How to keep people involved in orienteering?

[Sunlit Forres]

Every autumn our club puts on the Sandstone Trail race, which one of our members started about 30 years ago. It is purely a running race, which attracts over 200 non-orienteers, mostly from local running clubs, and shows no sign of dwindling. We recently tried to persuade those clubs to take over the organisation, but oddly enough they weren't interested

Moravian have been involved with staging the Moray Forest Runs series for years now, and while it hasn't brought many new members I have no doubt it's helped the credibility of us as a club. We actively promote them within our club as club training nights and you'll always find the Moravian Banner flying at registration - there are quite a few 'Moravian Orienteers' to be found in the results lists, although not as many as I'd like. The running community know we're there, but from talking to runners it's clear that they just aren't interested in coming orienteering because they don't quite 'get it' or don't have the map-reading confidence and simply don't think they'll get a proper run. I can well understand that and they're probably right; we underestimate just how difficult a skill orienteering is.

We as a sport are going to do something different and imaginitive if we want to attract people from an established road-running/cross-country background. That's why attracting as many youngsters as we possibly can is so fundamental to the future of our sport.

One thing we could possibly do better is to join running clubs ourselves. Far too many orienteers aren't interested in running, which is a shame, because we are supposed to be athletes, and the cameraderie that running clubs can provide is a real incentive to improve your running fitness and hence improve your orienteering performance. All running clubs have loads of 'plodders' who are in it for the social crack as much as anything else. Even if you don't think of yourself as a runner you'd probably be pleasantly surprised at how you compare to those who do!

The more orienteers we have in running clubs, the more chance to there is chat about orienteering to the sort of people we'd like to see at our events, and invite them along one day. Runners are far more likely to come with a running friend than by seeing a poster somewhere. Rather than pushing club nights/satellite clubs etc, I sometimes think that BOF would be better helping clubs to forge proper links to running clubs, and use their club nights as orienteering club nights. The orienteering cohort within a running club can always put on an orienteering-related session every so often for the running club as a whole, perhaps with orienteers pairing up with non-orienteering runners. Just like in mountain marathons it can be very enjoyable orienteering with a partner. With the growth of urban orienteering this has got to be worth trying.

[70plus]

One thing we could possibly do better is to join running clubs ourselves. Far too many orienteers aren't interested in running, which is a shame, because we are supposed to be athletes, ...

SF, you are probably right. But speaking for myself (having never been a runner at any time of my life, except for sprint distances) I took up O because I thought my navigation skills could compensate for my running failures. I can never hope to win against good opposition, but I can beat many who are faster than me. So joining a running club is of little interest - I just don't enjoy running enough.

The various contributors to this thread seem to agree that running clubs do not offer fertile ground for recruiting. How do we attract the navigators?

[DeerTick]

AP..... you were running with Stuart Easton & co... so orienteering wasn't new to you

Aah! Sammy Stock (as he was known in East Kilbride); where is he now?

AP

[DeerTick]

We as a sport are going to do something different and imaginitive if we want to attract people from an established road-running/cross-country background.

East Kilbride was a fairly healthy road/X-Country club in those days (late seventies) and a few clubmates tried orienteering, but none (including me) persevered beyond the early eighties. Why? I don't know, although I suspect travel was an issue.

As a young (then) distance runner, what would attract me to orienteering now? I think Sunlit has the right idea - as well as trying to attract runners to orienteering, orienteers should be invading running clubs, improving their own endurance, but also selling the sport. I know many do already, but there's scope for more.

AP

[AndyO]

This is an interesting thread, and the discussion has raised a number of very good points.

On the club vs BOF identity, I think that having a single card and thereby a single database of members with basic details must be more efficient all round. The card does show the club membership(s) held, so it must therefore be possible to change the design of the card to increase the profile of the club name, which may address Paul's point early in the thread. The second part of the point is the cost of membership, and that perhaps gets to a more fundamental debate. As Paul notes, clubs don't need a lot of money (even in Scotland, IMO), and can generally raise sufficient through entry fees to give them enough income. The cost of the overhead of BOF is the real issue, and I suppose the discussion centres around whether you believe that the sport needs a central administration or not. If the answer is yes, then that has to be funded somehow - whether by a flat rate "membership fee", or by a levy on entry fees, or a mixture of both. Keeping costs within reasonable boundaries will always be necessary anyway, and with decreasing external funding we will simply have to get new money into the sport or face the prospect of increasing entry fees which may reduce numbers and get us into a downward spiral. If however we think that we can do without a central administration, we then have to ask how the sport could govern itself - could it become a true Federation of clubs or of Associations? could it all be done by volunteers??

