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Hidden Falls Gear Scout Camp
March 26-28, 2004
All together before Park-O
Photo courtesy of and ©Eileen Underwood
All photos here or click on the picture
All participants were divided into 4 groups (A, B, C and D) by their orienteering skills level. Group A was for Yellow level participants, Group B for Orange level, C and D for Green and higher level. Participants could change their group if they feel the courses in their group were too easy or too hard for them. All participants in their groups are listed below:
| Group A | Group B | Group C | Group D |
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8:30pm Scrabble(R)-O - The recreational Night-O in teams. A letter and point value (tile, for you Scrabble afficionados) was placed with each control. Teams first collected all letters and then went out and punched controls in order to form a word. The winning word was "jockeys" (2 teams got it, but one did it faster). The exercise was designed by Chris Cassone. The idea was the juniors working in teams should know each other better. The map (better say schema of Hidden Falls Camp) used for this exercise is here (Sorry, I don't have the course on it).
8:45am Weekly training for beginner and intermediate junior orienteers. The lecture was prepared by Vladimir Gusiatnikov and was actually given by Jeff Saeger as far as Vladimir was not able to come to the camp. The talk presentation. The full article (pdf 168kb printable version).
9:30am How to use a compass on an orienteering course (theory and classroom practice). The lecture and practice supposed to give the juniors an idea of why, when and how an orienteer should use compass. We used sample map to practice in map orientation and exact compass bearing (azimuth). The talk presentation. The full article (pdf 109kb printable version). The classroom practice map (702kb).
10:30pm Fast map reading exercise. The course was made of a number of loops. It allowed us to have long enough course on relatively small area. Also orienteers of different abilities could complete different number of loops at the same time. The coaches standing somewhere on the course could control what the juniors were doing on this exercise. Due to lack of time we had to skip fast analysis was planed in between of loops. There were no control descriptions provided for this exercise as far as we were going to discuss control descriptions later. The controls were put exactly in the middle of the coresponding control circle on the map. Groups A & B 1st map (166kb). Group B 2nd map (111kb). Groups C & D 1st map (252kb). Groups C & D 2nd map (319kb).
1:30pm Analysis and discussion of morning exercise. First of all the juniors were asked to draw their routes on the map. It is very important to draw the routes on the map after each orienteering course because this is the only way to do the analysis. As a result of this morning exercise observation the coaches made some remarks common for all participants:
1:40pm How to use control descriptions on an orienteering course. The full article (pdf 125kb printable version).
2:30pm Contour-O. The control descriptions were provided for this exercise for all groups (not shown here). Group A map (160kb). Group B map (148kb). Groups C & D map (381kb).
8:00pm Analysis and discussion of today’s courses. Again the juniors were asked to draw their routs on the map. Then the coaches discussed with some juniors their routes. And finally, there was general discussion when the juniors were reminded about 4 important things from today's first analysis.
8:40pm Brief review of yesterday's exercises and discussions.
8:50pm How to do technical training in orienteering (theory, classroom practice and exercises). What kind of technical trainings could you use? When could you perform a technical training? What exercises should you do? These and many other question were discussed on this talk. During the classroom practice the juniors tried to do some exercises they've just learned. The talk presentation. The classroom practice map (702kb).
10:30am Orienteering course. The control descriptions were provided for this exercise for all groups (not shown here). Group A map (117kb). Group B map (100kb). Groups C & D map (342kb).
1:30pm Park-O. The courses were designed by Ken Walker Jr. This was real competition on 1:2500 scale map with punching and timing (there was no punching and timing on previous exercises). The control descriptions were not provided for this course. Unfortunately, the area I chose was not perfect for Park-O but Kenny somehow designed great courses anyway. Groups A & B map (249kb). Groups C & D map (363kb). Park-O results.
Many thanks to everybody who helped in organization and conducting the camp. Thanks to all participated coaches. Also I'd like to thank:
If you have any questions regarding the orienteering, you got problems with your orienteering technique or you need training plan e-mail to me at any time: Alexei Azarov <alex@alexplace.com>.