Limpopo educators are introduced to orienteering

As part of the SAOF Expansion Plan, which aims to teach educators around the country how to teach orienteering to learners, four facilitators from the South African Orienteering Federation (SAOF) headed to Polokwane on Saturday, 20 August 2011. This was the first Level 1 Orienteering Instructor Course held outside of Johannesburg and it was hosted by Capricorn High School. The course was attended by 14 educators from 11 schools, most from the Capricorn district.

The one-day course focused on introducing educators to the basic principles of orienteering; the use of symbols on a map to represent a school environment, map orientation techniques and basic navigation and route choice skills. Although orienteering is a component of the Life Orientation syllabus, the sport is barely acknowledged in South Africa.

The two geography and 12 Life Orientation educators got hands-on experience when they participated in indoor and outdoor activities. They will use these same exercises in their classrooms to teach and practise basic principles. The course pack given to each participant contains booklets with additional information, lesson plans and laminated material to allow the educators to start teaching their classes immediately. The course concluded with each participant receiving their Level 1 Orienteering Instructor certificate from the SAOF’s VP Development, Garry Morrison.

COME AND TRY IT EVENT

A ‘Come And Try It’ orienteering event, promoted within the schools, was presented on Sunday morning by the team. Although the turnout was very poor, there were some shining stars. Mary Makhobotlwane from Mphachue Secondary School brought three learners and her young son to the event. Two learners, Ephraim and Jill, took to orienteering instantly. After being guided through the short demonstration course, they were on their own on the two kilometre course run on school property and between buildings.

“Salome Bopape from Mmamarama Secondary was my success story for the weekend,“ says Lisa de Speville, SAOF’s Expansion Plan project manager. “Salome battled with the map orientation activities during the course. On the Sunday morning on the demo course she started to visualise the symbols on the map as features but was still struggling with orientation. This is a skill that some people take a little more time than others to get to right. We set her off on the course and I really just hoped for the best. Well, I couldn’t have been more delighted to see her return absolutely ecstatic and gushing with joy and a sense of accomplishment. She made a few errors on the first few checkpoints but then she really excelled and the puzzle pieces came together for her. She has definitely been bitten by the orienteering bug!”

The SAOF will return to Polokwane mid-week in October to present another ‘Come And Try It’ event. Having made direct contact with educators through this course the SAOF will be better able to encourage more learners to attend.

Thanks go to Sport and Recreation South Africa (SRSA) and the National Lottery (NLDTF) for making this initiative possible.

The South African team at the GOC champs

The South African Junior Team is about to jet off for the Junior World Orienteering Championships (JWOC) in  Rumia-Wejherowo, Poland

The event itself runs from 1-9 July 2011, so the team will be taking part in some training opportunities in the weak prior to JWOC.  The team consists of

Sarah Pope (Witsoc),  Salome Van Hoepen ( Raco),  Stephanie Courtnage (Witsoc),   Bradley Lund (Raco), and Anthony Stott (Witsoc).  The team will be met in Poland by their coach Nicholas Mulder (Roc).

For Anthony Stott, it will be his first JWOC and we wish him well.  For the others this will be their third JWOC and we will be watching them eagerly.  We hope that they can tap into their international experience and deliver some exciting performances.  Follow this link to view historical SA performances at JWOC.

The competition program is as follows:

Sunday, 3 July  - Sprint 14:00
Monday, 4 July – Long 9:00
Wednesday 6 July – Middle Qualification 10:00
Thursday, 7 July – Middle Final 10:00
Friday, 8 July – Relay 10:00

The team will also try to keep everyone back home informed with regular updates on their blog with maps, routes, photos and stories. Find it at http://juniororienteers.blogspot.com

Good luck to you all.  The SA Orienteering community is behind you 100% and look forward to you doing us proud!

The part of the plan that explicitly deals with expansion into other areas is termed the Expansion Plan.  As part of this plan we are seeking to employ a project manager as per the announcement posted recently.

