How to Make Orienteering Fashionable

[SeanC]

Is this the LOG forum?

Could it be that the majority of orienteers aren't that bothered about socialising after the event and are quite happy to have a 2 second chat, munch a sandwich and go home? Maybe that's what orienteers are used to and expect, those that are put off by this (which is probably the majority of non-orienteers) have long sinced left the sport. The sport has therefore become dominated by introverts and any initiative that tries to make orienteering more sociable is therefore likely to receive a lukewarm response.

Please tell me I am wrong.

[johnloguk]

Sean you have just put my worst nightmare very succinctly

However, on a good day I know just enough people who don't fit that stereotype to make me confident that orienteering has a future.

[FromTheGrassyKnoll]

The sport has therefore become dominated by introverts and any initiative that tries to make orienteering more sociable is therefore likely to receive a lukewarm response.

Please tell me I am wrong.

You are wrong.

However, there is a limit to the amount of socialising that can be done in a field.

At some recent events our club has based the event around a warm event center with some form of food and possibly drink availability. Lots of people stay and chat.

... by way of an a-side... I think people should all wear O-suits with their club logo and their name in large letters.... I know alot of people by sight but have no idea who they are!!!

... and since this seems to be an anything goes type of topic...

... let's have more mass start races... e.g. novelty scores or one man relays... the advent of electronic punching seemed to have killed some of these off perhaps because the standard software doesn't support them.

[Riggwelter]

Is this the LOG forum?

Could it be ....
Please tell me I am wrong.

We just like long weekends in Lincolnshire.

Yes, you are wrong. The reason people don't hang around is because they are not encouraged to. So let's bang our heads together and come up with some ideas that will encourage people to stay.

A beer tent.
Handicap control collection competition - slowest runner on the day fetches the nearest kite - fastest fetches the farthest - Cool prizes - Gets things packed away.
Free space for sponsors. Get the local car dealer or whatever to come along free of charge as long as they donate some prizes.
What about attaching an Orienteering event to a village winter fete, try and get a Lake District Fell running event type vibe going.
Inflatable Sumo Wrestling. Always wanted a go at that.
Parking fee refund if you stay to the end...That'll get the tight ones.

[ifititches]

Enjoying the posts on here. Examined the issue of sharing club houses with athletics about 6 years ago, but the lease our local athletics club has would preclude it. Sad, because HOC started out originally sharing a clubhouse with athletics 30 odd years ago. i agree athletics clubhouses have a great atmosphere, but do come with huge responsibilities too, in maintenance, security etc. Our personal answer has been to join the family to the athletics club and benefit from the clubhouse, training and competitions; the icing on the cake would be for more O club members to do the same and join the training groups!

On the IOF website, the most recent edition of the newsletter has an article by a Swede about finish areas and television appeal, which says a lot similar to what's been said on here. There's also sometimes a few gems (including Graeme) in the (sporadic) Scientific journal of orienteering, For those of you interested in the popularity of the sport in Scandi, the Oct 2005 edition includes this bit of market research from Norway, quoted in a Greek article!

Strangel (1996) classifies Norwegian orienteers into five categories: (1) A large number of participants regard orienteering as recreation, fun, exercise, and as a good opportunity to be out enjoying nature. (2) The elderly participants regard the sport as the best exercise for their age. (3) Younger people regard orienteering as a tough non-family sport. (4) A further small group of older members regard the sport as an ego trip and disregard recruitment; they ignore beginners, sponsors, and spectators. The only thing that they want is to take part in their sport. (5) The last group is comprised of elite orienteers who are primarily interested in contests, mass media, financial support, and sponsors. 

