Indoor orienteering lessons

[gg]

Maybe some other people who run o clubs at schools can help me with some new ideas for my club. Loads of kids who are capable of getting round courses so don't need to do things like netball numbers, but its too dark to go to the woods after school, so what can I do with them either indoors or in the school grounds to keep them entertained in the middle of winter?

[Crispy]

Graham,

Have you seen this thread?

http://www.nopesport.com/forum/viewtopi ... highlight=

Chris

[Lard]

GG.

Marcus and I did a fun thing on an FVO training weekend.
Marcus mapped the lecture theatre at glenmore (in 5 mins!) with various obstacles.

We put out emit bricks by some obstacles and numbered them all on the map - like a score event.

Then we had head-to-head races where you give them a description list ie no 7 then 3, then 8 and so on.
The other person did exactly the same controls in reverse order. Fastest goes to next round.

In teh next round tehy just visited controls in a new order. The skill was reading descriptions and planning ahead whilst on the move.

Ultimately by the last round it was eyeballs out memory work.

Good fun.
Lard

[Marco Polo]

These might be a bit obvious but just in case.

Vaguely recollecting my own schooldays, I think we used to use the time to go over the weekend's courses (other peoples courses and route choices as well).

Used to play a board game, which I think was called route choice. If I could swing it, a catching features tournament might be more appropriate nowadays.

I never got to night orienteer around the school grounds, but I probably would have enjoyed doing that?

This was with a group - maximum of 10 11-14 year olds.

[gg]

Thanks for the suggestions
I had thought about making a map with benches and tables and stuff, and gaffa-taping EMIT units to the floor, then making some courses and stuff

Not sure about night orienteering - safety issues etc...

Might see about Catching Features though, like that idea

[mark2]

Another source of good ideas
http://www.britishorienteering.org.uk/documents/coach_indoor_exercises.pdf

[Domhnull Mor]

I remember last year the clubs here arranged a series of sessions at the university (access to computers in the evening) for the local juniors using Oriantica http://www.melin.nu/oriantica/ , something similar to Catching Features I think. It seemed to be pretty popular.
In previous years one of the clubs had built a papier mache terrain model, complete with trees, rocks and other features, which they then mapped. This let them see how the terrain related to the map and what contour lines meant etc.

[Roger]

Not sure about night orienteering - safety issues etc...

Our village cubs (ages 8-10) had a great time night-Oing in pairs around the primary school grounds. The ones who didn't attend the school were at a disadvantage of course, but nobody was too bothered about the times. For nearly all of them it was their first taste of orienteering.

Depends on the set-up of the school grounds, but these days most of them seem to be well-enclosed so it's hard for kids to wander off.