Going to disagree with many.
Don't give White and Yellow competitors a cut-down map, just because their course only occupies a small part of it. Because when they go off their piece of map, but still see other competitors and control flags around them, it is really confusing for them. Even if they stop and ask someone, that person can't point out where they are, to let them navigate back to their last/next control. And in many places the full map will have an obvious natural boundary, so a Yellow course competitor reaching it even in error may be able to work out what they have done and return to their course.
I don't think it is necessary to enlarge the map scale for those courses. But if you do, then enlarge the control circles as well, so that on an ISOM 2017 map the control circle always covers a distance of 75m on the ground, whatever scale it is printed at. Overlapping control circles then always indicate to even White and Yellow course competitors that the next control is close by: touching circles at 75m, half-overlapping at 37.5m. They can be taught what those distances look like relative to things they understand, like their road, garden, school football pitch etc. This is a much easier way to grasp the concept of scale than interpreting the scale bar or the distance between MN lines. And just as importantly that concept of distance and closeness of controls remains exactly the same when they move on to Orange courses. If they always get 5mm circles, but on maps of differing scale from week to week, it becomes more confusing, not less.
Maps for White & Yellow competitors
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Re: Maps for White & Yellow competitors
Snail wrote:Going to disagree with many.
Don't give White and Yellow competitors a cut-down map, just because their course only occupies a small part of it.
I'm broadly with you on that although I'd always give them A4 instead of A3 if that's an option.
Snail wrote:
I don't think it is necessary to enlarge the map scale for those courses. But if you do, then enlarge the control circles as well, so that on an ISOM 2017 map the control circle always covers a distance of 75m on the ground, whatever scale it is printed at. Overlapping control circles then always indicate to even White and Yellow course competitors that the next control is close by: touching circles at 75m, half-overlapping at 37.5m. They can be taught what those distances look like relative to things they understand, like their road, garden, school football pitch etc. This is a much easier way to grasp the concept of scale than interpreting the scale bar or the distance between MN lines. And just as importantly that concept of distance and closeness of controls remains exactly the same when they move on to Orange courses. If they always get 5mm circles, but on maps of differing scale from week to week, it becomes more confusing, not less.
re the scale I tend to agree but there are some cases where its beneficial especially if the map scale cannot show the detail needed to produce a fair white course.
re the control circles disagree for various reasons - legibility of the map and I actually think you are wrong about changing the size of circles being confusing. I've orienteered for over 30 years and have never once looked at a circle during the race and used it to estimate distance from the control regardless of the scale of the map. Overlapping circles is I think an extra layer of potential confusion for new orienteers which we could do without.
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