HIGH PERFORMANCE

Mike Dowling, OA Director, High Performance

Ihave recently returned from the World Orienteering Championships held in the Czech Republic where it was my great privilege to work with a fantastic group of young Australians and coaching staff who were representing us. I found all the Team to be wonderful ambassadors for their country and represented the green and gold in a manner that did them all proud. There is no doubt that international Orienteering is showing some signs of development and increased depth of competition. One significant aspect of this was the competitiveness of the Chinese women’s team in particular. With their access to a huge population base and an enthusiasm for international competitiveness I can see China becoming an international power in Orienteering in years to come. This can only be to the good of our sport and particularly for us as we occupy a geographic proximity on the world Orienteering stage. I was highly impressed with the efforts of all of our Team in striving to achieve their best. While some of the Team may have been disappointed with their actual results, readers can be assured all gave their very best and were extremely supportive and encouraging of the successes of those team members who gained pleasing results. Our women’s team showed the benefits that can be derived by having a good depth of quality competitors encouraging and pushing each other. Our senior members in Kathryn Ewels, Grace Elson and Jo Allison all achieved best ever results at WOC and it was really gratifying to see our new WOC team members in Vanessa Round and Jasmine Neve qualify for their finals. For Jasmine, the WOC experience is one she will come to remember with some fondness in years to come by being the first starter in the final of the Sprint in the fantastic arena the Czech organisers presented our sport in the centre of the beautiful Moravian city of Olomouc. With the race being broadcast live on Czech TV and the many thousands of spectators gathered in the square to witness the races unfold both on the big screens and in the arena of the competition it made for a superb showcase of our sport. Another interesting aspect of the World Championships was the entry profile of orienteers in the supporting public races. I was impressed to see that the biggest entries seemed to have be in the junior classes and judging by the number of young people witnessing the WOC races unfold and the number of youngsters clamouring to get autographs of their national team members it is something we need to take on board to grow our sport here at home. It certainly showed why the Czechs are one of the world powers of international Orienteering.

Welcome Dave

As I write this column our new Manager, Coaching & Officiating Development, Dave Meyer, is settling into his role. Dave is based at our National Office in Canberra and is a welcome addition to carry forward the important aspects of coaching & officiating development for Australian Orienteering. One of the key first tasks Dave is engaged in is getting to grips with the new online accreditation system for coaches and officials for sports developed by the Australian Sports Commission. What this new system will allow us to do is to provide a better method for keeping track of our currently accredited coaches and officials and to keep better track of when their respective accreditations are due for renewal. Another important job Dave is engaged in is planning to conduct a national Level 2 coaching course later in the year to build our coaching capacity and skills for a number of our key coaches. Finally, it is our intention to build coaching & officiating resources on our national website so coaches and officials have ready access to such resources to enable them to more effectively develop coaching activities and improve event management procedures.

Planning For The Next Quadrennium 2009-2012

Both the Foot and MTBO High Performance Management Groups are busy developing a new High Performance Strategic Plan for the next four year period. Such a plan is a necessary requirement of our continued funding through the Australian Sports Commission and also to inform us as to how we can build on our international status as the leading non-European Orienteering nation. The plan underpins all our elite development activities and support programs from our national squads through to our national teams and the necessary support structures required to ensure our teams can do our country proud in international competition. As always we welcome input from the wider orienteering public as many people have great ideas to further the development of our competitive capacities in the international arena. If you have any ideas or thoughts these are most welcome from my perspective. I’m always available to listen to your ideas and can be readily reached via email at oa_highperformance@netspeed.com.au

Good Coaching: A Vital Necessity In Our Great Sport

As readers of my column will regularly know I am passionate about the need to develop our coaching infrastructure. OA attaches great importance to the necessity for good coaching at all levels of our sport to enable orienteers at all levels of experience to gain greater enjoyment from our fantastic sport. I work with a brilliant group of young orienteers in Hobart over a number of years and have been very privileged to see how they have made so much improvement in their orienteering and also built some wonderful friendships. It is a rewarding aspect of our sport and I really encourage more orienteers to take on such a role. Contact your State Coaching Director and see how you can be involved? The rewards are really worth the effort!