Scouts : Programme Ideas

Orienteering

Orienteering is the skill of navigating in wild or open country by the use of map and compass.

In 1919 a Swedish Scout Leader, Major Ernst Killander, combined map and compass ?projects? with cross country running. From those small beginnings in the magnificent Swedish forests sprang a world-wide sport.

There are six classes of orienteering, the best known of which are Cross Country and Score Orienteering.

In a Cross Country event a set course has to be completed in the shortest possible time. The course is shown on the map by a series of red circles, known as controls. To help you find each of the controls, a brief description is given-for example: ?the stream bend? or ?the pond, western end?.

To prove you have completed the course, you have to mark your competitor?s card with a punch or stamp to be found at each control. The quickest route is not always the most direct, especially if the direct line takes you through a marsh or over a hill.

Score Orienteering probably requires more accurate judgement. The controls can be visited in any order within a set time. Each carries a certain number of points, those that are further away carrying more points than those that are nearby. If you visit all the closest controls, you won?t necessarily score more points than if you visit a smaller number of controls that are further away, so it is important to plan properly the way you tackle the course. You can also lose points for being late.

The other types of orienteering are

Route Orienteering following a course marked out by streamers and marking the controls on your map as you find them;

Line Orienteering following a set line on the map and, again, marking down the controls as you find them; and

Night Orienteering and Relay

Orienteering which really speak, for themselves. Orienteering does not require you to be a great athlete but simply to be mobile-walking or running, canoeing, sailing or by cycle. In any serious competitions or club events the winners are found among the faster and fitter participants but the real fun in Orienteering is in participating, whatever your age. To play and enjoy the sport of Orienteering there are three fundamental concepts to be understood:-interpretation of the map; distance; direction.

Planning a course

When planning an orienteering course it is important to remember that the whole point of the exercise is to encourage skill in map and compass work. It should not be designed only as a competition where physical ability as a cross - country runner is the all -important factor.

The quality of the course depends upon certain vital requirements:

1 That suitable check points are carefully sited.

2. That a great variety of orienteering problems should be set for the competitor,

3. That chance discovery of controls is avoided.

4. That the start and finish arrangements, are efficient.

It is essential too that maps are checked in relation to the chosen area to make sure that what is on the ground is on the map and vice-versa, Careful reconnaissance is required as an orienteering course cannot be devised by armchair planning. The course planner must go over the area which has been chosen and relate it to the map so that he is certain that all the points which he is likely to choose for controls actually do exist.

Practice skills for orienteering

These practices will help to develop familiarity in handling the map and compass and can also be used as competitions to develop speed and accuracy. There is however, no substitute for orienteering experience gained in the real full-scale situation.

Map Practices

1. Locating Grid References

The instructor gives a series of four figure grid references and verbal descriptions of the places they refer to in a jumbled form. The orienteers must relate these references to their correct description- by finding each one on the map and giving its six-figure

2. Giving Grid References

The instructor indicates several prominent landmarks on a map (for example, ?The small lake 3cm north of Exville in the bottom left hand corner of the map?). An accurate six-figure grid reference must then be given for each landmark by the orienteers.

3. Map Symbol Quiz

Either, map symbols are presented by the instructor and the name of them is given by the orienteer, or a map symbol is drawn by the orienteers after a verbal description by the Instructor.

4. Map Drawing

An experienced map reader gives a description of a piece of ground from the map. The others attempt to draw a map from this description and their efforts are compared to the original.

5. Description of Ground

Here the terrain of a given area of map is to be described in detail either verbally or on paper by the orienteers.

6. Map Sections

Two check - points are selected and a section is then drawn along the bee-line or chosen route, to show the shape of the ground surface and how it rises or falls along this route.

7..Combined Map Practice and Route Set action

Seven or eight selected points on the map are given to the orienteers by grid reference. They have then to measure the direct distance between the points and suggest the best routes from one to the other. (The route selection part of indoor practice will be more profitable if the learners have had some previous experience of orienteering on the ground.)

As a further development of this practice, Instead of random check points being given, checkpoints which have been used in a competition are put on the map. Routes between them are chosen and then compared with the routes which were actually used by runners in the race.

8. Following The Map

The instructor selects several well defined points on a map which are easily recognisable on the ground in

(say) a park. The orienteers are given the points as grid references and asked to visit them in a given order. This can be developed into miniature orienteering competitions.

Scouts : Programme Ideas

In this Section

Orienteering

Planning a course

Practice skills for orienteering

Map Practices