Junior Badge Scheme

[rob f]

but to kids, spot prizes and rewards are always incentives

[gross2004]

Agree with Trebor.... debate is about juniors not how us old gits feel:)

[rosalind]

How are the badge awards calculated??
It said that all 6 days of Croeso were involved in the badge scheme-but there is no news of them in the results.

[CHS]

thats one disadavantage of the badge scheme, it is only really useful if the badge times are published with the results otherwise it doesn't mean a lot.

[rocky]

i'm with the prize lobby on this one. in norway the top third in all junior (under 17) classes HAVE to get a prize, NOF rules. its not usually anything really expensive, a silly toy or something, and the kids love it, something to play with after their runs while their parents pore over maps and grumble about the hill between 5 and 6.

in the senior classes its prizes for top 1/6 and having won a couple of these in the past il say this: its not the prize that inspires the perfomance, its a reward for performing well. i'd say this even applies at races like blodslitet where the top prizes are mountain bikes and wide screen tv's!

so i think what im saying is, scrap the badge systems, and introduce cheap prizes for the kids!

[lilywhite]

Totally concur Rocky. Prizes is where it's at. Getting a round of applaus, shaking some blokes hand and picking up something - anything - means so much more to a junior, than being told that you've won a piece of cloth for being within x% of the winner at some event you did a bit ago.

Fell racing has it sorted, orienteering in Scandinavia has it sorted, British orienteering doesn't. And here we are wondering why we don't have so many juniors. Not rocket science in my opinion.

[samsonite]

i agree with rocky, especially for juniors, kids love prizes, no matter how small.
plus this is reasonably affordable.

adult classes is another matter, as the prizes need to be bigger, which is a problem in a sport with apparently no pennies.

i do however agree that to most the prize is a reward not an incentive.

i dont know if scrapping badges is necessary though, i say give them both. prize is a reward and a badge is a symbol of achievement.

it comes back to what i always keep saying which is - make the sport more like the other sports that kids do, in any way possible. this may make them pick o over another sport when they come to realise that they cant concentrate on all sports for ever.

"normalize it".

[lilywhite]

...doesn't cost too much for a prize that keeps most adults happy - alcohol!

Quite right Samsonite. I don't think the badge scheme needs scrapping. It's fine as it is. But it doesn't really need thinking about. What does need thinking about is making orienteering more attractive and like other sports and surely giving prizes at the end of a competition is one of the most fundamental things in sport.

[Becks]

The badge scheme is important for those who aren't going to be getting the prizes - yeah, get prizes, but this will only encourage the 5 or so people that tend to come in the top three. Could BOF afford to send out badges automatically for free? I'm guessing not...

And Clare's right...there's no point at all in having badge times if they're not published in results. This seems to happen less and less this days.

Multi Days is another consideration on the proposal. What do you reckon, should they have their own badge schemes like the Scottish or should they just adopt the general rules?

[Godders]

Definitely agree with prizes for juniors.

Fell running has it well sorted - I managed to "win" 6 bottles of beer yesterday despite not even running the race Big thank you to Gillian

As a junior I found the age class badges very motivational so I'd be opposed to scrapping them. One problem I've noticed though is that a large number of badge events only have a handfull of juniors running so the standard is highly variable - and I'm not convinced that planners can estimate the expected winning time accurately enough to allow a theoretical calculation instead.

[rocky]

actually as i ermember it, half the fun was looking at which evnets counted, and 'oh i got the standard there because ewan didnt turn up' and things like that. things like that seem like bigger problems that they are!

[Doug T]

to me i badge standards dont mean anything to me.i think that it is more important to take in to account what kind of run you had and what position you finished.
i also think it is better for you to aim to win your class rather than concentrating on badge timesand just achieving gold or silver.because for me at the end of the day its postions that really matter.

[awk]

Could BOF afford to send out badges automatically for free? I'm guessing not...

Gold badges were being automatically sent out to all juniors. Trouble is, Ive got badly behind on the database, as still recovering time lost with PGCE.

And Clare's right...there's no point at all in having badge times if they're not published in results. This seems to happen less and less this days.

Most organisers calculate badge times wrongly anyway. When I was up to date, a good half were wrong.

Multi Days is another consideration on the proposal. What do you reckon, should they have their own badge schemes like the Scottish or should they just adopt the general rules?

Why shouldn't they count for both? No problem using the badge scheme, and if organisers want to have their own scheme as well....it worked OK at the last Scottish six day (even though I think the points system at the Scottish should be binned).

[Stodgetta]

Speaking personally, I hated badge times as a junior. I was never anywhere near a championship standard, and gold was something I came close to once or twice. I found them demoralising. I knew there was no way I could ever be as good as those who were achieving the top standards (Rebekah Noot, Charlotte Ross etc).

I guess I was a pretty "bog-standard" junior, and there's lots like me out there now, never destined to be a junior high achiever but travelling to events and competing regularly.

I didn't let it put me off O, though, and I've achieved more as an adult by winning 21L at national events, running elite now and again and enjoying the sport than the badge scheme ever led me to believe I could.

Prizes would go to the same people event after event, too, and would be demoralising to those who never achieved. I'm not saying don't give out prizes or give acclaim to the winners - it's what they deserve, but unless the bog-standard juniors are encouraged stay in the sport there will be few seniors left to keep the sport going.

[Neil M35]

The aim of the badge scheme is that it measures improvement - if an orienteer is improving and they progress through the levels then the badge scheme will help as a motivator. If there is no improvement then the badge scheme just serves to remind people of their lack of progression - Stodgetta's complaint. Improvement depends on training, training depends on coaching and it is coaching that needs to be in place if we are going to retain juniors in the sport. Do all juniors have access to coaching and/or technical training between races?