Orienteering in Jonkershoek:

postponed to the 14th of August 2010.

MTN Sciencentre in partnership with the Peninsula Orienteering Club

Back by popular demand – orienteering with a twist of science!

COURSE: This will be a Score Event with 25 check points – your team will have one hour to find as many check points as possible and punch your score card.  Five of these check points will have MTN Sciencentre puzzles and you will get bonus points if you can solve the puzzles.  Your whole team has to report to the finish line within 60 minutes – you’ll be penalised 100 points for every minute you’re late!  Each team will get a full-colour map of the area (scale 1:5000) with the checkpoints clearly marked.

TEAMS: Beginners – maximum 5, at least one person over 16 years per team
Confident orienteers – teams of 2
COST: R50 per team (payable on the day)

Registration starts at 8:30 on the day, and prize giving will take place at 12:00.

Pre-Registration closes Wednesday 4 August, register by e-mailing your name & contact details to Gabi:  gabi@mtnsciencentre.org.za

O Festival

Date: 8 and 9 August 2010
Starts will be from 9h00 till 11h00 and courses will close at 14h00.

Venue: Oaklane, Grabouw
Contact: info@penoc.org.za or visit www.penoc.org.za

The MTB details for the rest of the weekend:
Sunday 8th August: Long O
Orange Course
Green Course
Blue Course
Those that want to do a long O can do a double Blue. They will change
over to the other Lebanon map and do another Blue course.

Monday 9th August: MTB O
Three MTB O courses of +- 10km , 20km and 35km riding distances.

Helmets compulsory and bike mounted map boards advisable.

Both days will start and finish on the road between the N2 and Houwteq
(where we had the start for day 2 of the WCOC 2010).

Directions: Take the N2 out of Cape Town and over Sir Lowry’s Pass. Go
past Grabouw, Kromco, Glen Fruin and Valley turn-offs. Turn right at
High Rising turn and proceed along tar road into forest. Follow “O”
sign to parking and registration. Allow 60-80 minutes from central
Cape Town.

All coaches, potential coaches and athletes are encouraged to attend relevant courses. The SAOF will reimburse paid-up club members on receipt of proof of attendance. Please contact Garry Morrison (VP Technical) for more details.

Costs

]]> http://www.orienteering.co.za/2010/08/cga-coaching-courses-2010/feed/ 0 http://www.orienteering.co.za/2010/08/silva-trophy/ http://www.orienteering.co.za/2010/08/silva-trophy/#comments Mon, 02 Aug 2010 19:03:00 +0000 VP Technical http://www.orienteering.co.za/?p=829 The Silva Trophy is an award that is presented annually to a South
African orienteer who has made a significant contribution to the sport of orienteering in South Africa, particularly in the previous twelve months. Previous winners are:

1995  - Albert Epprecht
1996  - Rob and Mary Jennings
1997  - Liz Mulder
1998  - Ian Bratt
1999  - Ruedi Siegenthaler
2000  - Peter King
2001  - Nicholas Mulder
2002  - Pieter Mulder
2003  - Glen and Shiela Terry
2004  – Neville Stocks
2005  – Pat de Klerk
2006  – Jeremy Main
2007  – Peter Hemer
2008  – Margaret Archibald & Richard Lund
2009  – Tania Wimberley

All are welcome to attend.  Each paid-up Member (club) is entitled to be represented by two delegates at the Meeting.  Associate members are not eligible to vote.

Clubs are invited to submit items for the agenda, which will be sent out on or before 5th September.  These include any motions and/or proposed amendments to the SAOF constitution.  These should be sent to the
Vice-President Administration, Bernelle Verster, to arrive no later than 3rd September 2009.

Nominations are invited for the positions on the SAOF Management Committee: -

• President
• Vice-President, Administration
• Vice-President, Treasurer
• Vice-President, Development
• Vice-President, Marketing
• Vice-President, Technical

In addition to the above positions, nominations are also invited for the following positions: -

• Athletes Representative
• Members of the National Selection Committee (5 person committee)
• Manager High Performance

Details of the above positions can be obtained from the Vice-President Administration or any current member of the SAOF committee.

In addition to the above management positions,  nominations are also invited for the Silva Trophy.  This prestigious award is presented annually to a South African orienteer who has made a significant contribution to the sport of orienteering in South Africa, particularly in the previous twelve months.  A list of past recipients can be found here.

Nominations should be accompanied by a brief (not more than one-page) motivation, detailing the reasons why the nomination has been made.

In order to determine whether or not high performance initiatives are baring fruit it is necessary to track the performance of our elite orienteers on the world stage.

There are essentially two measures of performance that are recorded here. The first is the athlete’s time compared to the winning time.  This is normalised as a percentage of the winning time to enable comparison across different races.

