In Florida we have over 60 high schools participating in our JROTC orienteering competitions. Few have coaches or instructors with background in competitive orienteering. They need help to help their students. This presentation is designed to bring some coaching basics to the orienteering coaching novice.

1. O O O O O O O
O
O
O O
V V V V
V
V V
V V V
V
It was more than 50 years ago but I’ll never forget that lesson I learned. It wasn’t even orienteering.
I was a new high school teacher coaching my first football team.
I had meticulously prepared a playbook diagramming the plays we would be running that season.
All the offensive players in the formations were designated with circles, the defense with Vs.
The paths for the backs and blocking assignments for the line were all there.
All the players had to do was memorize their particular assignment for each play.
After several practices things were still not going so well and one player, Roger, an offensive guard,
seemed particularly lost.
“Roger, haven’t you read your playbook?” I yelled.
“Yes, but I don’t know what all those X’s and O’s mean,” he matter-of-factly replied.
Begin with the basics. Don’t take anything for granted, I learned. And do not overestimate understanding.
“We should not overestimate
understanding”
Some suggestions for the orienteering instructor

2. So it is with orienteering map reading. We orienteers pick up a map and it looks like this.
We know every symbol and everything makes sense. Or we hope it does.

3. Water
Water
сухопутный
Дерево
Дерево
Дерево
Дерево
Яма
Яма
Яма
След
След
След
Забор
Леса
Леса
болотный
Поля
Поля
Поля
Поля
However, for the new orienteer the map might just as well look like this:
красивый
лес
(Except for Russian speakers who would have no problem understanding this ‘map’)

4. Water
Water
Land
Fence
Tree Tree
Tree
Tree
Pit Pit
Pit
Marsh
Woods
Woods
Fields
Fields
Fields
Fields
Trail
Trail
Trail
Trail
We have to help the new orienteer pick up a map and see this:
Open
woods
Parking

5. Immediately after the start I’ll cross a stream
Moving along the trail going east I’ll go past three pits on the right.
There will be water on my left.
After 200 meters at the trail junction, I will go to the left / northeast
As I come into the clearing (25 meters) I look to the right and
see a thicket. I’ll head to the thicket and there is the flag.
This is how the orienteers should see each leg of their course:
(Reading from bottom)
The stream, the pits, the trail junction and the clearing are ‘landmarks’ the
orienteer picks to know he/she is on the correct route when they are seen.
North

6. What is happening out there?
Florida and Suncoast Orienteering
use Livelox to track willing
orienteers.
The playback information
provides insight in to where the
orienteers went and should help
them understand what happened
when they went off their
intended route. These are the
tracks of intermediate (Orange
Course) males in a recent JROTC
competition.
Two of the tracked orienteers
pretty well nailed the best route
choices.
One orienteer, the green line,
took 7:31 minutes. Red line was
8:46
The others each went off course at some
point, taking from 15 to 44 minutes to
complete the leg. Was there one problem?
Not just one. However, many seemed to be
too careless choosing the right trail in the
circled area. A careful check of the compass
would help there.
Problem #2 – “Relocation” How do they get
back on track?

7. Wish that was a one-of but we see it over and over again, competition after competition.
Why? What is going wrong? What is missing from their orienteering skill set?

8. What makes orienteering unique and
fascinating is that, like fingerprints and
snowflakes, no two orienteering legs are
the same. Even when you return to the
same area the organizer will set different
legs.
What is missing is an ability to plan.
So how do you plan when every leg is different?

9. As they look at each of the legs, orienteers could be reciting the mantra
Direction – Distance – Landmarks – Attack Point (Acronym: DeeDeeLAP)
Put together they help us make our Route Choice!
Decision Making Orienteering Problem Solving
Social scientists tell us that the way to make decisions and solve problems are very similar:
• Collect information
• Sort through to the important information
• Select best alternative
• Carry though on selection
• Make adjustments along the way
In orienteering that is what we do every race over and over again. We get pretty good at
decision-making when we have a plan.
However, a study of Livelox routes makes me believe that most cadets do not have a
‘game plan’ to approach orienteering legs.
Every course is unique and every leg on every course is also different from the others.
One formula can be used to produce solutions to each navigation ‘problem’.

