 addison
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Posted: 29 March 2007, 2:26 AM
http://www.tv.worldofo.com/
World of O has launched a couple of orienteering TV channels. Check it out
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Michael
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Posted: 18 July 2007, 2:37 PM
If you haven't been there in a while, the content is building up. Quite a nice replay of Thierry Gueorgiou's run in a World Cup race, using visuals created through Catching Feature's map-to-terrain builder.
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mick finn
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Posted: 18 July 2007, 4:13 PM
That's great, there goes all my spare time. Nice. At least I can't play Catching features as it's not for Macs.
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jeffg
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Posted: 19 July 2007, 2:25 AM
I like the bit with the "easy" vague angled downhill leg. "Just go straight" Of course, why didn't I think of that?
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Greg
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Posted: 19 July 2007, 2:41 AM
or, "I made a mistake here, I lost about 1 second"
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Paul I
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Posted: 19 July 2007, 3:38 AM
Thierry shows us that O is a simple sport, most of us just havnt figured out how to do it yet. By the way, did Thierry actually start doing much better after the introduction of CF or has he always been a freak?
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Paul I
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Posted: 19 July 2007, 4:04 AM
The secret of the winning team in the Finnish championships must have been the man hug to the next team member at the tag point.
Hmmmm, Neil hugging Karl, Neil hugging Chris, Neil hugging Jamie, Jamie hugging Greg... oh no it's getting a bit too random, isn't there a race to run.
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Michael
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Posted: 19 July 2007, 6:00 AM
Yes Jeff it shows the limitations of using very good orienteers as coaches - I think some of them have a sixth sense that means they don't need to use classical techniques. Although it doesn't make such good TV, we would probably gain more from a learning point of view by studying runs by ordinary orienteers:-))
The combinations of map and view is great though isn't it. Why do you suppose the map was always north-up? Drawn by a Mr Schueler?
www.mapsport.co.nz/farside.jpg
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Jamie
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Posted: 19 July 2007, 6:11 AM
I have to disagree with that Michael!
I picked up heaps from watching that video, and it prompted lots of thought and remembering, some things being
- tops of hills as distinct points, best attack points if fit and fast
- adapting technique to read what is most obvious in terrain, eg in this case the marshes (reminds me of something Tania said once about identifying unqiue elements in the terrain
- the importance of accurate compass work on straight legs so all you have to do is pick off features on the straight line to control your distance
Top orienteers don't operate off a sixth sense they have just refined their technique so much that they do as little as possible to find the control accurately so they can run faster.
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Paul I
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Posted: 19 July 2007, 6:51 AM
If you recall a particularly good race you had I don't think it would be.... I chose to compass on #1, picked feature to feature on #2, pace counted into #3 etc. etc. .... it was probably more like everything just fitted together, I ignored irralivant info overload, slowed down on some dangerous areas, didn't get bogged down with too much map reading, allowing me to run consistantly fast without hind of any significant errors.
I think the importance of overall visualisation and feeling of whereabouts cannot be overemphisised. All the usual techniques then fit together easily. On a poor race this does not happen.
Jamies obsevation that Thierry picked a unique feature (open marsh in this case)quite often was bang on, it really simplified the course on many controls. And I agree that Thierry's use of compass was exceptional, sometimes my own use of a compass starts off really well but doesn't always end so well! Not enough practice - nil these days.
It's would be interesting if we get to here about some of the successful techiques employed through the rocks by our lot at Dubbo.
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Jenni
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Posted: 19 July 2007, 7:21 AM
I always mention this "sixth sense" Carsten thinks he has when I'm coaching. What I say is there are lots of skills/techniques to orienteering and if you have to use your conscious mind to do them then your brain gets overloaded and can't handle it. So you practise them all lots and lots and then it's your sub-conscious that does them. If you ask Carsten how he orienteers he says, "I just run" but then if you probe you find he has attackpionts, catching line features, compass and all the rest but it's his subconscious which is controlling it all not his conscious and he just runs. Actually he says what he's thinking most about is having the optimum speed, not too fast as to lose control but knowing that he has to take every opportunity to run fast that he can.
I agree with Jamie that I've always learnt a lot and felt inspired by reading Thierry's descirptions of his race plans. And I've respected Thierry even more after he told Carsten that he was one of his idols when he was young and he had C's poster on his wall - thought a man with taste like that must be smart.
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jeffg
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Posted: 19 July 2007, 8:15 AM
I think I tend to agree with Jamie also, Michael. Despite my flippant comment on leg 4, it was clear that Thierry backed himself to be on compass for 150 odd metres to hit the stepping stone/attack point of 3 boulders on the red line, keep on line through the next set of boulders and voila. The fact that he can run a traversing descent on compass is key to his comment of "easy". How many of us punters can do that? How often do we practice it? I remember Darren (a very good orienteer and coach) saying the best orienteers are the ones who do the basics very very well.
I liked Thierry's use of a distant prominent feature (power pylon) to gauge his direction on another leg. That's a technique I should have used on a long leg at WMOC at Mt Kooyoora, instead of reading all the detail, and it's useful on the open farmland maps on the Awhitu Peninsula. It's also something that Mal and I used while paddling around in the dark on the Kaipara in the 10/20.
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Michael
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Posted: 19 July 2007, 11:33 AM
I think I agree with you all. I was going to write something about recognising quite subtle features because on some legs I doubted that I could pick up at speed anything unique and positive. I might have therefore run further off the beeline to pick up such. Probably wrong to call that "classical technique", its all classical but using different features.
Well just off to do my daily compass practice...
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Paul I
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Posted: 19 July 2007, 11:54 AM
Men should be better Orienteers than women if my other halves navigation skills in the car are anything to go by! Sorry darling.
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Michael
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Posted: 19 July 2007, 1:07 PM
Back to topic Paul!
The Tero run above was advanced by Jan Kocbach (WorldofO) as a contribution to bringing orienteering to a larger audience. Some suggest it's only going to appeal to orienteers. What think you?
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onemanfanclub
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Posted: 19 July 2007, 1:41 PM
I was going to make some comment about how using computer animation has brought the America'$ Cup to a much wider New Zealand audience than just yachties and millionaire financial traders, as a suitable analogy.
Then I had a little think about what's really behind the en-masse interest that has, and came to the conclusion that to bring orienteering to a larger audience, what we really need is rabid, misplaced (and mildly embarrassing) patriotism, stirred up by savvy marketing campaigns.
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