What a fantastic morning at today’s Club Meet in Lady Dixon Park! A huge thank-you goes to our brilliant coaches Philip, Helen and Olivia Baxter, along with their ever-helpful assistant Alan Elwood. More than 30 club members turned out and were treated to a lively session focused on relay skills ahead of the upcoming JK and Irish Orienteering Championships.
Philip kicked things off with the help of some volunteer juniors, explaining the concept of “gaffling” — and why it’s very important not to blindly follow someone who might be heading to a completely different control! To put it all into practice, Philip and the coaching team had placed an impressive 54 mini kites around the park, to tempt anyone who wanted to go flag-hunting on their personalised maps and courses.
The courses wound through the rose gardens, creating just the kind of pressure that relay racing brings. It was surprisingly easy to visit the wrong control what with all the other runners around, a crowded situation many of us solo orienteers aren’t used to dealing with! There were planned pauses a third and two-thirds of the way round so everyone could regroup and reflect. Were we actually checking the control numbers on the map? Had we been pulled along in a train of runners? Did we really have an attack point for each leg?
After that it was time to ramp things up with a quick 3-person team relay, each runner tackling around 1 km. It was a fun, energetic way to put the morning’s lessons into practice and added just the right amount of competitive spirit.
All in all, it was a superb morning of orienteering training and clearly the result of a huge amount of preparation by Philip and the coaching team. He even managed to arrange for the sun to shine — the first time in months!
Club Meets are a brilliant opportunity to sharpen your orienteering skills, pick up coaching tips, and enjoy time with fellow club members. The next one will be on Saturday 11 April, when we’ll be focusing on contours ahead of the Irish Orienteering Championships. Don’t miss it!