The cornerstone of the plan is the presentation of the Level 1 Teachers Training Course in Orienteering (see review of Jan 2011 course) as well as an exhibition event over the course of a weekend.

This will require the assistance of many volunteers in the capacity of presenters, assistants  and  Level 1 mappers (to map school grounds).  We aim to ensure that all volunteers have their expenses covered and in addition receive a small additional financial token of thanks.  Recent experience (Level 1 Teachers Training Course in O and 2011 Gauteng Schools O Camp) indicate that these events are fun for the presenters as well as the participants.  We hope that this will provide a great opportunity for many orienteers to develop their coaching and/or mapping skills and to also contribute to the growth of orienteering in South Africa.

It looks like the first weekend workshop will be held at Capricorn High School  in Polokwane towards the end of July (the date has yet to be confirmed).  Our first requirement is for a volunteer to map Capricorn High (GPS: 23°54’39.83”S 29°28’21.40”E) in Polokwane.

If you are interested in helping out with the mapping task or with the course presentation or being one of the assistants for this first weekend workshop in Polokwane, then please contact the VP Development.

Belfast is renowned for being one of the coldest places in the country and once again, it didn’t disappoint. Temperatures were quite low, with some gloomy weather; but thankfully the rain waited until nightfall. The orienteers however weren’t given much time to feel the cold, as they were kept warm by a constant series of training exercises. Over the three days, the squad slotted in 10 training sessions, most of which focused on the technical aspects of orienteering. The general feeling was that the sessions were extremely beneficial and well focused on the weaknesses of most of the squad members.

The strong attendance of squad members also ensured that there was some good natured, yet tough competition on the handful of physical sessions. This allowed the orienteers to practise techniques whilst racing head-to-head, a feature not too common in South African orienteering, yet vital to competing well on the international stage. With the squad members staying all together in the Lodge accommodation, a great team spirit was also developed. Apart from the physical and technical benefits of the training camp, everyone was also able to enjoy the social side of being part of the national squad. The evenings featured not only a couple of guest presentation on training and long-term development, but also saw some enjoyable social activities.

A big thank you must go to Denise Courtnage for catering for this training camp. She went well beyond all expectations of all of the squad members (which were very high to start with)! Secondly, a big thank you must also go to Brian Courtnage, who helped in the smooth running of the camp by collecting all the controls after each session. Their help was a major contributor to ensuring the training camp ran as effectively as possible.

Overall, the performances of the national squad members was very impressive. A lot of talent, willingness and spirit was shown in the squad, which is undoubtedly heading in the right direction and helps put the High Performance strategy of the South African Orienteering Federation’s on a good footing. The camp was deemed very successful, being enjoyed both by the youth and junior squads for the social and sporting environment as well as the senior squad for its technical challenges.

–

Nicholas Mulder

High Performance Manager

South African Orienteering Federation

Following on from the highly successful Gauteng Schools League (GSL) of 2011, the SAOF under the direction of VP Development, Garry Morrison, hosted the first-ever Schools Orienteering camp at Bushtrails, Magaliesberg.  All six high schools that competed in the 2011 GSL had participants at the camp, with 28 attendees in total.

Upon arrival on Friday evening, the participants were briefed by “Sergeant Major” Liz of Bushtrails.  After settling in and a hearty supper of spaghetti bolognaise the camp-proper began.  The junior coaches gave a great presentation on “Why we love O”.  A few orienteering movies later and it was time for the highlight of the evening – the hotly contested orienteering quiz!

