JWOC Trial Planner's Report

Bryan Posted: 10 February 2009, 2:26 AM   JWOC Trial Hapua Wetlands Middle Distance 8th Feb 2008 ----------------- Winterless Warm Weather Wairarapa Waitangi Weekend Waterless Wetlands Wonderland Now I've got all those W's out of the way (W9 or W3 * 3) I can comment more traditionally. Thanks to Dick for his great help - more than one checking is always required to stop any error from occurring - and there are endless ways an error can occur in an Orienteering event. It is always a relief when the first finishers on a course come in and report that all is ok. Courses were long for a middle distance event - the selectors asked for a little bit longer for the juniors but I think it ended up being about 5 minutes too long - due to the blisteringly hot day (probably 33-36 degrees) and the physical hills and bush. Luckily there was a breeze. At Easter at the nationals, the top course did 5km in 30minutes but did not have to do much running in the bush and had less climb. Sorry about some electric fences being on - I tried to get the farmer to turn them off but he did not turn of the solar-powered ones. I did hear many positive comments and I thank you for all for them. One selector mentioned that it was a good trial - about the best we could do to simulate Italy conditions. However, you can't please everyone all of the time. I'm a glutton for punishment and I waited at the finish when some elites finished - it's interesting to hear the off-the-cuff comments which you have to take with a grain of salt at times - the acerbity of the comments is directly related to how well someone has run. These were some that I heard in the space of a minute by two top elites (who obviously knew I was the planner and that I could overhear them): - 'course was unfair' (this must be one of the foulest words that could be said about a course to a course planner) - 'I contoured round from the clearing and ended up way too low' - intimating the map was wrong - a cliff should never have been mapped - a control under a cliff was in the wrong place. - a watercourse did not extend all the way to a stream. Fascinating, how we can race around a course and work out with a great deal of assurance that the map is wrong or the planner is wrong. To you the reader, I ask, how often do you run on a course and blame the course planner, mapper, weather etc when something goes wrong? Do you presume innocence or automatically assume something or someone else other than yourself is guilty? My point here is that if you do this often, you are doing yourself a disservice - I always try to assume that it was my own navigation skills at fault and not anything else. It was me that caused the error and noone else and I have to try to get better at reading the map and interpreting the mapper and planner. If I don't do this, I won't improve - remember that the best Orienteers always seem to come out on top no matter what the map. The arrogance of some elites at times is galling. One other elite at the finish said (as a course planner and mapper himself) that I should not have been there but I'm a little mashochistic and I think there are lessons to be learnt from constructive and destructive criticisms at times. To refute the allegations / innuendo / intimations above: - I mapped and planned the event and have done so for many years - I'm always trying to make a course fair - but it is the nature of generalisation and subjectiveness of mapping that will always cause some debate. - Picking up the controls, I also ran the same route (for about the third time) and saw that the sheep tracks were leading slightly downwards and that if I followed the contour rigidly (a much slower route) I would hit the control. I can see little wrong with both the route and the mapping around the control. - Cliffs are so subjective - some in the gullies I marked as passable and in the extreme dry they may be more easily crossible but when I mapped them they were slippery and a hazard. Others were marked where I thought it was dangerous. Obviously some elites are supermen. - The control under the cliff was fine and in the right place - I rechecked everything again (for the nth time) when picking up the controls. - the watercourse problem is a matter of intepretation and mapping stlye - I use the dry ditch / watercourse feature to make the map clearer and easier to read - blue is easier to see than a small brown reentrant and quite often I extend it all the way to where the reentrant meets the main gully. The sad part of it is, those elites will probably not see my point of view. Ah, that's life and Orienteering. I thought I would just share some insight into the world of a planner and what we have to deal with - pretty normal for all the events I've planned - mostly positive but always some negative. The life of an administrator is rough at times and we have to be thick skinned. From my observations of the selectors at the event they had to deal with all sorts of almost litigious comments and with people pontificating to them. Theirs is a thankless task. Be easy on us administrators but if not please be careful what you say - we are human and we are