10. While each leg may be different the formula for success is the same:
• Study the map
• Look for Direction, Distance, Landmarks and an Attack Point to
the next control point
• Make a decision and Go
Check direction, distance and landmarks along the way
Go to the next control but be prepared to
• Adjust when necessary,
• Use the Attack Point when necessary
Plan ahead
• Use ‘easy running’ time on one leg to plan routes for future legs
• Always plan your route away from the next control before you
get to it. Do not be standing there as a beacon for orienteers
coming up behind.
DDLAP (DeeDeeLAP)
Direction
East on trail
Direction ENE
Landmark
Water
Landmark
Trail Junction
Attack Point
Trail and clearing

11. Direction
In which direction do you leave the next control?
Yes, they can study a leg before they get to it. That
makes getting under way much quicker.
Distance
Not just distance from one control to the next but distance
to the first and subsequent decision points along the way.
If pace count overshoots that distance it is immediately time
to reconsider what has happened and make adjustments.
Landmarks
These are features along the route marked on the map that
when you get there you will know the location and know you
are on or off course.
Keep the eyes moving. It always amazes me how much some
orienteers cannot see because they do not look around.
Attack Point
Look for a significant, can’t miss landmark
feature that can help you get a precise direction
and distance into the next control point.

12. Let's go back to that leg we showed
earlier. The one with all the disasters:
And see how it can be simplified
with a DDLAP plan
While it may initially look complicated it is not. In
practice the features are rolling in to and out of
focus.
For instance, we have an attack point in mind but
we do not worry about it while we are leaving the
last control.
We concentrate on getting to that trail then going
north.
The next important point is Landmark 7, the trail
junctions. We must get the direction correct there.
The map tells us north. Landmark 8 tells us that
marsh will be on our right. 5
6

13. Does your team know about ‘traffic light’
orienteering?
• Green light area – full speed ahead as the navigation is easy. Also
known as Rough Orienteering.
• Amber light area – slow down a bit and read the map more
carefully. The navigation is getting trickier.
• Red light area – slow down a lot. Near the control or in other
spots where the navigation is also tricky. Also known as Precision
Orienteering.

14. Some More Stuff
• Quizzes
• Bringing training close to home
• Mapping for Training
• Master Maps for Training
• Orienting the Map
• The Compass
• Review

15. Orienteering Pop Quiz # 1
What are the five colors on an orienteering map and what does each
represent?
_______________ ____________________________
_______________ ____________________________
_______________ ____________________________
_______________ ____________________________
_______________ ____________________________
What color is often overprinted on an orienteering map and what are its
two purposes?
_______________ ____________________ ___________________
How much does your team know? Try these five pop quizzes:
(See answers at end of presentation)

16. Orienteering Pop Quiz #2
What symbol is at the center of each numbered
circle on the map?
1) _______________________
2) _______________________
3) _______________________
4) _______________________
5) _______________________
6) _______________________
7) _______________________
8) _______________________
9) _______________________
10) _______________________
11) _______________________
12) _______________________
What is the approximate distance between
Control 3 and 6 ? ________

17. Pop Quiz #3 Clue Sheet Symbols - Basic
1) _______________________
2) _______________________
3) _______________________
4) _______________________
5) _______________________
6) _______________________
7) _______________________
8) _______________________
Insert written description
Symbolic control descriptions (clue sheets)
were devised in the 1980s to help
international traveling orienteers to
understand the descriptions in a country
where they might not understand the
language.
(Once in Austria I had the edge of a
cultivated field translated as ‘Edge of
Civilization’)
The symbols are also helpful for the
course planner as they take less room
than written descriptions to print on the
map.

18. Start _____________________
1 _______________________
2 _______________________
3 _______________________
4 _______________________
5 _______________________
6 _______________________
7 _______________________
8 _______________________
9 _______________________
Compulsory marked route from 5 to 6
Distance last control to finish? ____
Orienteering pop quiz #4 (for advanced and intermediate orienteers)
Insert written description
This one is tougher and
requires a good knowledge
of clue sheet symbols, a
knowledge the good
orienteer should master.

