Just checking what team USA are up to, and it seems they have a new coach. Remember the current North American champ is none other than our own Matt Scott, not sure if he is planning on WOCing in the near future, will have to catch up and check his plans.
The nights are the 30th and 31st of May. The lodge is right next to the map. There is a cafe just down the road, great rock climbing across the valley and a bit of tennis and MTB as well. There is a spa too. There are several accomodation options which hopefully we can fill up, I need to know numbers within a week so I can confirm the booking. N Squad/D Squad/parents/supporters/legends and fringe get priority. Hopefully those of you that are more pecunious can shell out for the more expensive option, I will try and sort rooms out as best as I can, feel free to offer me advice, but understand my constraints. Since we hopefully will book the whole place out the available facilites will be available for everyone, Jamie's rules.
The Lodge
24 beds available at $25pp per night.
CastleRock Lodge is a beautifully renovated homestead with magnificent views of the CastleRock rock-climbing crag. There is a large Rimu kitchen and lounge room, two showers and toilets, laundry with washer and dryer, internet access, guest telephone, a tennis court (racquets/balls provided), barbeque, outdoor pool & spa. Bed linen is provided, towels are available at $3pp per stay.
The Woolshed 19 beds available at $10pp per night.
The woolshed is situated three minutes from the Lodge. It has a basic kitchen, shower and toilet. There are 19 mattresses that can be spread on the floor Marae style. I have stayed here before it is fun.
Camping 6 max person spots available at $12pp per night. (limited by facilities).
The campsite is located just before the Woolshed and is ideal as an overflow for groups of more than 19.
Mistake analysis, is about looking back and seeing which moments got the better of you, when you should have slowed down, looked up, made sure of a compass, come up with a detailed plan or basically done anything to kick the butt of that particular moment.
A common mistake is looking at the outcome of your mistake as the mistake, rather than as the stupid, idiotic running around in circles, crazy man routine you done after you've let yourself down further back in the leg. To embarass myself I have a couple of examples from the weekend below (you can't make mistakes like these and beat Bill Edwards of sanddune terrain no matter how fast you run the rest of the course.
Leg No 3: Heading out of 2 my bearing was only very rough. I hit the track and raced over it trying to find a good path through the very rough terrain. I didn't give myself a chance. I was running along a slope, but I actually thought I was further to the right, running along a parallel slope, hence when I came to a low point in the ridge I headed hard left, only swerving back right when I saw the road fast approaching. The latter mistakes in the leg are there for your amusement but arose largely because I had lost all confidence in my angles and exactly where I was. The major mistake that wrecked the leg for me was very early on crossing the track and not making 100% certain at this very easy point. I had a chance to correct myself at the 2nd x but again failed to do so. I got mastered by the moments.
Leg No 17: I had decided in the route choice before clipping 16 and creamed it down the hill to the clearing and round the track, swinging wildly onto the ridge, I made connection with it briefly, but thought that the control was a bit further off the ridge lines direction than it actually was. It turned to custard out there in the flatter stuff and my recovery was poor. Again I made my mistake the best part of 200 metres from the control circle where I lacked the discipline to hug the linear feature and work out a clear plan for attacking the circle. The mistake wasn't where things started looking uncertain within 100metres of the control. It was where they felt so easy and in control where I have marked the X.
If you are into it, have a look at a recent map or two and try to identify where you really made your mistake, not what the outcome was. When was the moment that you could have put a plan in place or exercised some discipline to prevent the mistake from happening?
Nerves? They are only wires in your head
The stock answer is go slow, give yourself time to get into the map. Now this is all well and good, but it has to be time well spent. Oceania relays I picked up the map went real slow, concentrated on going slow, couldn't really identify anything on the ground, and made a big flat slow error. I came to the conclusion going slow is no good.
So I was thinking the other day, what is it that is different between the first control and others. Theres the usual answers; nerves, distractions, concentration, not into "the map", but the one thing that I came up with is that the first control is often the only one where you run through your start point (the start triangle) at full speed. We practice doing orienteering legs from control to control, much more often than we do from start triangle to control, and as we know orienteering is a fine balance game between speed and navigation. I followed this thinking and looked back at a few maps and found that almost all my first control mistakes came on controls which involved a decent run to the start triangle (as opposed to those you pick your map up at the start triangle or close to).
Maybe it would be a better strategy to replicate what I do most often, run from control to control. Use the run to the start triangle to plan ahead, assess exit direction then slow down and even fake punch the start triangle before treating no1 like anyother leg, including if necessary a compass bearing right from that point, not on an angle at speed. Just some thoughts anyway, whaddya reckon?
we have managed to sign up Kenneth Buch as the coach for the WOC 2009 team. Have a look at the interview that Jamie made with Kenneth on the http://osquad.blogspot.com/ He is the youngest high profile orienteering coach around. Further information will flow to the members of the 2009 WOC team when it is selected - if anybody wants more information at the moment they are welcome to contact me.
*****World Games 2009 - availability for selection
20. March - Last day for getting your name down for trial for World Games 2009 - see further information on the nzorienteering.com (only the sprint and middle at Nationals counts towards selection - not the long)
******Pinestars Tops
The dudes that has been representing the Pinestars and have the new Pinestars tops - should bring these to Nationals (or organise for someone else to bring to Nationals or send to me) for collection and storage to have them ready for the next Pinestars Team! Could all the ones that have a Pinestars top please indicate this to me and tell me the size of it for the records.
******Nationals 2009!
Yep, it is soon - the ultimately legendary Nationals 2009 - get your entries in to be a part of it and get some awesome orienteering - as well as a chance of being a champ! Entries close on the 11:00pm Thursday 26th March 2009 Here is the link: http://www.madeventz.co.nz/auckoc/default.cfm And it looks like Jack's Beef Snacks are sponsoring!Be there- or you'll miss out!