[DeerTick]

The various contributors to this thread seem to agree that running clubs do not offer fertile ground for recruiting. How do we attract the navigators?

Many of the navigators are probably already in the sport and we should be pointing them in the direction of running clubs (How about you 70plus ? ) But there is a vast reservoir of fit athletes who might get excited by orienteering if we can get them to give it a go. That certainly happened for me. I still feel that Sunlit has the right idea.

AP

[DeerTick]

This is an interesting thread, and the discussion has raised a number of very good points.

The cost of the overhead of BOF is the real issue, and I suppose the discussion centres around whether you believe that the sport needs a central administration or not. If the answer is yes, then that has to be funded somehow - whether by a flat rate "membership fee", or by a levy on entry fees, or a mixture of both.

Agreed.

We need BOF.

I have no problem with "The cost of the overhead of BOF", however it is raised. Travel is the issue for me - e.g. last weekend Argyll to Moray, about 270 miles, thirty-plus pounds on fuel alone. Two, three, four pounds to BOF isn't therefore a big deal.

AP

[AAH]

The various contributors to this thread seem to agree that running clubs do not offer fertile ground for recruiting. How do we attract the navigators?

Orienteering doesn't ever seem to promote itself with an angle. As well as the obvious outdoorsy/good exercise/learn to navigate angles, there are at least two which should be pushed to the media.

1. It is a good family sport. Whole family can go/blokes can take their kids to something interesting and outdoorsy on a Sunday.

2. It is one of the best sports there is for masters competition. Competitive and 40 plus? Try orienteering. We have 5 year age groups.

BOF marketing could try pushing it to newspaper and magazine editors when they are doing features on one of these themes. This Saturday's guardian had a bit on sport over 40 and tediously interviewed a guy who goes surfing. Articles on things to take children to are abundant.

The media aren't interested in articles on a sport they don't understand. They are interested in articles on the topics above (I think) and will probably have more journalists interested in finding things to write about for those topics than 'some other minority sport'.

Actually, while I'm at it, when being quizzed on the ever-present 'participation figures', BOF should try promoting its stats for older people doing sport. Must beat the heck out of most other genuinely physical activities.

[Sunlit Forres]

The various contributors to this thread seem to agree that running clubs do not offer fertile ground for recruiting. How do we attract the navigators?

Many of the navigators are probably already in the sport and we should be pointing them in the direction of running clubs (How about you 70plus ? ) But there is a vast reservoir of fit athletes who might get excited by orienteering if we can get them to give it a go. That certainly happened for me. I still feel that Sunlit has the right idea.

AP

It's the navigators who are the life blood of orienteering and they're the ones which are key to making clubs function. Of that I have no doubt and like Deer Tick I don't think we have a problem attracting them. But let me ask this question.

As a club chairperson, what would excite you most? - recruiting a new hill-walking W65 or hearing that the 16-year old who's just won his school 800 meters race has just joined?

I came in to orienteering as a runner who wanted a new challenge. I was terrible at first, but with help and advice from experts in the club, I soon became competent. I was taught to orienteer by runners at a running pace, but I'll never forget some of the wise words on technique from Bob Climie who was a rapidly-slowing M65 back in those days who's sadly no longer with us. Just like I did then, I still see orienteering as an athletic sport. If we want to be taken seriously as such, we need to attract athletes. We do that by getting to know them and mixing with them. If all clubs did this, the need for BOF talent identification days and the like would soon be gone.

Non-running 'navigators' can make huge contributions to bringing in new members from running clubs (or other sports clubs for that matter). A friend of mine who can't run a step due to health problems can always be found on the finish line at local races recording times. All the local runners know him. Orienteers like 70 plus can still get involved with running clubs as a social member - this can bring with it lots of opportunities to help sell orienteering.

Clubs can (and must) still cater for the "go at your own pace" recreational members through regular, small, local events. But to be a successful orienteer you've got to be fit. I think that our top clubs recognise that and it shows.

