Introduction to Orienteering (Mark 2)

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The Highfield Park Visitor Centre was the venue for the newly formed ‘Introduction to Orienteering’ session on 20th January.
We welcomed 11 attendees – just able to comfortable fit into the hall and make use of the kitchen. The format of the course had been remodelled and being close to the Permanent Orienteering Course (POC) was also a bonus.
Helen began by showing the recently released video ‘What is Orienteering’ before explaining the basic structure of Orienteering in Great Britain, the classes, courses, event structure, disciplines and competitions. Of the 11 present 5 had some experience of orienteering and the remaining 6 were newcomers and had only recently joined the club. With this mix of experience, we decided to split into two groups and given the proximity of the POC Sue and Helen conducted the newcomers on a walk around the nearby area, pointing out the features and generally getting them used to handling a map.
Those with greater experience then went through a review of the Step System with Keith, discussing the differences between the main colour coded course white, yellow, orange, light green and green and relating the key orienteering techniques to successfully complete these courses.
Another hour had soon flown by and we were soon all back together again just in time to grab a swift cup of hot something.  Helen then lead the group in answering outstanding questions and, in a response to a question, Sue went into the details of Control Descriptions.
We then moved on to where they could next experience an orienteering event, and talked a little about upcoming HH events.
We finally concluded with the strong feeling that we would see all attendees again in the near future – at an event.
If any members or indeed non-members feel they would benefit from a similar course please get in touch. We do intend to hold one in the future – when will depend purely when we have sufficient people interested.
Do get in touch.

Keith (training@herts-orienteering.club)