Orienteering Exercises - Map reading
From O-training.net
Map Reading Exercises
| Book reading while running | 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. | Map reading |  |
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| Brown map | 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. | Contours, Map reading |  |
| Circular contour map | 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. | Contours, Map reading |  |
| Circular map | 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. | Map reading |  |
| Control picking | Run a course consisting of a lot of short legs with many changes in direction. | Compass, Map reading, Flow |  |
| Corridor orienteering | A corridor is drawn on the map, and the runner is to be inside the corridor at all times. The difficulty of the exercise can be adjusted by varying the width of the corridor, the terrain, the intensity etc. It is best to use GPS for evaluation of the exercise. | Compass, Map reading, Flow, GPS evaluation |  |
| Fast relocation | 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. | Map reading, Map memory, Relocation, Terrain memory | |
| Indoor orienteering | Orienteering race indoors, typically in a gym. Good exercise if it is not possible to run outside - also a good exercise for beginners. | Map reading, Concentration |  |
| Line orienteering | 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. | Contours, Map reading |  |
| Map surveying | Map surveying is a good exercise in order to understand properly how a map is built up. | Map reading, Theoretical exercise, Distance evaluation, Map understanding |  |
| Map without paths | Make a course on a map from which all paths have been removed. | Map reading, Map contact |  |
| Micro | A normal course is made, but for each control, there are several other controls within the control circle. There is no code on the controls, so the runner must decide which control is the correct one by studying the map and the control description. Some kind of penalty (penalty loop running, time penalty etc.) is given for each wrong control. | Map reading, Simplification, Attackpoints, Map contact, Inside the control circle, Control description |  |
| Never stop | Run a normal course, but you are never allowed to stop! That is, you have to keep running all the time. If you don't know where to run or need to relocate, you have to keep running on the spot (but this should be avoided, you should rather run more slowly ahead of this point). | Map reading, Flow, Sprint orienteering, Map contact, Speed adaption | |
| Night orienteering | 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. | Compass, Map reading | |
| Reduced map training | Make a course on a reduced map, where the reduced map is made by removing many details. For example, you can have a map with only vegetation details left. | Map reading, Map understanding, Map contact |  |
| Straight line orienteering | 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. | Compass, Map reading |  |