[70plus]

Many of the navigators are probably already in the sport and we should be pointing them in the direction of running clubs (How about you 70plus ? ) But there is a vast reservoir of fit athletes who might get excited by orienteering if we can get them to give it a go. That certainly happened for me. I still feel that Sunlit has the right idea.

How about me - I've already answered that one, DT. But surely we want to get runners into O, not the reverse as you suggest; and the evidence indicates that most of them aren't that interested. 'Tried it a few times, but ...'. Sadly, I suspect that we may have already attracted much of our potential clientele, and there may be no huge pool of unaware athletes eager to join up, especially if the navigators are already in.

What may separate orienteers from the runners (and other sports) is that to become competitively good, one must be a good runner and a good navigator - i.e. both physically and mentally skilled. If 10% of everyone may make good runners and 10% good navigators, that may mean only 1% can be good orienteers?

[Mrs H]

I got the wrong end of the stick with this thread - it's called how to keep people involved but it's actually more about recruitment.

It's horses for courses really - taylor the message to your market. I had a lot of success selling the sport to families as an antidote to the cotton wool culture simply by asking the question :"How do you want your children to grow up?" with the tag line "free range kids" I can't emphasise too strongly how much of a resonance this had - and I'm quite convinced if taken up in a national campaign it could do wonders for the sport. BOF have chosen not to follow that particular line - probably for fear of a health and safety back lash.

This of course is not the only way - but it did work round here while I had the energy to push it and we are still reaping the benefits. Other approaches will work better in other demographies.

Take the approach which most excites you because the enthusiasm shows through.

[70plus]

I got the wrong end of the stick with this thread - it's called how to keep people involved but it's actually more about recruitment.

I had a lot of success selling the sport to families as an antidote to the cotton wool culture simply by asking the question :"How do you want your children to grow up?" with the tag line "free range kids" I can't emphasise too strongly how much of a resonance this had - and I'm quite convinced if taken up in a national campaign it could do wonders for the sport.

The points about runners trying O without getting hooked are surely 'keeping people involved'? Youngsters are introduced to O at many schools these days, and some get keen, but only when a staff member is also keen. The perennial problem arrives when they become students. If they are still keen they may gravitate towards Sheffield or another uni with a strong O club - otherwise they may be unable to keep up the interest. That has always been the difficult transition.

[Mrs H]

Yes I agree and it's another area where I have been prompting BOF to take some action - because the actual mechanisms to keep them in at that age have been eroded at an alarming rate in the last 3 years, instead of enhanced. Scott has already made a difference in that area and I'm sure he will have plenty more ideas.

[awk]

I do agree with those who point out the potential for injury, though. My daughter, Susan, has expressed an interest, but I would be unhappy to see her have bash in the run-up to an important marathon.

Interesting perception that one. In all the years of sport and activity I've done including orienteering, road running, fell running, table tennis, cycling and hockey, I have sustained the least amount of injuries from orienteering (in spite of the fact that I have done more than any others put together), and the most from hockey, very closely followed by road running. Even at a big event, the attrition rate in terms of injuries etc. always seems very mild compared to those I've seen at road races, and as for road training..... The road and astro environments of road running and hockey are, to put it mildly, not exactly conducive to staying injury free, whilst we were designed to run/walk in the sort of environments that we come across in orienteering. The worst dangers come from training on roads etc. and only running off road at races.

[Clive Coles]

I cannot claim the same exposure to competitive sports as AWK but certainly this perception of orienteering being "dangerous" needs to be challenged. I have af course had a few knocks whilst orienteering in the form of sprains and gashes from undergrowth and branches that were lower than I judged ~ silly me : all repairable.

Ironically, my only serious injury, was a broken ankle incurred at an O event at Chartwell in Kent . I never actually made it to the start line !

We parked in the National Trust car park as snow was falling ~ I went to climb a short run of railway sleeper steps to get from one lavel of the carpark to the next and slipped over on the ice. Crack, crack, crack ~ all three bones broken.

It's really dangerous visiting National Trust properties in winter ~ Not I hasten to add the reason why I allowed my NT membership to lapse a few years back. But am still trying to orienteer (slowly) !

We mustn't allow our sport to be encapusated in cotton wool and red tape.

It's rarely the potential risks that cause injury, that's why our guidelines advocate scrutiny of course design by a controller or second experienced official. More often in my experience it is just a lapse of concentration.

Must remember to look next time I cross the road. Perhaps someone should hold my hand.