URBAN-O
Parks & Streets more thinking than you think Debbie Dodd
Certain members of the orienteering community believe that Park & Street orienteering is “Orienteering for Dummies”, that it’s not “real” orienteering, or that it’s just a means of keeping fit between bush events. But talk to some of Melbourne’s top Park & Street orienteers, and you’ll find there’s plenty of brain power involved, and a range of “traditional” orienteering skills applied. For those wanting a full mental workout as well as a physical one, Park & Street orienteering offers a high level, rapid-fire problem-solving challenge. And just like any other form of orienteering, it’s not necessarily the fastest who wins. Tactics and strategy play a major role.
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urning over a map when the starter says “GO” and seeing 20 or more controls presents hundreds of options. Add to that the pressure of a mass start where your rivals may be already off and running, where planning time is virtually non-existent, where the smallest error or distraction can be very costly, and the first decision you make is critical – that’s a lot of information to process. In any given minute, it’s possible, in fact quite common, for me to have many of the following thoughts (in no particular order): Am I going the shortest/simplest/flattest way? How many streets before I turn? How long will this leg take me? Am I going fast enough? Can I keep up this pace? How many more controls will I get? Should I drop that 2-pointer even though it’s quite close? Have I looked far enough ahead? What are my rivals doing? Why is no-one else going the same way as me? That roast dinner smells great, I’m hungry! Did I check my watch against the master clock?
Many Park & Street orienteers have translated their skills successfully into other forms of orienteering, most notably the park sprint format (in which Australia holds a world championship gold medal!). Adam Scammell is an elite orienteer whose results at national level had been unremarkable until the 2006 Australian Sprint Championships in York, WA. His 7th placing amongst many more highly credentialed and experienced orienteers caught most by surprise, except for those who have seen Adam race regularly in the Melbourne suburbs. Tim Hatley and John Sheahan put their years of Park & Street experience to good use in becoming Australian age-group Sprint champions. Park & Street orienteering gives the tactically-minded competitor endless opportunities to outsmart their rivals and/or the course setter. After listening to many of the lively discussions that inevitably follow an event, I decided to find out what all that strategic thinking is about. I gathered the ideas of eight of Melbourne’s top competitors in various course categories. None of them are necessarily the fastest, but all are “park-street wise” and love to outthink their rivals. Of course, being able to compete strategically is highly dependent on having a good course set – but that’s a topic for another time. “A” course is the longest and the easiest to plan, as competitors usually must find most or all of the controls with fewer choices. The competition is more about tactics to throw off rivals. “B” course has fewer controls so more decisions to make. “C” and “D” courses, although the shortest, are the hardest to plan because there are so many options available. They are less subject to pack running, and seem to generate the most post-event comparisons. Power Walkers are given 60 minutes to get as many points as they can on a Score course, with route choice strongly influenced by the value assigned to each control, and time management becoming critical. Here are my respondents and the courses they typically compete on: •A ndrew Baker (BKV)* and Blair Trewin (MFR) “A” course (10 km scatter-O, 18-19 of 20 controls) •M arta Salek (DRV) and Bruce Paterson (BKV) “B” course (8 km scatter-O, 14-16 controls) • I an Dodd (DRV) and Darian Panter (ARDF junior) - “C” and “D” course (6 and 4 km scatter-O, 10-12 or 7-8 controls) •T ina Smith (DRV) and John Sheahan (BKV) - Power Walkers 60min Score-O (typically cover 7.5-8 km and 12-14 controls) *Andrew’s comments were taken from his article “A guide to street orienteering”, O-Vic Magazine, Summer 2006. Do you spend time planning your route at the start, or do you just go? Andrew: study the pre-event map and look for the closest map edge to the start triangle, which allows a fast start
Should I take a short cut across that rough ground or would the footpath be faster?
Marta: generally don’t plan, may look for one or two difficult controls and get those first. Look at the preevent map to see if there are any steep areas that can hopefully be avoided
Should I slow down up this steep hill and read the map, or should I push on and overtake that person ahead?
Bruce: a very short planning time to get a general gist of direction, may be influenced by direction the A runners went off
Is it worth the risk of being late to get that last control?
Ian: draw a mental “wedge” from the start triangle towards the map edge, covering the largest area that contains no controls. The closest controls on each side of the wedge then become the first and last controls, and the wedge itself is not crossed
Is that fence really uncrossable or is there a gap?
Which side of the road should I be on? Why does the course setter hate me? Have I still got my control card? That’s a lot of brain activity! OK, I admit not all of it is necessarily productive or focussed, but the mind is certainly working as hard as the body. 18 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER MARCH 2007
Darian: spend some time planning the route first Tina: look to see where the highest value controls are positioned
Andrew
Ian
