Bubble explorer

Description
Entarînement.scorePlan a course and increase the size of the circles. The control is not in the middle of the circle. The runners can go to one or more “circles”. They must find the control by exploring the area in the circle, put it on the map and give its definition in text or in IOF symbol

Alternative
Make the bubbles a little larger and give a clue to find the control (point symbol, intersection …)

Comment 
For this exercise, the young runners should do maximum 3 circles before coming back to check that they can put the control on the map

Contributor
Nathalie Rauturier

Mill

DescriptionMoulin
Give to each runner a control number from 1 to 9 (for the adjacent example). Each runner must punch all the controls in order. If a runner starts with marker 2, he punches 2 to 9, then 1 and back. The objective is to chase the one in front without being caught by the one behind.

Alternative
Each runner can go and put out his control, do the course and then put down his control. The objective is then to succeed in punch all the controls before they are collecting. This alternative can only be organised with experimented runners.
Christine’s suggestion: If, however, the level of the runners is heterogeneous, it is possible to pre-marked one or more controls so that the objective of running on high speed is achieved.

Comment
The more homogeneous the group is, the more interesting and challenging the exercise is.

Contributor
Nathalie Rauturier

Online training

Tranemo ( English )

Description
tranemo-demoRelay situation
Mass start.
When you arrive at the first control (31), the runners  go alternately on the blue or green branch. In practice, the first runner who punches th control, shouts the colour he has chosen (e.g. “blue”); the next runner to come shouts green, the next one blue…
At each control, with a blue/green choice, the first of a group to arrive shouts the chosen colour and the others behind alternate. If the runner arrives alone, he chooses his colour.

In the second loop, runners do the legs they did not do in the first rloop and take the purple dotted lines between the common posts (33 to 35 below) to avoid doing the same thing twice.

Tranemol

Alternative

  • If the blue and green legs are of different lengths, the runners will be either hunted or hunter, a situation often found in the last relay
  • if the branches are equivalent, we will simulate more first relays, with contact race

Comment

  • Very interesting if you have a homogeneous group
  • Be careful with the planning: the positions of the legs (e.g. 31 and 32) must not be too close, so that the second loop is really different from the first one
  • It is more readable if you just write the codes and not the order 
  • If possible, provide an explanation, sitting down, with a practical example and put someone at the first control to check that it is understood
  • After a fork, you can put one common control (ex 39) to allow runners to regroup

Contributor
Nathalie Rauturier

Memorisation

Description
Plan a course and put a map of the course at each control. At the starting point, the runner memorizes the route to go to  control 1. Then at 1, he memorizes the route to go to 2. He has to select only the essential elements to find the control.

Alternative

  • Plan a star course, or small loops to make the exo easier
  • Plan a score around the start point. Leave the map on the start. Be careful to leave a limited time for memo (10 seconds?). The purpose is to reproduce what we do during a race, not to test our memory capacity.

Comment

  • Avoid planing legs, which can only be done with a compass
  • The memo map attached to the control must be able to turn for orientation

Contributor
Nathalie Rauturier

Zero Stop ( English)

Description
Plan a course. The instruction is never stop running.
=> adapt your speed to be able to read your map at the same time
=> memorise as much information as possible each time you read the map
=> if you have not anticipated correctly, you continue to run near the control to decide where you are going, but you never walk

Alternative

  • you are only allowed to stop at the controls
  • you have someone behind you who counts how many times you stop.

Comment

Contributor
Nathalie Rauturier

Win, lose or draw

Description
Image0002The map with the course remains at the start point. The runner has a blank sheet of paper. He draws the elements that are useful to find the controls, without forgetting to draw the North, the number and definition of each control. The purpose of the exercce is to learn to select the important elements that will help us to find the controls.

entrainement 4.Parc. 1 bis

Variante

  • entrainement 4.Parc. 1 bisTo simplify, give to the runner the course without the map. The locations of the controls are already indicated making the drawing easier
  • This exo can be used as a put out/ put down exercice. A runner puts out a control with a map. When he comes back, he puts down his map, does not look at it anymore and draws on a paper the route to find the control. He gives the paper to another runner, who should put down the control. Laugh, endless discussions or shouting  are guaranteed… you have to use the elements selected (and drawnn) by another person!

Comment
Highly instructive

Contributeur
Nathalie Rauturier

Contour quiz

Description
This is a quiz to do during a jog. It trains you to stabilise your gaze for map reading and to understand contour.

Quiz 1

Quiz 2

Alternative
You can answer these quiz in front of the fireplace

Comment
Nathalie still does not have the answers. But you can argue if you don’t agree with each other, and that’s also another exercise!

Contributor
Philippe Boulestreau

Brown map

Description
.Relief-HardA brown map is an exercice to focus on contours training. 
To make it, you just hide all th symbols except the brown ones on the map and then plan a course.

Alternative
To make it less difficult, you can plan a star course and leave the paths. Be careful with the instructions: the paths are only there to relocate if necessary, not to get as close as possible to the control by avoiding reading the contour lines 😉

Relief-EtoileTo make it more difficult, you can get rid off the North lines

Comment
This exercise is “scary”. It is a good idea to propose different steps before going into a complete brown course: brown and path star course, brown star course, then small loops. Also let people having a spare map, in the pocket.

Contributor
Nathalie Rauturier

White map

Description
Carte blancheThis exercise gives you the opportunity to work on accurate bearing and distance evaluation.

Alternative
The exercise can be done as a circuit, but it may be wise to have a spare map in your pocket.

You can add false controls to check the precision of your bearing: either false because not exactly the right angle, or false because not at the right distanceCarte blanche avec faux

Comment
You should plan situations that you can face during a race, so there is no point in working out precise bearings of more than 200m.

Be careful not to forget to mention the scale of the map.

Contributor
Nathalie Rauturier et Christine Verdeil