"Running at night with limited visibility, is a very good map reading exercise as one has to be more exact in ones orienteering. Compass is also more important at night than in daytime. A normal course will do, but e.g. a corridor is even more interesting.
"A course on a white sheet of paper with only the course drawn (no details at all)."
"Make a course on a reduced map, where the reduced map is made by removing many details in such a way that the compass is the only option for orienteering. For example, you can have a map with only black details left. Use this for compass training."
"Exercise for compass orienteering in which the area between controls is erased using OCAD or drawn black using a covering marker pen. You need to relocate with the features available when you come into the part with map."
"Straight lines are drawn between objects on a normal map. Use compass to go straight between the controls while reading the map along the line. For skilled orienteers, run at high intensity. Both compass and map reading exercise."
"The best orienteers read the map at close to maximum speed. They also have a high map reading frequency, i.e. they look at the map very often. Reading a book or a comic (or even a map) while running is a good exercise in order to train map reading frequency."
"A course on a contour-only map (brown map). The runner must focus on the contours in his/her orienteering as this is the only information on the map. Many variants are given."
"Build the contours contained in a map either in sand or snow in order to show that you understand the concept of contours. This is a beginner exercise."
"Course on a circular contour-only map without north-lines. As the map is without north-lines, the runners can not use the compass to adjust the map to north, and thus it is necessary to concentrate more on reading the contours."
"Course on a circular contour-only map without north-lines. As the map is without north-lines, the runners can not use the compass to adjust the map to north, and thus it is necessary to concentrate more on the map reading."
"Run fast uphill and orienteer downhill while you are tired (overspeed). There are many variants - some of them are described below. Also called Sævig intervals in Norway."
"Run a downhill orienteering course in overspeed, i.e.faster than you normally would do in a competition."
"Draw a simplification map of a leg / a course. A simplification map is a map containing only the details which are necessary to use in the orienteering. There is also a variant involving map memory. It is instructive to run the course on the simplification map afterwards."
"A group of 3-6 runners run together. Only the leader is allowed to read the map. When approaching the area around a control, everybody is allowed to look at the map, and shall relocate and find the control as fast as possible. Take turn on being the leader."
"Course where only a single contour is shown between controls (or between some of the controls). Good to use GPS in evaluation of the training."
"Build up an accurate feeling for distance evaluation in different terrain types using your GPS. Try to run a specified distance in the forest (without looking at your map or GPS), e.g. 100 meters, and check your GPS when you think you have run this distance. Repeat in different terrain types / on paths etc."
"Orienteering race indoors, typically in a gym. Good exercise if it is not possible to run outside - also a good exercise for beginners."
"Take any map, and draw your planned route choice while keeping the pen running all the way from start to finish - never stopping even for half a second, planning your route as you draw."
"Take a course with several long/half-long legs. For each leg, divide the leg into parts by identifying your attackpoints, i.e. the points on the leg which are your safe points where you need to be 100% sure about where you are. Mark these attackpoints on the map, and then continue with drawing your planned route for the leg. Repeat for all legs in the course."
"A line is drawn on the map, and the runner is to be on the line at all times. The difficulty of the exercise can be adjusted by varying the terrain, the intensity etc. It is best to use GPS for evaluation of the exercise."
Skills & Development Database