Don't you just love group 4? (but at least they're small in number!)

my issue with building up a bigger orienteering base local to my home (inner/middle BIG city) is not lack of opportunities crying out to be taken, but time, and I don't see much more of that until I retire! As soon as I mention the sport, I'm offered lots of local opportunities, by people really keen to get orienteering into their organisations, which could be worked up to major orienteering developments if there are any volunteers around with time and enthusiasm. But like most of my club I already spend several hundred hours a year on voluntary activities, both within and outside sport, (and some like Mrs H, and several other HOC posters on here spend many more) so clubs have to prioritise their opportunities to stop "burn-out & drop-out" occurring

( nb I suspect it wouldn't be so difficult to to find funding to support local work around here either, but realistically it would be mostly timed at evenings and weekends, which are times when active orienteers are training or competing or just getting so see their families. I also guess a lot of posters on here. like me, do a lot of management,negotiating and advising at work all day, and don't really want to carry that over into their free time) When I retire....but heck I LOVE my work too..

[HOCOLITE]

Western Night League always have pub of the night. Very social bunch they are from lots of different clubs
Quote 'What better way to spend a Saturday evening-away from the wife, running round woods then down to a pub'

[Neil M35]

I guess I'm a fairly non-sociable orienteer so I'm not bothered about all the extra-curricular activities mentioned, but if other people like it then fine. It does strike me that the orienteering might get lost in amongst it all though - and if people don't like the orienteering they aren't going to come back, however good the apres-O entertainment is.

Actually I think developments in recent years have done a lot to improve the substance of the sport - e-punching, pre-marked maps etc - and the impression I have is that C4s (in West Yorks anyway) are getting more popular as a result. The argument about why C3s don't see the same thing has already been done.

On a related topic, we still struggle to rid ourselves of old habits. I was thinking of making a trip to Malvern for the regional at the end of the month, and the website flyer has this

EVO: Malvern is a very nice place to visit – people even come on holiday or honeymoon
here – details of EVO will be posted on the Harlequins Website

EVO???? no explanation. What could it mean? Actually I know because I read Nopesport but lots of people don't. We have enough jargon about the orienteering without jargonising the extras.

[AndyO]

Woo-hoo! some great ideas here.

Agree with comments about not knowing your opponents. My limited knowledge of runners from outside Scotland (smaller pond, so know most of the guys I might run against) is based on seeing pictures in Compasssport, or being at start when their name is called out, so name badges (in some form) would be useful.

Somebody mentioned mass starts. Another possibility - I think I recall Eddie Harwood advocating it - is to have all runners in a class in the same time-block, to encourage more head-to-head racing, and also to get that sense of excitement at the finish, because the class can be decided in a short space of time. Better than having an early start then sloping off before the race is over, then catching results on the web!

[Becks]

Oooh but then we can't have families starting together and we might have to hang around for assembly for a whole half hour and be forced to talk people and we've already driven a long way and it'll be a long day so that would be a ridiculous idea.

Ahem.

[SeanC]

Looking back at Riggwelter's post, I think most people would agree that ideas such as improving publicity, providing basic help for beginners and providing an event atmosphere where people can socialise are good ideas and would increase numbers (or rescue the sport depending on how dramatic you want to sound). Here's one observation/idea that might be relevant:

It seems to me that the sport has an excellent quality control mechanism for producing events for experienced orienteers (and excellent courses for beginners to be fair). This mechanism is the controller system and the event/mapping/planning guidelines. Skimming through these guidelines on the BOF site, there doesnt seem any mention of providing basic coaching for beginners, publicity or a sociable atmosphere. If some or all of these things were written into the guidelines, then controllers would be obliged to guide planners and organisers to produce sociable, newcomer friendly events. For example the controller might suggest to the planner/organiser:

- to move the start/finish to a nice looking assembly area
- choose a car park that is more conducive for socialising (eg next to a pub serving sunday roasts rather than on the roadside)
- more effective publicity strategies
- the right amount and type of help for beginners

This could raise some difficult problems: The extra work for controllers, planners and organisers. What you do if the guidelines weren't met? How do clubs get the extra manpower and / or money for this extra work? But at least some of Riggwelter's issues are put on the agenda for every controlled event.

