High Performance Program Application

With the December 31 deadline for application to the Canadian Orienteering Federation’s High Performance Program coming up, I spent a good chunk of the evening going over the application with a couple of my athletes. The application process is a bit tedious and difficult especially if you have never done it before. But SO worthwhile! Actually, we should have gone through this at the end of the O season, but I have been adjusting to parenthood and the athletes have been pretty busy with skiing.

At any rate, the major elements include race analysis of 4 races from the past season including splits and routes (you can check out Dahria’s entry on Attackpoint) and goalsetting (more on that next time).

RACE ANALYSIS

There are certainly lots of ways to do race analysis. Regardless of what method you choose, the important thing is to take something from each race and try to improve upon it for the next race. However, it is important not to get bogged down in the mistakes. Make sure to include some of the positives as well.

I think many people do what Dahria has done–go through their races leg by leg making comments. The advantage of this is that you can really focus on feelings and thoughts which are such a major element of orienteering success.

Another way to do it would be to fill out a form. Usually this method includes some sort of data: time lost, percentage behind, etc. I personally like this form that was created by Adrian a few years ago. He obviously put a lot of thought into it. The first thing I like is that there is a planning element to get you thinking about your race before you run it. The second thing I like is the accompanying form for comparing your race statistics over the season.

Yet another way to analyze your races would be to do what Katta Smith showed me at a camp a few years ago. She simply drew a horizontal line on the edge of her map. In point form, above the line she would put positives and below the line she would put “needs improving”. In keeping with what I was saying earlier about not dwelling on mistakes too much, she emphasized always putting more positives than “needs improving”. The obvious advantage to this is it doesn’t take very long. It is better to do something than nothing at all.