orienteering in the olympics?

[BenM]

Arnold, Angry Haggis and mharky. Those changes really need to happen, don't think I've ever described Orienteering to anyone whilst actually using Orienteering vocab such as control.

And how I wish BOK could officially become Bristol Orienteering, or even just drop the Klubb bit at the end... I can but dream...

[Tatty]

Klubb was used to try and copy clubs in Scandinavia

[charles2]

Disposable RFID timing strips can be produced cheaply these days, a few pence each. It's the hardware to read them and software which costs the money. I help organise a local 10k race we have over 1000 entrants and this type of chip timing adds approx £1 to the entry fee.
Disposable timing strips are also used extensively in cycle sportives (they stick on the helmet).
Only really suitable for events that have only a few timing points (e.g. start/finish and maybe halfway) due to the cost of the equipment to read the timing strips.

Back to the Olympics ... I read yesterday that the UCI are trying to get cyclocross included in the winter olympics.

[mharky]

University clubs suffer from it the most. I'm sure everyone has heard of ShUOC, but SUOC probably not so much. If the Scottish universities keep growing we'll need to have StAUOC, StUOC, StrUOC, SRUCUOC...

[roadrunner]

University clubs suffer from it the most. I'm sure everyone has heard of ShUOC, but SUOC probably not so much. If the Scottish universities keep growing we'll need to have StAUOC, StUOC, StrUOC, SRUCUOC...

Agreed (and I've got ShUOC and SUOC mixed up myself in the past). Why not do as running clubs often do, and abbreviate just the common bits, e.g. my club Reading Roadrunners appears in ranking lists as Reading RR. You could then have Sheffield Uni OC, Bristol OK, etc, though Berkshire Orienteers would look a bit odd as Berkshire O, and as for the more unusual names (Happy Herts, Octavian Droobers, South London Orienteers and Wayfarers) ...

[Tim]

It is noticeable that many clubs with quaint names from the past go by more standard names now:
SLOW is now South London Orienteers - the Wayfarers appear to have gone the way of Wayfarers courses - into the history books
MV has dropped "Map and Compass Foot Racing Society" and replaced it with more comprehensible if duller "Orienteering Club"
HH are "Hertfordshire Orienteering Club" on their website

But there's always one isn't there - Octavian Droobers stick doggedly to a name that requires a public school education (in a particular school) and a classics degree to immediately understand.

[roadrunner]

The most confusing thing of all (for a newcomer) is surely the way we name the different courses: White, Yellow, Light Green, Short Brown etc. It isn't even standardised internationally, as I discovered some years ago when I went to Sweden and was trying to explain to another orienteer what course I usually ran.

[Tim]

Whoever originally came up with the colours must have been into martial arts, as the belts in various disciplines following similar lines.

[SeanC]

I don't think the colours need be so confusing*. Many clubs guide newcomers, so people think OK I'm a beginner so I should do yellow/orange etc. Eg how Saxons have done it for tomorrows event at Trosley on their flier.

Course A (Blue) 5.2km Technical for experienced orienteers
Course B (Lt Green) 3.8km Intermediate and less physical
Course C (Orange) 2.7km Simpler for beginners and improvers
Course D (Yellow) 1.7km Younger beginners

The most confusing thing is the map. BOF are definately on the right lines by providing simplified maps for their Xplorer thingy events. Re the discussion on the other threads about map scale, we could do with as much energy expended on providing simplified maps for the less technical courses, stripping out the unnecessary detail. Maybe one day there will be an ISOwhatever standard for less technical orienteering, and some one click feature on mapping software to turn complex orienteering maps into simpler versions?

Anyway, looking on the bright side, things aint all doom and gloom. Just found out Kent Night Cup average attendance this year is 33, 5 more than last year.

* although the colour coded system doesn't suit many adult newcomers and occasional orienteers.

[Karen]

Meanwhile, back with the Olympics, the UCI (cycling) is floating the idea that some indoor sports, such as track cycling, could be transferred to the winter Olympics. The main track season for cycling is in the winter anyway, but don't know how the swimmers and badminton players would like the idea?
This would free up the schedules in the summer Olympics for more sports like orienteering.

[distracted]

Orienteering jargon is a particular problem for flyers... The language is often (unintentionally) unwelcoming, confusing, intimidating (to the newbie).

I think the problem is that organisers are generally experienced orienteers and find it hard to write something brief that make sense to newcomers. I think it's hard to get right.

There's too much information on the typical orienteering "flyer" for it to be an effective advertising/marketing tool. Get the key information in - date, time, location, website. And make the thing look good - colour, photos etc - not just a load of text. And none of this "Level C Ranking Event" - there's no need for jargon on a flyer in the first place.

If the experienced want to find out who the officials are, what the map scale is, whether there will be traders there, how many timed-out road crossings there are... - go to the club website, where it will be hidden away somewhere that newcomers shouldn't see it!