to the sport has been tried before apparently and not to much success. They apparently are just plain thick, and cant navigate for [nope].

Q fell runners response to this...


Oh and having spent a considerable part of my life partaking in sports which are currently considered "extreme" - (snowboarding,bmx,dh-mtb) I can honestly say that orienteering is up there with the rest of them and just needs to be presented in the correct manner then I think it will flourish.

-a

[brooner]

As well as attracting new members to the sport its important to keep them, something that EUOC has failed to do this year despite quite a healthy intake in September.

yup, same problem year in year out here.
this year we went for a freshers week event (alcohol orientated shock horror) and then the following 3 weeks had a event on around edinburgh aimed mainly at beginners. The Alc-O attracted loads of folk, we had quite a few again at the next one and then fewer and fewer after that. we got maybe 10 newcomers to the first few beginners events, had 2 or 3 away to the universities training weekend and I think its fair to say we've now only got one or two regulars out of it all. It certainly seems hard to get them to come back after term 1, perhaps its because it all seems a bit too serious once the o-season starts up again in February and this puts them off.

Next (university) year there should hopefully be more help from interlopers in putting on events so it might be easier to do more weekly events (certainly should help spread the workload) and offer more opportunities to try out the sport.

I think sprint races (esp ala PWT) are a great way to introduce the basic concepts of the sport to newcomers, they are generally not the toughest technically and certainly look more of an elite sport than a wee dander out in the woods as portrayed by bof does, also the same course can be run by mr a punter as it would be by mr top orienteer

[PeterG]

Ok, fell running was just an example but I know a number of members of my running club back in Cambridge were interested in orienteering.

[Wattok]

To further a bit of what ali and peterG are going on about. Why do you think that people try such sports that ali mentioned e.g. bmx, mountain biking? Mainly due to their rejuvenated image that these are the 'in' sports to be doing. I think this is where orienteering needs to focus. If orienteering can produce this image of being a sport that people want to do not inticed or in some cases cohersed to do then it will bring people to the sport. The people that stay in the sport have an interest and desire to do it and come to the sport under their own will. If kids think of the sport in the bracket of Skating, mountain biking, bmx etc. they will join orienteering.

[PeterG]

Unfortunately, Orienteering will always be more in the realms of snowboarding than skating or bmx due to the level of organisation and amount of travel involved. You can't orienteer on street corners when you're bored.

[Wattok]

I would include snowboarding in the same category as mountain biking, skating, bmx, freestyle skiing, they are thee sports to be doing.

[Guest]

Attracting fell runners to the sport has been tried before apparently and not to much success. They apparently are just plain thick, and cant navigate for [nope].

Take Middleditch for example, hes a good fell runner, but when it comes to the trossachs hes on a par with dickalot.

[samsonite]

bmx nd skating are very different cos i could go skating or bmx riding or running right now, just outside my door (and its 2.30am) whereas i couldnt go orienteering or snowboarding etc. i think that is a big difference that has to be addressed