The second measure is the athlete’s position in the race.  For comparison this is expressed as a percentage of the size of the field.

Since the sizes of fields have changed over time and because the quality of the field may change over time, the preferred measure to use to monitor performance improvement is the athlete’s time expressed as a percent of the winner’s time.

What neither of these measures accounts for is the technical difficulty of the terrain.  This is somewhat of a subjective assessment and is not readily quantified.  Hence this set of records ignores the relative technical difficulty of the terrain.

For each event type, a table of individual results is recorded.  This permits analysis of individual improvement.  The tables are followed by plots of performance, which are useful in assessing team performance.

Performances in JWOC Long

Men

Women

The connecting lines track the improvement of an individual athlete.

In the case of the Women there is a clear improvement from 2009 to 2010.  In both years the same athletes participated.  The best performance in 2010 represents the best-ever performance by a woman in the JWOC Long event.

In the case of the Men there is also a clear improvement from 2009 to 2010.  The best performance for the Men was achieved by the athlete who also attended the previous year.  The best performance in 2010 is nearing the best-ever performance of a man in the JWOC Long event.

Performances in JWOC Short/ Middle (Heats)

Men

Women

The connecting lines track the improvement of an individual athlete.

In the case of the Women there is a clear overall improvement from 2009 to 2010, although the best performance of 2009 was not improved upon in 2010. In both years the same athletes participated. There is still some way to go to attain the best-ever performance for a woman in the JWOC Middle event, which was achieved in 2000.

In the case of the Men there is also a clear improvement from 2009 to 2010. The best performance for the Men was achieved by the athlete who also attended the previous year. The best performance in 2010 is nearing the best-ever performances of a man in the JWOC Middle event. These were achieved in 2000, closely followed by 2008.

The worst performance in 2010 was at a comparable level to historic performances for first-time participants at JWOC.

Performances in JWOC Sprint

Men

Women

The connecting lines track the improvement of an individual athlete.

In the case of the Women there is a clear overall improvement from 2009 to 2010, with a new best-ever performance for a woman in the JWOC Sprint event.  In both years the same athletes participated.

In the case of the Men there is also a clear improvement from 2009 to 2010.  The best performance for the Men was achieved by an athlete who attended JWOC for the first time in 2010.  The best performance in 2010 was fractionally the best-ever performance of a man in the JWOC Sprint event, previously achieved in 2008.

(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!

Also included in this table are the targets set in the high performance strategic plan (Word doc 125KB).   Nicholas had a good showing in the Middle distance event, coming close to the target level.  Tania’s performance exceeded the targets set and, in both cases, her performances amount to the best-ever performances by a South African woman at a world championship level event.  Tania’s performances can be attributed to a number of factors:

1. SASCOC intervention through access to the High Performance Centre and access to a high performance training program
2. It was her second international event (after WOC 2006), reflecting the benefit of experience.
3. The terrain was less technical, i.e. more like what we’re used to.

What this does show is that focus, commitment and access to elite-level physical assessment and training programmes are hugely important if we wish to raise the level of performance of our elite orienteers in the international arena.

The first ever South African Sprint Orienteering championships were recently held at Pretoria Boys High School (click here for results).  The various winners of the SA Sprint titles can now proudly display the trophies as reminders of their achievement.  The SAOF thanks Ian for this magnificent set of trophies, which we are sure will contribute to the prestigious nature of the SA Sprint Championships.

Gauteng

Comments

1. Although we didn’t really hand out any more cards, it was great to have an increased hit rate in terms of badges earned and kids getting to events (up about 23%).
2. Pleasing change was the increased number and percentage of kids getting gold ie doing more than the minimum.
3. We again managed to attract several new families to O with 74% of badges going to kids new to orienteering.
4. Had more success getting scout kids back to a second event, thanks largely to one scout troop being encouraged to try get a YOC badge for their camp fire blanket.
5. In 2009 YOC numbers for Colour coded series were down from short course to 19 badges and 54 cards. Given the type of events and location I would expect this trend to continue in 2010, but would hope we get some families to continue with their orienteering.

Statistics

Age and gender of children ( badge winners)

In 2010 Badges 54% of badge winners were boys

Age split (based on ages in January) :

37% – under 5

24% – 6 to 8 years

24% – 9 to 10years

15% – 11 to 13 years

50% of under 5 benefited from string courses (19% of badge winners)

A bigger target market is age groups 6 to 10 years (48% of badge winners) and up would benefit from a white or yellow course.

