Proper Sprint Races

[Oldman]

I did say earlier in the thread:

It would need to be a series in the same town or area to be effective, though.

so I agree with your comment.

[rob f]

So then, i have an idea. I just need to talk to someone about it.

[duncan b]

Oldman is definately on the right track. A one-off sprint race wont help much to bring new people into the sport, so a series is the best way to go. And all events would have to be in the same area.

Advetising is very important so people know the series is on, getting into the local paper would be very good but could be tricky, Posters would help as would disributing flyers through schools and clubs etc.

After getting more orienteers through city races we then need to get them coming to normal orienteering events (ie in the forest) which could be trickier.

[Oldman]

After getting more orienteers through city races we then need to get them coming to normal orienteering events (ie in the forest) which could be trickier.

Duncan B, I almost agree, but why shouldn't we just accept that for many, urban orienteering will be enough? If we can get those who participate to learn to volunteer, the events can eventually be self-sustaining, leaving it as a choice to each orienteer of whether they prefer "rural" orienteering (if I can coin that term), or urban orienteering, (or both!).

This would bring much needed new blood into our sport: does it matter whether most ever move to become rural orienteers? They may not have the financial resources to afford transport to remote locations or the inclination to spend more than an hour or two as the total end-to-end time when they go orienteering. Rural orienteers often spend four or indeed many more hours end-to-end when you consider travel.

[ifititches]

Agree with Oldman re acceptance

But would go further; I think the genie is climbing out of the bottle with potential for specialisation in O at all levels of the sport. and I don' t think the aim should necessarily be to get more people out to distant events in forests. I'd love to see how far we could take sprint and middle racing in this country in their own right. I know that the finest orienteers will always want (and be able to) do well in all these disciplines, but I bet they'd also like to be challenged to improve still further by people who are more suited to one discipline than the other and push it to its limit

Other distances have always been there for fun at local level, but the IOF development of them has opened up all kinds of possibilities, and I find that exciting, and see it as a way of keeping more people in touch with the sport as their circumstances change throughout their lives

If I was A Punter who'd found out about O through WOC, looked up the sport on the IOF website to do a bit of research, and read the descriptions of the skills needed for each event and how they differ, I'd be disappointed to find I couldn't fairly readily try them out somewhere close at hand.

Oh, and also agree with Kitch on other thread re high quality, highly competitive domestic races too, so am not a compliete nihilist (or at least, not tonight anyway)

[johnloguk]

I don't think we should worry too much about using Park Races, Sprint Races, Street-O, Urban-O (or whatever we call it) as a stepping stone to getting more people orienteering in the forests. If it happens then great, I would certainly expect it to have some effect. But we should put these events on simply because they are great in their own right.

People may well specialise in different disciplines, and there is nothing wrong with that. In fact you could argue that it is already happening, with a majority or orienteers clearly (and bizarrely in my opinion) not remotely interested in anything other than bog standard courses. Its a huge soap-box of mine, but mention score, relays, long-O or sprint orienteering to many orienteers and their eyes glaze over. Their choice and their loss, but then we supposedly live in a free country (world?).

There does seem to be a lot more variation in events in the fixture lists at the moment, including some proper looking sprint races, and this can only be a good thing. Let's hope that they are well supported, or all the effort may well be wasted.

[Oldman]

I don't think we should worry too much about using Park Races, Sprint Races, Street-O, Urban-O (or whatever we call it) as a stepping stone to getting more people orienteering in the forests. If it happens then great, I would certainly expect it to have some effect. But we should put these events on simply because they are great in their own right.
...
There does seem to be a lot more variation in events in the fixture lists at the moment, including some proper looking sprint races, and this can only be a good thing. Let's hope that they are well supported, or all the effort may well be wasted.

Johnloguk, although what you say is valid, you are, I think, missing a vital point. The idea of these new urban orienteering races is to appeal to new people who might never be interested in rural orienteering. The take-up by existing orienteers (mostly wedded, as you say, to rural cross-country of the "long" variety) is not the point. It's marketing this to a whole new group of people.