Apologies if this is already in place or is being looked into, but its a forum so a place to float ideas, get feedback and learn a bit more about the sport

[The Cumbrian]

Thing is orienteering was sexy when it first arrived here from Scandinavia hence the top notch middle distance athletes who joined the fun and stayed (Chris Brasher). Mountain biking is still enjoying its time having been viewed as cool when arriving from the states. Too many people think they know exactly what orienteering is and don't view it as cool...need to reinvent with a new name. Didn't we have all our top athletes looking great at the sprint World cup(?) in London t'other year?

[freaky_phil]

SWOC were approached a while back to help out with a Healthy Living progamme to be transmitted in 2007, don't know what it's called though. The programme makers wanted a coach to make "4 unfit darts players" into Orienteers. James Clemence took up the role and has been coaching them. The programme will be filmed on 14th Oct at Cwm Lickey at a "staged" event. It should be good as Clem has a role with the Challenger World company so is used to camera crews, production teams etc, plus he has run for Wales many times and is an experienced orienteer. Will let you know the programme name and when it's due to go out.

[tim sleepless]

Is this the LOG forum?

Could it be ....
Please tell me I am wrong.

We just like long weekends in Lincolnshire.

Yes, you are wrong. The reason people don't hang around is because they are not encouraged to. So let's bang our heads together and come up with some ideas that will encourage people to stay.

Why not have a sprint event with a spectator element at the end of normal full length events. You run your normal course, have a break and a snack, then do the sprint.

Could be waved mass start or time tral.

[robertrabbit]

Just another thought.

Cross country is viewed as being unfashionable and doesn't attract mass participation, however, the Grizzly & Tough Guy to name two are often oversubscribed. What are they if not glorified cross country races ?

Adventure racing is a growing sport, mountain marathons also seem to be growing in popularity. What are these if not glorified orienteering but without the 'O' word in the name ?

Is there not a case to be made for designing a new discipline 'made for TV' or spectators along the lines perhaps of micro-o or a score event and calling it something completely different eg Field Running, Control Country (bad names). This could be a possible route into more classical distances.

[Riggwelter]

Some great ideas being bandied about here. Sorry John the thread has strayed a bit from how to make O Fashionable.

Robertrabbit makes a fair point about the Grizzly and the Tough Guy. What is special about these? OK they are a challenge, but the key thing is marketing. They are commercial events (I assume??) and as such get sold well. What we need to do is analyse what it is about the marketing of these events that attracts people. I don't think you have to look in too much detail. It's full on come and have a go if you think your hard enough stuff. It appeals to predominantly male machismo. An opportunity for blokes to show off how hard they are. We could do this for O, and include the need for a brain, but it does run the risk of losing the family element. That isn't to say that there couldn't be 3 or 4 "Hard Corienteeering" events a year that get well publicised, and appeal to the more competitive element. They could be made deliberately tough with extreme climb, marsh/water features, outrageous undergrowth etc. etc. I think they could be quite popular, fancy having a go myself actually. Perhaps a qualifier could be that at least 2 C4 Brown courses have to be completed before entry to show that you have a minimum level of fitness and navigation. Certainly a lot of publicity could be drummed up around such events.

That aside, I really like the idea of starting colour courses in time blocks so that there is more evident competition.

Neil M35 I actually tend to agree, I'm a not the most sociable of people at events, but I do try a bit. I don't think that there should be a big barn dance at the end where everyone is forced to join in, I just think we need to get people interested in hanging around and seeing what the results are. Or heaven forbid actually getting excited about who's winning etc. (If everyone had been stood around the finish on Sunday at Burbage Common, they could have been highly entertained at the sight of me running past in completely the wrong direction before having to turn around and run back past again to get where I should have been.)In some respects E punching makes it too easy to disappear and check the results on the web. (and isn't it sooooo annoying when they aren't up by 4pm on the day of the event! )

Prizes on the day, individual and club/team leagues updated on the day. Post course sprint event great idea! Handicap prizes - shouldn't be too difficult to work out - they have them in cycling events.

I also had the idea the other day of on longer courses looping back to the start/Finish area a time or two so that the assembled crowd can see how runners are performing. Maybe with split times shown as in skiing.