Low effort coaching and activities for restarting

Return to sport can mean low effort and easy to put on activities. Here are some ideas to try out for your club:

Relocation activity

• Resources – blank map of the area 
• What to do – in pairs/small groups of similar ability – take it in turns for one person to have the map and run somewhere, everyone else tucks their map away until the lead person stops. How quickly can they pinpoint where they are on the map? A variation, if in groups, is to deliberately encourage people to talk whilst on the move then have to work out how to relocate. 

Surprise Orienteering! – ( only a surprise if you don’t share the full task in advance…)

• Resources –  pairs to have blank paper, a pen/pencil and a control kite between them.
• What to do – one person runs off and places a marker somewhere out of sight. When they return – they are then asked to draw a map of where they have placed the marker for their ‘partner’. NO talking permitted! Their partner retrieves the marker using the map they are given. Although not a surprise when you repeat this, it is still good for developing skills around picturing terrain and simplifying it. A variation is that they can describe where the marker is but cannot draw anything.

Take a map for a run

• Resources –  two maps with the same course on for each pair ( this does not need to be a map of the area you are in) 
• What to do – in pairs participants ( of similar ability and fitness) head off for a run/walk in any terrain. One person looks at the course as the pair head off to run( or walk) and the other keeps the course hidden. Whilst running/walking  the person looking at the course describes the route they would take on the course between agreed two control points.  Part way between the control points, their partner looks at the map and picks up where they think they are and completes the route then this is discussed both looking at maps. Compare doing this on tracks and easy underfoot terrain versus off track terrain.

Weekly club sessions

Ideas for weekly club sessions are herehttps://www.britishorienteering.org.uk/Weekly_ClubFor beginnersVarious examples of how clubs have organised introductory sessions and beyond are here.   https://www.scottish-orienteering.org/about/club-toolkit/#toolkit-NewMembers

For intermediate and advanced

Can you build on the systematic orienteering approach? There are various variations of this including an explanation from Mark Nixon FVO ( start at 34 mins and 30 sec into the video) Better orienteering Some of the ideas above are building on the skills around this approach.