During the course of the camp the children were introduced to various orienteering skills and then given the opportunity to practice them.  Basic skills such as keeping the map orientated, folding the map and thumbing your position were reinforced.  The orienteering toolbox was laid bare and a range of exercises gave the children the opportunity to practice techniques such as traffic light orienteering, compass and pacing, use of attack points and catch features.  Map walk exercises afforded the coaches the opportunity to reinforce the need for good map contact and demonstrated that the orienteering map contains much more information that can be used to improve navigation efficiency.  Advanced techniques such as contour interpretation were introduced by means of a guided map walk on the final morning.  The children were given the chance to put into practice what they had learned in a competitive situation by means of a star relay at the end of the first day and a relay-proper at the end of the second day.  The children were all exposed to a vast amount of new information and a range of orienteering techniques.  Improving their orienteering will now require them to reinforce what they have learned by regular participation.

According to VP Development, Garry Morrison the purpose of the camp was to:  (i) expose the children to the greater world of orienteering;  (ii) become aware that there are a number of techniques that when mastered will lead to improved orienteering performance and (iii) to have fun doing orienteering.  An additional side benefit for the children is that they made friends across the different schools.  The fact that a number of the children asked when the next camp would be, was encouraging to hear.  “I am still very excited about the weekend and found the experience very rewarding”, said Garry.  This is an opinion shared by Tania Wimberley.

Of course from a club point of view, we would like to see more children coming along to the Sunday events.  There was certainly an indication that a number of the children are keen.  The various Gauteng clubs need to find ways to capitalise on this.  Another purpose of the camp was for the children to meet and bond with a number of regular young orienteers, i.e. the coaches.  This will hopefully mean that should they come along on Sundays there will be some familiar, friendly faces and so making the club event experience less daunting.

“I think that the camp was also successful from the point of view that it introduced 6 junior orienteers to the world of coaching”, said Garry.   The feedback thus far is that they are thankful for the experience and that they have learned by doing and so hopefully this will mean that the prospect of coaching is less daunting to them.

From an SAOF perspective the camp was also very successful.  It hopefully sends out a message to the clubs that this type of thing is not only possible, but is critical if we are to grow the sport and make orienteering a more rewarding experience for the youth.  A template for a successful youth orienteering camp now exists and it is available for others to copy and implement.  In addition there are now people with experience who will be more than happy to help others run such camps.  This type of activity really needs to be done more frequently, whether or not it is a camp targeting schools league children or at a higher level for club members.

One of the features of the camp was the good ratio of coaches to participants.  Having one coach for every 4 children meant that each participant received plenty of attention and one-on-one instruction.  Thanks go to all the coaches, all of whom are members of the SAOF’s national Junior or Senior Squads:  Sarah Pope, Anthony Stott, Jessica Lund, Michael Crone, Jessica Hemer and Zoë Brentano.  A special thanks to Tania Wimberley (and the whole Wimberley family for releasing her), who in her roving role was able to pass on her extensive coaching experience to the various coaches in addition to many of the children. She also provided valuable insight and recommendations on how to maximise the benefit of a number of the coaching sessions.

Special thanks to Randpark High School for making available one of their school buses and to Jill Kupper of Randpark High for making the necessary arrangements.  Final thanks must go to the South African Orienteering Federation and the National Lottery for making the camp possible.

Course architect, Tania Wimberley, couldn’t have had a more pleasing reward for her incredible effort in putting the course together.  Not only were there attendees from many schools in Gauteng, but there was also a strong contingent of Life Orientation supervisors from Limpompo province, a handful from the Northwest province and even a delegate from Swaziland.

The course is aimed at equipping teachers with the skills and confidence to supply basic orienteering instruction to learners at their schools.  The course was formulated to provide attendees with both theoretical understanding of the sport of orienteering and also first-hand experience of the basic skills through practical exercises.  Each delegate left with a resource pack that should enable them to conduct a number of exercises that teach foundation skills in orienteering.

Following closely on the successful Level 1 Mapping course  held in Johannesburg at the end of 2010, this course is another component part in the SAOF’s strategy to grow and develop orienteering in South Africa.  In order to grow the sport in South Africa, the SAOF understands that it needs to overcome the high barriers to entry of a technical sport like orienteering.  At a grassroots level this means training up as many people as possible to be able to provide entry-level instruction in orienteering.

