Teaching Orienteering to Newcomers
Jeff Brucker
I have been teaching O and also Wilderness Navigation classes for
several years, mainly to adults but occasionally to children. My
one recommendation is to not victimize these beginners
with compass games until well after they have learned proper
map-reading skills.
USOF course-setting guidelines specifically say that a beginner
should be able to complete a White course, as well as a Yellow course,
without the use of a compass whatsoever. (other than perhaps
to orient the map). I heartily agree with this policy, for a variety
of reasons.
The first reason is that map-reading is a new language which is
a little scary to many beginners. They are looking for any excuse
to avoid the pain of learning to read a map, so they jump at the
chance to use a compass (or worse, a GPS) instead of a map.
Your first job as an instructor is to instill in your students a
belief in the importance of the map as the primary tool
of orienteering. Introducing the compass too early will sabotage
your efforts.
The second reason is that giving a compass to a beginner is like
giving a calculator to a 5-year-old who hasn't yet learned the concepts
of simple math. They press a lot of buttons and come up with a lot
of very exact but wrong answers. Worse, they trust these
wrong answers as if it was gospel, because they have a piece of
technology in their hand which is giving them this answer. They
trust those precise but wrong numbers more than they trust the seemingly
vague and imprecise map.
The third reason is that a beginner has only so much brain energy
to invest; please don't allow them to waste their valuable energy
with a compass. Every minute they spend on a compass is a minute
that could be spent learning to read a map. When I began teaching
I taught both map and compass in one classs, but I soon dropped
the compass for this reason, and teach it in a separate, more advanced,
class. It is best to learn the two skills separately, and then combine
them together later. Of course, some people are naturals or have
a math background and can learn both at the same time, but most
can't.
Only after a student has good map skills will I teach the compass,
and even then I teach them to first visualize the bearing
(i.e. north, east, northwest, etc.). Even if a beginner does use
a compass properly, they often overuse the compass, and do not develop
the map-reading skills necessary to correct small errors, which
accumulate into big errors.
I have observed the following scenario often: Our practice destination
is a small saddle. There is a whole series of obvious land-marks
on-route. The "compass" people typically end up on the
wrong terrain feature 50 meters away on the side of the hill or
in a ravine, swearing that they are in the right spot. They were
fairly accurate and only off by a couple of degrees and a reasonable
distance error, but they have ignored the landmarks and let the
small errors accumulate. I see this often with those who put a lot
of faith in technology. I usually let them make a few errors while
the little grandmother is nailing every check-point, and then they
usually get the idea.
There are many books available on several orienteering web sites
about teaching orienteering to kids, so there is no need for you
to reinvent the wheel. The few bucks you spend will reap big dividends.
Good Luck.
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