Additionally, I'd like to see Street-O, which can be challenging, requiring many navigation skills and high speed, made a more widely accepted (and promoted) discipline.

[johnloguk]

Oldman I agree totally with what you say, I just didn't express it clearly. I agree that the new sprint races are largely aimed at new people, when I talked about hoping for a good take up I meant from these new people as well as existing orienteers. I do expect some existing orienteers to give these races a go as well of course.

Sprint races are far more marketable than conventional orienteering, so they are probably our best chance to attract a totally new audience, and they are also great fun for existing orienteers too, if only they knew it!

[LukeM]

Additionally, I'd like to see Street-O, which can be challenging, requiring many navigation skills and high speed, made a more widely accepted (and promoted) discipline.

Quite right too.

Anyone in Oxford on Thursday evening might want to come along to the one that Headington Road Runners are doing then.

1 hour score event, 7.30pm start from OXSRAD in Marston Road. Old school photocopied map though, with OCAD additions.

[johnloguk]

Street-O

As a follow up to this our club's summer league came to an end recently. 3 courses featured each night, "short" for beginners and younger juniors, "technical" for experienced orienteers, and a "long" course for "runners". On the final evening the planner included some street-O for the "long" course tagged into the middle of a fairly conventional course. This went down so well that many people declared it the best event of the series, and it will definitely be repeated.

The trick seemed to be that people were orienteering (navigating) at speed through the street-O section, but it didn't feel to them like "orienteering in a forest". Some people still think that Park Races, Street-O, Sprint Races etc aren't proper orienteering (navigation), but of course if planned properly they can be as technical as most forests, partly because of the speed, but in the end they are simply great fun. And it is still "orienteering"! As others have said, bring it on

[Tatty]

During Foot and Mouth a lot of street events were put on,in SCOA and SWOA certainly, and were great fun. Very fast and furious. It's a shame that they seemed to disappear after it was all over. Had some very well planned events. Perhaps the maps are still around and can be resurrected?

[Oldman]

NGOC put on a series of summer street events every year: there are events still to come on Weds. 16 Aug, 23 Aug and 30 Aug.

[EddieH]

Just as electronic punchin revolutinised orienteering and made it much more attractive to newcomers, so the ISSOM has revolutionised urban orienteering.

Many (most?) of the street series mentioned in this discussion are on a variety of older style maps. Whilst these obviously appeal to some I think they miss a huge potential lot of newcomers. I note that during F&M street events were common but disappeared when we went back to the forest - I don't think that would have happened if the maps had been at the new specification.

Basically get the right newcomer to a great race and they are hooked - get them to something rather less and they had quite a good time.

This summer I ran 2 races on ISSOM maps, one in Croatia and one in Zermatt. They were highlights of the year and leave me wanting more. Years ago I ran many street events with Harlequins on various photocopied maps. I enjoyed these as good physical training, but they never made me want to travel to any sprint O event.

[Adventure Racer]

Exactly the point I was going to make, Eddie - it's all very well having street events, but what most clubs put on are very different to what we're interested in here. Note the use of the word "proper" in the title - the important thing is to have a high standard with ISSOM mapping and proper sprint planning. Noting that these events shouldn't be solely on the streets anyway, as it is the mix of street and park which makes them fun.

[LukeM]

Eddie : Why should my map photocopied from a download of multimap a la Mharky in another thread not be as good as an ISSOM map for newcomers? Most of them will at least have seen most of the symbols on mine.

You say get them to a great RACE and they'll be hooked. Surely they'll have a great race if they can use the map. Give total newcomers that are runners already an ISSOM map and they'll spend an awful lot of time looking at the key and not so much time actually running.

ISSOM is better than photocopies of OS maps, no question, but it is better only when you can appreciate the effort and detail on it, and use them at speed. Is there not an argument for at least exposing runners to orienteering by using simpler maps rather than giving them a full-on map straight away?

Plus there's always the issue of getting the mapping done (and at what scale?). I have no idea how to start a map really, only update them on OCAD.