This is an insightful piece brought to us by orienteering coach Alex Azarov.
This writing is about the U.S. Champs in Massachusetts in October, specifically the Online Course Review. During that on-line session (recording can be found here ), a few legs from all three competition days were discussed. For each leg, the discussion followed a similar pattern: a couple of route choices were presented, and then comments were made such as “here you had to climb a steep slope,” “running was slow because of stony ground,” or “if you went left you’d have a longer but faster route, though with fewer distinct features for precise navigation.” These are not exact quotes, but you get the idea.
For me, this type of discussion wasn’t very interesting. I found myself thinking, “What am I supposed to learn from this?” There were no conclusions drawn about individual legs and no summary of the discussion as a whole. I want to emphasize that I’m not criticizing the presenters; I’m simply explaining why it wasn’t engaging for me. Such discussions can still be useful in some cases, for example:
- Sprint orienteering, where analyzing 10-meter differences or the number of turns is normal and helpful.
- Beginners, who need to see the factors that go into making route choices.
However, this writing is not about route choice.
I was bored and about to leave when suddenly Peter Gagarin asked a very important question. On the recording this happens at around 1h27m. The question concerned one very simple leg from the middle course: Why did so many people mess up such an easy leg?
Wow! That is exactly the kind of question orienteers should be asking. Peter offered his own answer: “probably people don’t check their compasses enough.”
I agree — that is the right answer. But wait… is it actually useful?
Imagine I’m a beginner and someone tells me I’m not checking my compass often enough. What should I do next time? Check it every 15 seconds? Every 20 meters? What is “enough”? The honest answer is: it depends on the situation. You think back to similar situations, draw on your experience, and try to check your compass more frequently when needed. Afterward you analyze the result and adjust. This trial-and-error approach works — but it takes a long time before you see improvement.
Let’s think further. You really need to check your compass in two situations:
- When running on a compass bearing and you reach the limit of visibility from your previous reference point.
- When changing direction, i.e., making a turn.
The first case is straightforward. The second is more interesting. You change direction when you reach or leave a linear feature such as a trail, stream, vegetation boundary, or marsh edge. You could form a habit of checking your compass every time you reach or leave a linear feature.
But there is another situation: you may also need to turn without linear features, such as when you’re going around a hill, a thick vegetation area, a marsh, or any other area feature you want to avoid. In this case, the point where you need to turn is somewhere in the woods, not marked by anything obvious.
Here is the crucial part:
To make a turn and check your compass at the right moment, you must already know in advance that you need to turn at that point. In other words, you must plan it. You must have a clear plan.
This, I believe, is the real answer to the situation discussed during the Course Review. The majority of people who made mistakes on that leg simply did not have a clear plan and therefore did not know they needed to check their compass at the right moment. I say “majority” rather than “all” because it is possible to have a plan and still fail to locate your intended turning point. But in my experience, if you truly want to find a point — because you read it on the map and planned for it — you will find it 99% of the time. You can test this yourself.
So, the real answer is: you check your compass when your plan tells you to check it.
The beauty of this resolution is that you can train in the habit of always having a clear plan. You must monitor yourself continuously on the course. Every time you realize you are moving without a clear plan, say to yourself: “Stop! I won’t move until I decide on a plan.”
In conclusion, I can promise that if you follow this recommendation, you will make far fewer mistakes in the woods.