a bit of a silly question, but seriously: how do I improve my nav skills?
I came to orienteering as an adult, and basically all my nav skills have been gained through 'trial and error' at the events I've attended over the last few years. I'm never going to be an elite (don't have the physique) but I want to improve my nav as it's the part of the sport I enjoy most.
I *think* what I want is technical training in technical areas. Technical areas are very few and far between in my region so I imagine that technical training will involve weekend trips further north, e.g. to the Lakes.
Does anyone know of any training events/courses which can be booked onto? I envy the training events laid on for juniors (regional squads, talent squads etc), they sound excellent from what I understand of them. But I probably need something slightly different: I'm neither junior nor talented, plus I don't have the energy of an M16(!), so tagging along on a junior squad weekend is probably not the answer.
Any suggestions?
How to improve my TD5 navigation skills?
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Re: How to improve my TD5 navigation skills?
British Army do excellent training courses, some of which are open to civilians. I think they are mostly down south though in places like Longmoor. I'm sure someone reading this can paste a link for their courses...
Scotland has the excellent National Orienteering Centre http://www.scottish-orienteering.org/na ... e-schedule
Having skimmed through the courses, they don't seem exactly what you're after, though having said that, becoming a coach, controller, planner or mapper may be good ways of improving your orienteering skills.
Scotland has the excellent National Orienteering Centre http://www.scottish-orienteering.org/na ... e-schedule
Having skimmed through the courses, they don't seem exactly what you're after, though having said that, becoming a coach, controller, planner or mapper may be good ways of improving your orienteering skills.
- SeanC
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Re: How to improve my TD5 navigation skills?
My club organised a training day recently in the Lakes with coaching by Carol McNeill. I wasn't there but but all accounts it was an enjoyable and worthwhile day and everybody learnt something. They stayed overnight and followed it up with an event the next day. Perhaps you could persuade your club to do something similar?
http://www.aire.org.uk/archive/lakes-coaching-weekend
http://www.aire.org.uk/archive/lakes-coaching-weekend
- frostbite
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Re: How to improve my TD5 navigation skills?
You could also try and find a good technical orienteer in your club and ask them to shadow you at a local event somewhere - bit of an effort but I'm pretty sure some people would be up for it. You'd learn a lot about where you're actually going wrong, rather than where you think you're going wrong
- Arnold
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Re: How to improve my TD5 navigation skills?
I would suggest you forget about racing/competing for a year and use every orienteering event you attend as a training session. First step would be to slow right down , forget about the running bit, and really take in the information on the map, leave your compass at home for the first few months, and make sure you know where you are all the time and that you have a clear plan for each route choice and how you'll attack each control at the end of the leg. Look at how you'll attack the control before you plan your route - keep it simple and choose the simplest possible way to attack each control, don't chance, don't take any risks, be 100% confident in the way you'll find each control. As soon as you become uncertain of your plan or where you are ' stop', read the map, make sure you know where you are and carry on. Long term your aim will be that once you've looked at the map and planned your route, mental images of what you've read will pop up in your head - gradually over time this will mean you won't need to look at the map so much, you can run more strongly and confidently, focus more on finding the best lines in the forest (e.g by looking up more and seeing the small runnable stretches of forest to run through), approach each control with little in the way of hesitation as you have the mental image of what's coming up already in your mind. When you make mistakes go back in the forest after the session and analyse why you made a mistake. When you can ask a better orienteer to follow you round a course/ or part of course to give you feedback. During the week work on your fitness as much as possible, including running, running in the terrain and extra o sessions if you can. The fitter you are the easier it will be to read the map.
Your aim by the end of the year is not to make any errors, and I mean no errors not even 10secs in your training sessions/events.
Your aim by the end of the year is not to make any errors, and I mean no errors not even 10secs in your training sessions/events.
- DIDSCO
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Re: How to improve my TD5 navigation skills?
You could employ a personal coach. Check your PM box.
DIDSCO's post is an excellent summary of good practice, but you'll get there a lot quicker with advice on what constitutes a good plan for each leg, training tailored to your specific needs, feedback on training, etc.
DIDSCO's post is an excellent summary of good practice, but you'll get there a lot quicker with advice on what constitutes a good plan for each leg, training tailored to your specific needs, feedback on training, etc.
To oblivion and beyond....
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Re: How to improve my TD5 navigation skills?
Thanks for the responses. All good, and things I can follow up on
I know this is good advice. I walked round every day of the Scottish 6 Days last year because I was injured, and that definitely helped improve my technique (even though I was trying to walk fast).
For me opportunities to run on good technical terrain are fairly infrequent, usually trips to distant events. When you've made the effort to get there it's hard to resist the temptation to race. But I take your point.
DIDSCO wrote:I would suggest you forget about racing/competing for a year and use every orienteering event you attend as a training session...
I know this is good advice. I walked round every day of the Scottish 6 Days last year because I was injured, and that definitely helped improve my technique (even though I was trying to walk fast).
For me opportunities to run on good technical terrain are fairly infrequent, usually trips to distant events. When you've made the effort to get there it's hard to resist the temptation to race. But I take your point.
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Re: How to improve my TD5 navigation skills?
If you've travelled a long way try to enter 2 courses - maybe a longer one first (with a very early start) then a shorter one second where you focus on reading all the map detail.
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