trying our best. And to the person who took it upon himself to move a control thinking it was on the wrong side of a knoll - I know you were well meaning but the correct procedure is if you think there is an error on a course to come to the finish and report it. In this instance, the person had to go back to replace the control on the right side again, and luckily no harm was done. I've exported some maps which show the course routes I saw when planning - Hapua is a great area for providing good route choice: (Included on the web pages is this report and also a copy of the report about the real reason why I planned this event - the Winter Classic 2008 event where I was inspired by the committment of juniors and their parents to Orienteering) http://www.orienteeringresults.com/O/nzof/maps.htm On a happy note, I thought I would sign off with some words of wisdom which are poignant for Orienteering from Jason Mraz's song: 'But I won't hesitate, no more, no more, it cannot wait, I'm yours' (how to spike a control) 'Look into your heart and you'll find the sky is yours' (an Orienteering heart) 'We're just one big family' (Orienteering family of course) Bryan Teahan, Planner's Report, Hapua JWOC trial, Middle Distance, Feb 8th, 2009.   mark Posted: 10 February 2009, 3:55 AM   Isnt it a little bit paranoid to think that someone is criticizing the map when they say they ended up too low after contouring?   Jenni Posted: 10 February 2009, 3:59 AM   I was logging on to echo Carsten's thanks and comments about the great weekend of orienteering (I pretty much always agree with the mysterious Danish anyway but thought there can never be too much thanks!) I'll put the thanks here in this thread now instead. Thanks to all involved in the three days - I thought all the courses were fun and challenging with lots to think about with mircro and macro route choice. A good lesson learned on Saturday is bite the bullet and take the routes over the top if they're going to make it easier navigating and running! It's great to see the depth in our junior orienteering at the moment and the young elites like Lizzie. I hope they all have the determination to do the training that, combined with their talent, will bring some top international results. It's really good to have events with lots of competition which will give them the race practice to get ready to compete overseas. So again thanks to the organizers for putting on some extra events, that they hadn't really planned on doing, to help our juniors (and some olides too) on their way to greatness. I'm sorry to hear that Bryan got to hear some people complaining. I guess there's hardly any event where someone doesn't find something wrong (even when it isn't wrong) but it would be much better if they went away and did their complaining away from those that have put all the work in. I certainly didn't find anything wrong and I hope afterwards that people will think about what *they* can do to get better rather than trying to blame something else for their mistakes. Thanks again for some fun orienteering - a great way to spend a hot holiday weekend!   addison Posted: 10 February 2009, 6:04 AM   Sorry to hear you got a bit of crap Bryan. Bit of a funny sport we have. Sometimes I wonder if actually going up to the planner (after you've fumed and become realistic) is a better thing to do and talk over any issue in a positive way! Don't focus on the negatives only, but talk about everything in context ... "this leg was great, wow had so much trouble here" "but I think this area is a bit dodgy, what made you map this this way" etc   Jamie Posted: 10 February 2009, 7:04 AM   I think theres a difference from getting crap and a planner hanging around listening to groups of people talking. I think if the planner had asked for feedback directly then it would have been much more reasoned. I think all orienteers analyse maps and courses afterwards in their respective peer groups and to pin this on elites is a little rough. And don't forget that just because we are "elites" we aren't also administrators, course planners, etc, because plenty of elites do plenty of this work. If elites are more guilty than others it could be to the degree they analyse every control. If I was one of the people that offended you Bryan I am sorry (I think I was dubious about the watercourse touching the stream - but more specifically the existence of those parallel black cliffs in the gorge). But whatever anyone thinks as you point out the good orienteers always seem to win I thought it was a great relaxed and competitive weekend with one of the highlights been the very welcoming and efficient approach of the organisers.   Bryan Posted: 10 February 2009, 8:16 AM   The comments weren't from you Jamie. Your reasoned response is good feedback to me - I might map watercourses and cliffs a little differently in the future (but I can remember not being able to climb up and down the 'cliffs'). The comment that got up my goat was that the course was 'unfair'. I may be overly sensitive and might have misinterpreted what was said, but 'way too low' or something to that effect means in my book an implied criticism. I'm not trying to be overly negative here - I'm just trying to report examples of what occurs to a planner to everyone - it's happened to me on most of my maps - and I'm trying to make some people maybe analyse how they orienteer and cope with mistakes. The enjoyment I get out of mapping and planning far outweighs so far any negativity from the minority.   