With Covid 19 restricting many sports, activities and travel, this is an ideal time to promote orienteering in local parks and urban spaces.  Permanent Orienteering Courses (POCs) already provide a great resource and with these self-help coaching films, they can be used more fully, not only to introduce new audiences to orienteering but also to help them make progress by learning new skills and practising techniques.  By following this series and making use of POCs, beginners will develop both the confidence and experience to try tackling a course at a club event.

The four films are titled Getting Started, Getting Going, Getting Confident and Getting Faster.

1. Getting Started gives information on orienteering maps, useful symbols to note, how courses are drawn, and what to look for at checkpoints or controls.  It also shows how to line up the map with features nearby, a key skill to help the novice orienteer set off in the right direction.
2. Getting Going covers more detail on the map, shows how to use a compass, simple route choices, how to use features other than paths as handrails, and when to cut corners.
3. Getting Confident gives tips on techniques that help build more confidence in navigational decisions. These include learning to take a sure route into a checkpoint, finding a safety net if you overshoot and using control descriptions to visualise the checkpoint.
4. Getting Faster demonstrates where to plan ahead, where to speed up and slow down and gives some tips on reading the map on the run.

MDOC hopes that clubs around the UK will find these new films useful during Covid and beyond.  The films are ideal to complement coaching sessions with beginners or groups such as schools and scouts.  The series can also be promoted alongside any information on POCs as both a safe and easy way to introduce newcomers to our sport, build on that first adventure and create a stepping stone to coming to regular events.

The ‘Get Out & Go’ films were made in Queen's Park (Bolton), Woodbank Park (Stockport) and Bramhall Park (Stockport) starring members of several local clubs.

Topics covered in the four videos are:

Video 1: Getting started

• The map
• Courses and controls
• Orientate the map
• Safety

Video 2: Getting Going

• More map symbols
• More complex courses
• Orientate the map with a compass
• Handrails and short cuts

Video 3: Getting Confident

• Attack Points
• Using a compass
• Catching features
• Control descriptions

Video 4: Getting Faster

• Traffic Lighting
• Planning Ahead
• Reading the map on the run

Links to further info:

MDOC: www.mdoc.org.uk

SELOC: www.seloc.org.uk

Greater Manchester Orienteering Activities (GMOA) is a volunteer organisation run jointly by MDOC and South East Lancashire Orienteering Club (SELOC), that creates and maintains Permanent Orienteering Courses in and around Greater Manchester.  The courses are located in over 60 parks and green spaces across all ten metropolitan boroughs as well as neighbouring areas.  For details, visit: www.gmoa.org.uk

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