Play Catching Features - O-training.net

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Orienteering Exercise: Play Catching Features

Key information

Exercise Type:	Map memory, Theoretical exercise, Mental exercise, Terrain memory
Target Level:	Elite level, Junior level, Intermediate level, Beginner level
Intensity:	Low
Preparation time:	5-15 minutes
OCAD Required:	No
Min participants:	1

Play the computer game Catching Features.

Aim:	Improve map memory, and improve the ability to translate the terrain to map/map to terrain.
Variants:	You can play a lot of Catching Features competitions which are uploaded on the server - competitions are updated daily. Note also that the game Suunnistussimulaattori gives you a very similar experience - probably even better in Scandinvian terrain [1]
Aids:	Windows PC with Catching Features installed.
Terrain:
Preparations:	Buy and install Catching Features from here - alternatively Suunnistussimulaattori from here
Tips:	It is important that you buy the full version of Catching Features. The demo version has only very few (and uninteresting) maps, and you will therefore not get a lot of o-technical training out of it.
Examples:

Many Déjà-vus in the forest
There is still a long way to go to get a perfect orienteering simulation, but CF is already a valuable training tool for many top orienteers. It is well known that this years overall World Cup winner Thierry Gueorgiou has used CF extensively in his orienteering technical training – part of his exceptional orienteering technique may well be learned through playing CF. But others are following him. For example, it has been said that the Finnish team Veve – winners of last years Jukola relay, used CF to prepare for the Jukola relay.

Another elite runner using CF extensively is Swiss Team runner Matthias Merz. According to an article written by Matthias in the Swiss magazine OL-Fachschrift (edition 12/06), he used CF to prepare for the Biofarm-Cup-Final 2006 (one of the most important Swiss races in 2006, held in the terrain of the WOC middle final in 2003 in Trin).

- [...] before the Biofarm-Cup-Final in Trin I trained with Catching Features. I think that I would have been able to run through the WOC race from 2003 without a map – I had played it that often at the computer. So I got many Déjà-vus in the forest. After the race, I even explained one of my competitors that I found an error in the forest, Matthias explains in the article. And who do you think won the Biofarm-Cup-Final 2006? Matthias Merz, of course…

He also tells how he did make large errors on the extremely difficult World Cup Final Long Distance – in Catching Features (he missed the real-world race due to exams). - With Catching Features, you can train how to generalize the map, and how to handle route choice problems in different problem types, Matthias concludes his article.

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