Practical course setting tips by Mike Schuh Last issue I wrote about the general philosophy of course design. In this article I will attempt to cover some practical course setting hints. Let's say you are designing the courses (four of them) for a local club event. In coordination with the Meet Director, you have selected a finish area and start location. Usually, the finish of most local events is located near the registration/refreshments/parking area; the start is often at the same place, but can be a short walk away. At large events, an attempt is often (but sadly, not always) made to stage the finish line in such a way as to create an atmosphere of excitement. At local events, this can sometimes be done, but should be a minor consideration. Safety first! Do any of the legs on your courses encourage the participants to take potentially dangerous routes? I remember one West coast Class A meet where the fastest route from one control to the next involved going down a very steep scree slope. The course designer defended his design by saying the participants didn't have to take that route, but this is a slightly arrogant attitude, even if strictly true. It is far better avoid dangerous areas of the map. Do not design courses that encourage the participants to cross busy roads, pass near the target end of active rifle ranges, tempt shortcuts through prohibited areas, include a leg through a bull's pasture, or anything else that could lead to injury (I have seen examples of each of these!). Another form of safety conscious design is the layout of the novice course. If it sticks to roads, trails, and easily travelled clearings, then it is probably quite safe. But what if it includes a few trail sections that are difficult for a novice to follow? If they get lost - unlikely at Woodland Park but a definite possibility at Drunken Charlie Lake - then poor course design becomes a safety issue. Bookkeeping for course designers When I am doing my initial course design, I give each potential control location a unique identification number (this is not the control code, nor the control number; more on these later). In addition to the ID number, each control has its description. For each course, I keep a list of which control locations (IDs) are a part of that course. After I am content with my design I assign the final control codes. This is done by first making a list of available control markers and their codes, and then, as each marker is assigned to a location in the forest, it is checked off the list (this might sound elementary, but if you don't have a system - this one or any the others in use - this can be a very inefficient process indeed). The last step in this phase is to prepare the description sheets for the participants, and to draw the master maps. These maps are either used by the participants to draw their own courses or, at a large event, used by the meet staff to prepare pre-marked maps for the participants. One more map is drawn - this has the location of each and every control in the forest, the circle drawn just as it would be for the participant and labelled with the control code. How should control codes be assigned? The control code is the label on each control marker - hopefully this code is unique to each marker. (In Washington State, each club has assigned to it a range of numerical codes - 100 to 199 for COC, 200's for Ellensburg OC, 300's for the Nisqually Orienteers, 400's for Sammammish OC, 500's for Eastern Washington OC. Several clubs also have alphabetical codes that predate this numbering scheme and unfortunately include some duplication.) The control number is simply which control this is on a given course - the first control is number 1, etc. Some course designers like to assign the control codes such that the last digit of the code is the same as the last digit of the control number, or have any alphabetical codes go in alphabetical order, but this is personal preference and not required by any rules. For national class A and class B meets, it is specified that no control shall have a numerical code less than 30, the idea being to lessen confusion between a control's number and code (this has also happened to me!). One thing I try to do is to avoid having controls near each other have similar codes - like 112, 121, 122, 131, and 132 all within a short distance of each other. The same goes for using similar features: it is a general rule that two identical features (boulders, let's say) that are less than 100 meters apart shall not both be used as control locations at the same time, whether on the same or different courses. The secret control marker handhold So, you've got your all-controls map in one hand and a bunch of control markers in the other. Now what? Well, here's a hint on how to carry all of those unruly assemblages of nylon, wire, string, and punches. Take the punches and strings and place them inside the small pouch of the control marker, formed by clasping the marker flat and holding it by one corner (by carrying the punches and strings inside the pouch, you won't have them tangling with the other markers). To hang the marker, merely take it off of your hand, open it, and the punch and cord will fall out of the pouch. Simple, huh? [clever wording adapted from Ron Lowry, 1980] We also store our control markers in this fashion (flat, with the cords and punches inside). Tying knots or wrapping the cord around the marker does not gain much in the neatness department and merely serves to make setting the markers out more difficult. INSERT SKETCH A gentle reminder: using your compass while holding it in the same hand as the control markers is not recommended... Plan the route you will use to place the markers in the forest, and put the markers on your hand in the same order. When I set the markers, I also carry a control card for each course. As I hang each marker, I punch the appropriate card(s). When I am done setting out the courses, each control card should be complete. If not, then I know which markers need to be set out. These control cards can also serve as "official master control cards" against which each participant's card is compared. I also carry a copy of each description sheet - just to make sure that I set the marker exactly where it belongs. The secret course setter's knot revealed Actually, it's just a slip clove hitch, but I have found it to be one of the best knots for tying control markers to branches and such. Wrap the free end of the cord around the branch as shown. Form a small loop in the free end and tuck this loop under the wrap. Pull it snug. When the marker is retrieved at the end of the event, the free end can be pulled to easily untie the knot, which beats some knots I have encountered late on rainy winter afternoons... INSERT SKETCH Some marker placements do not lend themselves to a slip clove hitch. Because there are so many possibilities, I won't try to cover them here; consult a Scout, sailor, or mountain climber or use your ingenuity. Just remember that someone, maybe you, will have to untie whatever knot you use. Don't hide the marker! Recall that the challenge in orienteering is to navigate between control locations, not finding the actual marker. If I have reached the center of the circle on my map and am standing at the location described in the description, then I should see the marker. If I can't, then it is probably poorly placed. It should never be inside a hollow stump or down under some rocks. That might be appropriate in some other sport, but not in orienteering. If the description says "stump, south side", then I should not expect to find the marker on the north side of the stump nor on the other side of a trail. I would expect to find it hanging on (or very near to) the south side of the stump and nowhere else. Guessing should not be a part of orienteering! Make sure all of the markers get picked up Control markers are a bit expensive and a chore to replace. Besides, it's just downright unneighborly to leave control markers out in the forest after an event and it simply lacks style. One method to ensure that all markers are brought back is to cross each one off of the all controls map as they are returned. The method I prefer (because the all controls map is still out in the forest or has been misplaced or was never drawn to begin with) is to take one copy of each description sheet and, as each marker is brought back, cross it off the description sheets. Then - and only then - does the marker go into the box. This method seems to be the most reliable of all that I have seen. Still not perfect, but pretty good. In the next issue I will discuss the actual layout of a course, and what kinds of course design are generally considered to be better than others. Sometime soon COC will hold a clinic on course design, open to interested orienteers. If you would like to attend, please contact me or another club leader. If you would like to try your hand at designing a novice course, please let me know. You can design the novice course for one of our upcoming meets and I will review and comment on your design before the event. Call me!