Format changes in Gauteng

-one less event to get gold

-sweets/chips given with certificates at 3^rd event

-assistance for running YOC desk by a team of juniors

-decided to sell caps (at cost) to broader audience, as opposed to limiting their wearing to club members and those doing YOC skills quest

-in line with original planning this year the badge is emit buddy (there will be a new character for 5 years and then we will rotate back) & we also introduced a new colour , purple , which was a hit

Cape

Comments

1. As in 2009 the week night format of the cape short course series was a deterrent to several kids.
2. In line with 2010 I would expect the colour coded season to be more successful from a YOC perspective where I think about 8 badges were earned (need cape to confirm numbers?)

Statistics

GOC SC Event statistics

Comments

1. Big growth driver in 2008 was Zoo event coupled with change of format to compact season & introduction novice courses
2. 2009, big drives for attendance at Zoo ,St Davids and Delta (scouts day) coupled with YOC initiate fuelled growth
3. 2010, Despite weather at first 3 event seem to have a winning formula with Zoo at first event coupled with YOC.
4. Difficult to assess real impact of flyers given that there was dual marketing mediums, but it definitely did bring some people. Also seemed to have lasting impact beyond just under car windows where it was posted somewhere eg at our swimming school or on a website.  In terms of dual marketing it was through zoo website, Brescia school newsletter and Zoo Lake scouts. Zoo advertising also booster via Joburg. org website picking up on it from the zoo website and doing an additional marketing effort. Please note these website references (zoo & joburg ones) are still there and continue to draw people to events (people were drawn to zoo lake event from seeing zoo one after the fact).
5. Numbers also bolstered via scout attendance at zoo lake and stirrup glen. Interesting that we had a big return of people to zoo lake event after the zoo event (must life in the area).
6. YOC continued to be successful drawcard , & more of first time at tenders from zoo continued for a badge than in 2009.  29% of feet on 2010 SC events are from YOC.
7. In 2009 many new SC YOC people did not continue onto the CC season. Could be because they just did the 3 to get a badge (bare minimum) & then called it quits, or that didn’t want to travel far, or had small kids and a lack of string courses on all cc season in 2009 (unlike sc season) deterred them. In 2009 we did have 4 families carry through from SC to CC season (mainly older kids). 5 families skipped the 2009 CC season but did return at least once in the 2010 SC season
8. In 2010 without strong advertising to attract more new people we will likely see a drop in numbers of CC.
9. SC YOC novices may also not return, but a change in format and possible introduction of a course before orange and /or continuation of string courses may do the trick . Given that families got hooked early one, and did lots of events for their gold (different to 2009) I get the sense that we may have a couple of families returning. Only time will tell.

So far 3 new YOC families continued from 2009 to 2010 to get a badge. (one of these skipped the cc but did return for a SC series again).

Thanks go to

The main YOC team

Cally de Klerk-for design of badges & new banners and layouts of badges and SC & CC participation cards for printing

Leila Venter for collecting badges, doing emails correspondence to Gauteng guys, buying sweets, arranging for new YOC caps & manning YOC desk

Tania general co ordination, printing co ordination & collation of badges, cards, banners and collection of cards & YOC table manning

Others

Gauteng- The junior team of Zoe B, Jess H, Ant S, Brad L & Christie C for assisting to man YOC desks in SC season

Paul for collection of new banner bags

Lisa for looking after YOC part of SAOF website

The Gauteng clubs for arranging string courses at the SC events

Cape – Bernelle & Zig for co ordination & promotion of Cape YOC

The GOC clubs for agreeing to have string courses at SC events

To all orienteers for promoting YOC and bringing a friend with them to events.

By Tania Wimberley

The participants didn’t have to worry about food, as all meals were lovingly prepared by “junior mum”, Denise Courtnage.  Denise was heard to remark how the squad, “fed like locusts, leaving hardly a scrap”.

The senior squad members helped coach Nic by hanging controls for the various exercises and by providing close shadowing and insightful commentary to some of the Junior squad.  The various exercises included, a traffic light exercise, a control picking exercise, a pairs map-memory exercise, a night orienteering exercise and a star relay.

In one particular twist the various participants were asked to plan their own courses to particular specifications.  Later in the weekend the devious planners were given a taste of their own medicine as they had to run their own courses.

The physical exercises were interspersed with ample time for discussion and the usual cheerful banter.  After the recent rains in the areas, part of the fun of the weekend was getting to the various training locations.  JWOC team manager, Alex Pope, demonstrated his commitment bynursing his trusty wagon through some impressively deep puddles.

The squad was also treated (we hope) to two talks by senior orienteers, Jeremy Green and Garry Morrison.  Jeremy talked about periodisation – the art of training in which the training effort is planned in a series of cycles all building towards peaking for a few selected events.  Garry talked about an orienteering technique termed, “Visionary Head-Start“  based on a paper by Swiss elite coach Martin Lerjen.

The weekend was a great success, providing all the participants with good opportunities to repetitively apply a number of important orienteering tools.  This was most important for the JWOC team, who have less than 6 weeks to go before they depart for Denmark.