19. Pop Quiz # 5: Route choice and staying ‘located’:
Here are three legs from courses at a recent competition.
Have team members 1) draw on the route they would have taken and
2) pick out ‘landmarks’ along their route to use and identify to know they are still on track. Name the feature.
Yellow Course
Orange Course Green Course
‘Landmarks’?
____________
____________
____________
____________
‘Landmarks’?
____________
____________
____________
____________
‘Landmarks’?
____________
____________
____________
____________

20. Not all orienteering training has to take place in the forest, parks or preserves.
Orienteering can take place pretty well anywhere from parks to neighborhoods to school and
university grounds and even in shopping malls.
Here are three places online to find ‘instant orienteering maps.
Google Earth Openstreetmap.org oomap.co.uk
Bring Orienteering practice close to home

21. Samples of a training course in that neighborhood:
Course on Google Earth
Same course on Open Orienteering
Mapper oomap.co.uk
Key advice to help the orienteers:
• Keep moving
• Read the map on the go
• Pick landmarks to keep on track

22. An orienteering map of the school campus
is a good way to teach the orienteering
skills – compass direction, pace counting,
symbol recognition, map memory and
map reading on the go to name a few.

23. Help your team get better results:
1. Run: Train running like the cross-country team does, probably just not as fast.
2. Run and read: Read maps, read books, read the iPhone. Learn to steady the map
in hand so that it can be read on the go.
3. Use master maps for training exercises: participants copy the course on to their
map. This trains the eye to see the map and its detail more clearly.
4. Find small parks with small maps or where maps can be made and have your
team set training courses for each other.
5. Map making: ALL the great orienteers have done some training doing field work
to improve maps. It just trains the orienteering eye more than one can imagine.
Fortunately, it is not hard to do. A pencil and sketch pad can get anyone started.
Then we work up from there.
6. Read about orienteering. The BEST place I know is http://worldofo.com/ a site
run by a volunteer who not too many years ago was a student just like your
team members and when he found orienteering, he found his passion.
7. Neighborhood orienteering. We can’t always get to a park but we can always get
to a map or better yet, make a map. And then run courses on it.
8. Organize orienteering events in your community. These can be fund-raisers for
your team and by having team members set courses they get to see the courses
from a different set of eyes.

24. Key ingredients of a good orienteering physical training program:

25. Map
Drawing
Exercise
Have your team visit an area with
paper, clipboards, pencils and erasers in
hand.
Draw on all the details they see to
create a sketch map of the area. These
do not have to be perfect creations.
Look to see that they are getting the
objects proportional in size and placed
correctly in relation to each other.
Then using one of the maps for a small
‘O meet’ seems to be a great incentive
for the team to do better.
This was an actual exercise for one of our schools. I
regret that no responses came back. They missed a
golden opportunity.

26. Master Maps: Using a master map is the term to describe when orienteers copy the course by hand
from a ‘master map’ to their own map. Years ago, it was a standard practice in
competitions. Now it is hardly used at all, not even in training.
But it should be.
1) It saves map copies as only the exact number are used.
2) It gives particularly the novice orienteer a closer look at
and better understanding of that mysterious map.
A fine point sharpie and a straight edge such as a
compass base plate are best for drawing the lines
and circles.
Some older compasses even come with circular
holes in the baseplate. These are for drawing
control sites on to the map.

27. Orienteering is not just land navigation. It involves problem
solving and decision making. Each time a route choice has been
made the orienteer went through a decision-making process of
selecting information sifting it to get the important information
and then deciding which way to go.
The next step is to carry through on that decision.
Look at each of the maps below.
Which route would you choose 5-6? The routes of three top competitors
Route Choice:
• Consider the information
• Make a decision
• Enact that decision
• Adjust when necessary
Words about
Route Choice
4:36
5:14
11:54
“That’s what we need: officers
who can make decisions.”
-A National Guard sergeant
when learning about
orienteering and decision
making
“Knowing orienteering put me
head and shoulders above my
land navigation classmates.”
-Recent West Point Graduate
“Of all the activities on your resume
orienteering is the most valuable.”
-University ROTC recruiter
to high school orienteer.

