Promoting the Social Aspect

Last night, we had a barbecue with all the folks in the local orienteering community. It was a really fun evening in which we had a chance to catch up with people and socialize. It occured to me that we don’t do enough of that. We should look for different ways to emphasize the social aspect of sport.

When we were at GHO in Hamilton, many of the club members regularly used to go out for dinner after events. It was great. I think it really added to the close knit feeling of the club. This is not unlike ball teams going out for a pint after their games.

We should also do a better job of encouraging socializing at our events. The NAOC and Barebones events were a wonderful example of how planning a stadium area and getting participants to walk a little ways away from their cars creates a great atmosphere rather than folks running their course and then immediately heading off. 

As coaches, we also need to think about fun social activities for our athletes between races. At Barebones, Darryl, one of the parents, took his son and another athlete for an afternoon of whitewater rafting. I will consciously try to plan more activities like this if I am a team leader in the future. When I was training seriously, I was used to just relaxing between races to conserve energy. For kids, the entire experience is important, not just the races.

My other goal is to have some small training camps for the kids. Camps are a great opportunity for everyone to bond and have fun doing orienteering and non-orienteering stuff. I think a nice legacy of the 2011 Canadian Orienteering Championships will be the maps we have south of town at Lewes Lake, Mt Lorne and Carcross. Of course, we could have a fabulous camp with orienteering on some maps that aren’t used as frequently. Just camping out and adding some other activities could be really fun. I know there is some great hiking in the area as well.