SOL 1

[mharky]

http://www.kokkens.fi/reitit/04_FIN5/cg ... =38&kieli=

Have a look at the courses with RR, they are as Gross described. A taped route which aint direct, so you can follow that longer taped route or maverick it straight... this is in Finland. Finland are better at orienteering than we are.

[jab]

I remember reading Juliana Grant's article and thinking that those sort of courses sounded brilliant and exactly what my kids needed. But we've certainly never seen one in the UK.

[mharky]

I did an "off the string" string course before, but aint seen them in a while

[mharky]

at the O-ringen they also have sad faces on signs if you go down the wrong path on the nippers courses

[Ben S]

I did an "off the string" string course before, but aint seen them in a while

There was one at both of the individual JK days this year.

[Tatty]

First saw them at the White Rose back in the late 80's when number one son did them. It was this that finally got him to tackle white/yellow course, or whatever the equivalent was in those days on his own

[graeme]

I think before whinging at the planner, you should have a look at the map and see if you could do any better on the area. Even without checking the facts on the ground, planning a good white course looks very challenging (assuming the zoo/carpark is OOB).

NOthing much new undere the sun ... James (by age 7) had already done the off-string, smiley faces, tapes the long way round. These latter turned out to be a bad idea (tapes and faces both led him to DQ: having navigated straight, he followed tapes back to the previous control... repeatedly. On white, he got led astray by the yellow smiley face). Once the child has some idea of what's expected, throwing different things at them is just confusing.

[quote] Quite simply if an area does not allow you to plan to the criteria for the technical difficulty, you don't provide the course. Can't think of many (any?) areas in UK where this would apply.[\quote]

So no TD5 anywhere in Southern England then? Seriously though, for SOL1 not providing a course isn't really an option (clue for why being in the title). For a bigger event you might extend the map into a TD1/2-suitable area (we may do this at Dalrulzion), but to expect a relatively new planner to refuse to do a particular course or demand a remap is asking a lot.

[EddieH]

It is really easy to criticise, but reality is never black and white. Planners have to compromise, (and clearly most planners compromise more than I do).

When planning red for the SOL at Rogie, because the terrain was so well suited to differentiating TDs, EVERY control, until it joined the Orange at the end was unique. In a smaller event I would not have done that, and as a controller I would not insist that my planner does.

One result of compromise is that orange courses are almost invariably mostly TD3, and often never exceed that.

One compromise that should not be made is to increase the TD on a single leg, there again inevitably it happens.

[Ed]

One result of compromise is that orange courses are almost invariably mostly TD3, and often never exceed that.

I assume you mean TD2 (i.e. mostly yellow) or that light greens (which should be mostly TD4) are mostly TD3. Orange courses should be mostly TD3 and should never exceed that!

[EddieH]

That is exactly what I meant - it was an unfortunate typo