28. Keep the Map Ready/ Read on the Run
Study the photos above and notice what those folks all have in common. Yes, they are all orienteers. They are running together as they start out in mass
start races, probably relays. But look closer. Look at the map in their hand, how they are holding it and how many are reading on the run. That is what
orienteers do. That is what you should be doing.
Recently while on a course I came across a young person orienteering. “Where is your map?” I asked. “In my pocket,” she responded. At the time I could
only shake my head in disbelief. There are two very good reasons to never put an orienteering map in a pocket. One is that you cannot read the map
when it is hidden away. The other is that the maps in Florida are printed on relatively fragile paper. Crumpling breaks the ink bond with the paper and
causes discoloration and lost information. ALWAYS HAVE YOUR MAP PLACED IN THE AVAILABLE PLASTIC BAG. If tape is available seal the open end.
How to hold the map:
Folded to keep
the needed part handy
Oriented so that the map is lined up
with known objects and direction of travel

29. Orienting the Map
Do you have a GPS device in your
car?
Have you noticed that when you are
driving the GPS keeps the direction
you are going to the top of the map
screen. When you change direction,
the screen rotates.
Why is that? It is because that is by
far the easiest way to read and
understand the map.
Same with orienteering. While we are taught in school that
north is printed at the top of the map that changes in the field.
The ‘top’ of the map should be the direction we are going.
Meridian lines on the map and the north direction on the
compass needle should be lined up parallel.
As in the previous slide you can also look
for known features on the map and seen
in the terrain.
Align the map to look like the terrain.
Orienteering roughly comes from a word
meaning ‘facing east’ which is what ancient
explorers did every morning. They faced the
rising sun which they knew came up in the
east. They took their direction from that.
Now, with compasses, we use magnetic north
as the base direction.

30. What about the compass?
Watch out for the dreaded 180
degree error!
This guy has lined up the south
(white) end of the magnetic
needle with the north pointing
meridian lines.
Metric scale If your compass
does not have one then get some
masking tape and draw one on. ALL
orienteering maps use metric
scales. 1:10,000, 1:7,500 etc.
Magnetic Needle
The red end will always
be the one pointing to
magnetic north.
Wrist Lanyard
Always have the
compass in hand and
held by a wrist, not a
neck, lanyard.
The Silva 1-2-3 Method. There are faster ways to use a
compass but it is still reliable.

31. A faster way to use the compass for direction:
The direction to travel shown as an angle off the magnetic
north line.
Notice the leg 8 to 9 on the map below.
You can instantly find your direction of travel
from the compass by reading the same angle
off the magnetic needle which is pointing to
the same magnetic north. (See blue arcs)
That is how a thumb compass is used.
A baseplate compass such as this can be used
the same way with the same fast results.

32. Time for Review

33. Answers to Pop Quiz #1
Overprint
Also out of bounds and dangerous areas
Courtesy of the

34. Answers to Pop Quiz #2
1 Special Object
2 Significant Tree
3 Knoll
4 Road Junction
5 Building
6 Open woods
7 Small trail
8 Stream
9 Hill
10 Marsh
11 Pavilion / Shelter
12 Indistinct trail
What is the approximate distance between Control 3 and 6 ? 250 meters

35. Coniferous tree
Stream/ Trail crossing
Building, East side
Fence, West end
Building, North corner
Road/ Trail Junction
Special object
Power pylon
250 m to Finish
Road/ Stone Wall Junction
Ditch Bend
NE Knoll, 1 m, East side
Between Thickets
Middle Depression, East
Eastern Ruin, West side
Compulsory marked route
Stone Wall, Ruined, SE corner
Spur, NW foot
Upper Cliff, 2 meters
Trail Crossing
250 m to finish
Answer to pop quiz #3
Answer to pop quiz #4

36. https://orienteeringusa.org/youth-leaders/materials
FAQ: “Orienteering has changed a lot since back in the day when I was learning ‘land
nav’. How can I find more up-to-date material that stresses map reading for
navigation?”
Answer: There is lots of instructional material on the web, on YouTube and other
sources. Some of it is good. Unfortunately, a lot of it is not so good.
Two good places to start are:
https://youth.orienteering.org/overview/
For help with creating
orienteering and map reading
exercises around your school
and in your community
contact Gord Hunter:
gordhun@rogers.com