In presenting the course, Tania was ably assisted by co-presenter Michele Botha, who is the current chair of the SAOF’s Coaching Commission.  After each presentation section, the attendees were herded into a number of groups and lead through the relevant practical exercises by a team of willing assistants, all of whom are highly experienced orienteers.  Thanks go to Jessica Hemer, Lisa de Speville, Richard Lund, Sarah Pope, Stephanie Courtnage and Zoe Brentano.

After stretching their legs and more importantly their minds, the attendees were rewarded with a fine selection of snacks and treats by the ever-dependable catering team of Denise Courtnage and Val Brentano.

The SAOF hopes that this will be the first of many courses as we attempt to spread the word about this great sport of orienteering, which we all feel so passionately about.

Whilst some of the theory sessions definitely exceeded what is required for Level 1 maps, it is always valuable to have an understanding of the broader context into which Introductory orienteering maps fit.  This includes an overview of the historical development of the orienteering map.  This broader context ensured that a number of “old hands”, with many good orienteering maps behind their names, also gained from this course.

After lunch the eager participants spent an hour and a half surveying the Camp Delta property, which proved and ideal venue for this exercise.  The course was concluded by a walk around Camp Delta and a discussion of interpretation and representation.  This proved to be an extremely valuable exercise as the budding mappers learned that there is no 100% correct solution and that a number of interpretations are possible within the guidelines of the relevant IOF mapping standards.

This course is part of the initiative by the SAOF to encourage more people to get out there and make orienteering maps.  With more maps of simple terrains it will be possible to introduce more people to the sport of orienteering.  The SAOF encourages the various clubs and individuals to use these simple maps to host simple introductory events for beginners as a way of exposing more people to the sport.

The SAOF also hopes to present this course in other parts of South Africa as part of their efforts to expand orienteering into other provinces.  Participants of the course will all receive a certificate of attendance.  Once they have produced completed maps to the required standard, they will be accredited Level 1 orienteering map makers.

Please follow this link to the Mapping Resources page on this website that provides new and experienced mappers with some useful resources.

Contact the VP Development for more information.

The challenge was presented by numerous point-feature control sites. Thus straight running and good distance judgment seemed to be the order of the day.  The ability to do this effectively was hindered by the plentiful brashings underfoot.  Whilst this made uphill running through the forest physically tiring, the brashings were sparse enough to enable fast downhill and contour running.   Well done to all the weekend’s winners, some of whom  posed for pictures (left – Thanks to Pat de Klerk).

Full results can be found at the following link.

IOF’s O-zine 3-2010

We hope to capitalise on the opportunity presented by the fact that Orienteering is now in the School curriculum.  In this regard we are pursuing opportunities in the Western Cape, Gauteng and the Free State.  We are also pursuing a number of opportunities to establish new clubs in Durban, Rustenburg, Phalaborwa, Port Elisabeth and Sabie.  Please contact the SAOF if you can contribute in any way to these initiatives.

(Thanks to Val, Wilhem & Viv for the Pics)

On Tuesday 21 June, the South African Junior Orienteering team left for JWOC 2010 to be held in Denmark.  The team are (back, left to right): Sarah Pope, Stephanie Courtnage, Salome van Hoepen, Zoe Brentano and Jessica Lund, (front, left to right): Bradley Lund, Michael Crone, JP Sissing and Team Manager Alex Pope.  Coach Nicholas Mulder is already in Europe and will meet up with the team in Aalborg.  The team will have 10 days to familiarise themselves with the terrain in Denmark before competition starts on 5 July.  Keep a look out on the JWOC website for start lists and results.  The team will also try to keep everyone back home informed with regular updates their blog with maps, routes, photos and stories. Find it at http://juniororienteers.blogspot.com

For shorter, more frequent updates you can follow their twitter feed is shown on the blog: http://twitter.com/RSAjuniors

Good luck to you all.  The SA Orienteering community is behind you 100% and look forward to you doing us proud!