Jamie Posted: 11 February 2009, 12:18 AM   In that case I totally support your comments, but can't imagine things changing too quickly! I think we have all suffered these criticisms (some more than others perhaps) but in my observation we are still keen to give our thoughts at the end of the day when we are on the other end of the stick. One approach I have taken when planning something, is the "counseller" demeanour. Understanding that you are actually just consoling the weaknesses of said whinger. It is generally the whinger who ends up feeling stink. J   pcbrent Posted: 11 February 2009, 6:35 AM   I think I may be one of the arrogant offensive elites mentioned above. By admitting to this I realise that I am probably setting myself up for a barrage of abuse, but I can handle it. In my defense I honestly had no idea that you were the planner, in fact in my sweaty, tired, frustrated state I didnt even realise there was anyone else listening in on our conversation until the offending comments had been made. If I could take them back I would. I suspect I am not the only one who finds it difficult to go from being completely internally focused while racing to the social niceties required at the finish line. I estimate it takes me at least several minutes to cool down to what could be considered a rational level. I think this has something to do with being extremely competitive. You state that you are a glutton for punishment, waiting at the finish line to hear the off-the-cuff comments. I point out that any comments made were exactly that, off-the-cuff. They were certainly not made with the benefit of revisiting the site or even spending much time in the control circle. If you are going to put yourself in a position to overhear any comments at the finish line then, if I were you I would take them with a large grain of salt for the reasons outlined above. You seem to believe that we were purposely bagging your course within your hearing, with the intention of causing offence. I assure you this was no the case. I know that planning/mapping/controlling is a time consuming, and often thankless task, the last thing I would want to do it put anyone off carrying out this vital role. I know you are trying your best. Believe it or not I was not arrogantly blaming my bad run (not that it was that bad) on something other than myself. As you point out that mapping is by nature subjective and will always cause some debate. The purpose of the conversations I had at the finish line was to ascertain if my fellow elites agree with how the mapper interpreted the area, control placement and fairness of the race. Interestingly enough some of the legs discussed (and in my opinion subject to debate) I managed to achieve some of the quickest splits on. Alternatively some of the legs I made errors on were not discussed, because I knew I had just messed them up. When I finished I thought that a control was in the wrong place. I was completely wrong about that and now believe (after this conversation with my peers) that it was me in the wrong place. I find it interesting that you didnt approach our group at the time or join the conversation with us on the finish line (after all you probably know the area better than we do) or even if you found this intimidating send a private email with your thoughts. Instead you have decided to air this matter on a public forum. But I guess that is your choice. I would make this comment without the advantage of revisiting the area. If several top elites (as you describe us) comment on the interpretation of an area perhaps there is something in that I will take your advice and endeavor to be more discrete when whining in the future. As Jenni points out. It was a great weekend of orienteering.   HeadHoncho Posted: 11 February 2009, 6:53 AM   Time for one big man hug.   Bryan Posted: 11 February 2009, 8:35 AM   Wow - great email Brent - thanks for clearing up many things. I did join in a little bit with you at the finish line but decided not to discuss more due to your 'tired, sweaty, frustrated' state. As I didn't know your private email I decided to use maptalk to show others what planners deal with - I didn't mention your name and I'm not trying to pick on you. I'm more comfortable writing than verbalising. Constructive comments about the interpretation about an area were what I was after - it will make me a better mapper in the future. As an example, a gentle one from Michael saying that a hilltop should have been a spur places a flag in my mind to make sure I check them from all sides in the future. And your competitive nature is great to see and something which other younger orienteers can strive for. Interesting that you didn't know who the planner was - I sometimes know what to expect beforehand from knowing who is planning but I've been around for too long.