Analyzing o-technique How to analyze your competitions and o-trainings in order to improve your technical skills

Overview Split times Drawing your routes GPS track Camera Analyzing Conclusion

Split times Just by checking the split times you can easily spot even some small mistakes. Nowadays it’s a lot of tiny tools you can use for that. Ex. WinSplits. Once you know where you loose time you can focus on the map analyze at these places afterwards. Of course you can also see how you are going on the good legs compared to the others.

Drawing your route Discuss the terrain/routes with the others right after the race/training. Drawing your route on the map after the race/technical training is important. Then you visualize what you have done out there. It’s fun to draw your route before you see the gps track and compare them afterwards. This may give you a clear view if you have been in control all the way.

GPS track* Adjust your gps track on the map and see what really has happened . Compare it with the route you have drawn in advance. Look at the pace, hearth rate, ascending and descending and evaluate the mistakes or the good sides of your run. Check out other gps tracks from the competition which are online (different route choices or features selection). *You need GPS watch (logger) and QuickRoute

Camera* Running with a headcam gives you even more information for analyzing. Combined with the gps track it might be analyzed even after some time and from others. A kind of good way that coaches actually look through your eyes and see what you do out there in the terrain. *You need a sports headcam (like GoPro for ex.)

Analyzing the gps track What you should look for at the gps track at QuickRoute is where the pace goes down and think why? Was it a hesitation or you needed a bit more map-reading? Were you unsecure or was it just worse runnability? Look at the mistakes. When did you loose the contact with the map/terrain? Why? Was it after a steep uphill or was it going downhill too fast without checking the map? Was it poor runnability and you didn’t check the map enough so you gain time? Have you forgotten to do the basic orienteering stuff – following compass, leg preparation in advance, good selection of visible features during a leg? See what went good or perfect! Why? This is also important so you can train it and be even better!

Analyzing video + gps* It’s difficult for coaches to follow (all) their elite athletes in the forest (in trainings) and forbidden in competitions. Running with a headcam is essential then. Look for what was good or bad during the run – Do you see something you should’ve seen during the run but you didn’t? Why? It’s even easier to recognize hesitations and small looses from video. Were you looking in the right direction for the things you wanted to see? Or were you trying to see everything in the terrain which slows you down when you already had a clear feature in front of you? *You need also software like RgMapVideo or Camolyze to combine video with gps.

Map reading frequency With a proper headcam movie you can also analyze your map reading frequency. The best orienteers have a very high map reading frequency - and they can read the map at close to full speed. Having a good map reading technique is vital for an elite orienteer. An elite orienteer should optimize his map reading technique by determining if the map reading frequency is too high/low, if the map reading time is too long/short (can be coupled to other technical training), how map reading influences on running speed, stop-time at controls / out of controls / into controls for map reading, etc.

Conclusions When you do all the analyzing you should know where and why you have lost time. Where and why you have done the job well. You’ll know your strong and weak sides! Then you should focus on them in your o-trainings. Special trainings with emphasize – compass running, map with only contours, line-orienteering, O-corridor, downhill orienteering, different type of O-intervals and so on.

Questions? Any questions or suggestions?

Thank you Thanks Kongsberg O-lag! I’m glad I’ve been part of such a great team full of young and perspective talents and with so friendly atmosphere. Thank you once again and good luck!