East Area Junior Training Success

Interlopers hosted a successful East Area Junior Training session, on a gloriously sunny Saturday afternoon at Craigmillar Castle Park in Edinburgh. The training was the first of a planned series of opportunities for juniors in the east of Scotland to get together to learn and practice new skills, and have an opportunity to meet and socialise with youngsters from different clubs.

The training was aimed at juniors from across the six East clubs that have reached orange or light green standard, and provided a good chance to develop skills in part of the park area before going off to compete in the Interlopers event later in the afternoon. Building on a successful joint training session last autumn, a group from the Erskine Stuart’s Melville Schools orienteering club, run by Rona Molloy, also participated.

The Orange groups warmed up with some compass practice going through wooded areas, before short-loop exercises designed to develop Plan-Picture-Direction thinking to help with tackling more complex legs. After a bit of pacing as warm-up, the Light Green group also worked on compass practice before undertaking some corridor loops and focusing on map contact. There seemed to be enough energy left over for some good performances at the event – a combination of spring and young legs!

Many thanks to the fantastic East club coaches – Katherine Ivory (INT) who planned and led the session, with support from Roger Scrutton (ESOC), David Robertson (ESOC), Ian Doig (KFO), Matthew Clark (KFO) and Katherine Kirk (ESOC).

The next planned training for East Area juniors will be in conjunction with the West Area SWAT squad, at Beecraigs on 8th May. Please contact your club lead coach or other committee member to find out more and sign up for the session.