* Prime Preparation
Prime Preparation
By Matt Ogden, June 2018
Orienteering is, in part, a sport of preparation. Failing to prepare, is preparing to fail.
Developing as an orienteer, I was very fortunate to have a number of great mentors (including Thierry Gueorgiou) who instilled in me the importance of preparation. This, I believe, has been critical to putting together some of my best performances and so I thought I would share some of my thoughts on how one prepares for an orienteering race/competition. This is also particularly timely given that a number of our juniors and seniors are heading to Europe (or have already left) to compete at various international competitions. But also, now in the winter, where it’s nicer to be in doors we can reflect on the most recent races, Nationals and JAFA, and how we should prepare for the next.
Preparing for the next race by finding all the old and relevant maps.
The saying goes (or some variant of) – There are 6 P’s to success: perfect preparation prevents piss poor performance. As I have alluded to in past coaching corners, orienteers are particularly good at identifying the mistakes in our races and not highlighting the parts or legs that we do well. In fact, we could define an orienteering performance first by understanding the time we would take for an impossible “perfect performance” and then all actions taken to deviate from this unicorn time. How to reduce the magnitude of this deviation? I believe is achieved by being well prepared.
I encourage you to think how you currently prepare for a race, then try take in some of the point’s I will raise below. Preparing doesn’t mean taking a race super seriously or is restricted to the elite runners; instead it is a small set of physical, technical, and mental primers to help you get into the mood for race day. Remember, it is always more fun having a good race, not one riddled with mistakes, therefore I think we can all gain from a little preparation.
Physical Primers
Of course, nothing beats a race in which we are well-trained and fit. But if you prefer just to orienteer casually or haven’t had the time for much training prior to your race, there is nothing worse than turning up to the start line cold. A light jog the day before or a good warm-up before your race can do wonders for priming your body for the physical demands of orienteering. You need as much as oxygen as possible going to the brain when orienteering, so just being a little more ready physically can do wonders for your technical performance.
Technical Primers
Geoff Mead highlighted some training that we can do on the couch if we are surrounded by inclement weather or injured. These tips are equally valid before a race to get us into the right headspace for orienteering.
Additionally we can:
- Develop a picture of the map and terrain in our heads so that before we pick up the map and head to the start triangle we have a fair idea of what to expect. This is relatively easy in Woodhill, where we have run so many times before and know what to expect, but can be more challenging in unfamiliar terrain.
- Know where the event centre is and any particular event-specific information. This is easy if there is a beautiful bulletin, such as for Jafa, otherwise the event usually has some details which you can use to figure out where the event centre is.
- Have a go at estimating the course, and therefore what kind and when you should expect different types of terrain etc.
Using the Bulletin information provided by the event organisers can help you to build a picture in your head of how the event centre, terrain, and course will play out.
Mental Primers
This is very individual and probably the most difficult thing to nut out. Some people learn quickly what to do to get the most out of their mind and body whereas others need to invest more effort. For me, after much iteration, many years getting super nervous as a junior, I realised that the most important thing for me before a race is energy. If I go into a race with good energy levels, excited to race and wanting to race, then this generally coincides with a better performance. I invest so much on the technical side of the sport, so that when I hit that start line, as long as I am motivated and wanting to be there, then I will focus on the necessary tasks.
A little pre-race caffeine always gets me in the mood, or watching some sick orienteering.
So with that, I leave you with some ideas to think about for how to prepare for your next orienteering race. As with so many things that we do, everyone has their own way and own style. So I encourage you to ask some of the more experienced orienteers in the club how they prepare for their races and then develop your own style that works best for you!
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