At home.

Exercises that can be done at home while sitting at a desk, requiring no coach or special setup.  

Analyzing maps

Simple yet effective way to have some repetitions of decision making and visualization is analyzing maps that one comes across. It could be deliberate search of maps or having them appear from time to time by following social media accounts of orienteers or orienteering pages on Strava, Instagram, Facebook or other.

 Decision making&Executive function   Attention 

Film your run

Film the training session or race and review the footage while taking detailed notes (or discuss with a coach) on the decisions made and the thought processes behind them. Pay special attention to critical moments where key choices influenced performance. Use this review to reframe and refine your thinking patterns, envisioning ideal decision-making scenarios to improve future navigation and strategy.

 Reflection 

Follow the athlete

A coach or training partner follows the athlete through the course, stopping them at each control point (or every other) to encourage reflection on the previous leg or any mistakes made. During these pauses, the athlete is asked to explain their thought process and actions, promoting deeper awareness and understanding of their navigation choices. This immediate feedback loop helps uncover decision-making patterns and supports targeted improvement through collaborative discussion. Ask questions like: What was your plan for this leg? Did you execute the plan? Did you experience any moments of uncertainty or hesitation? What caused them? What could have been done better/differently?

 Reflection 

Analysis

After completing a training session or race, the athlete should analyze their course performance by assessing what was needed to successfully complete each leg, how well they executed their plan, and what led to any mistakes. If errors occurred, it's important to outline a revised strategy or plan for how the leg should've been done. This reflection should be done within the first hour after finishing, as research shows details from the activity are quickly forgotten within the first hour.

 Reflection   Memory 

Simulate quick decisions and simplification

You'll need a map and a timer. Set a timer for a short time, for example, 5 seconds. During this time one has to analyse a leg on the map and redraw on a paper the most important features that would lead to control. The time on the timer can be adjusted for shorter or longer legs.

 Map reading   Attention&Memory 

Orienteering virtual games

There are quite a few online games, where an athlete can improve from home, following is a list of games ranging from simple routechoice or memory games to full virtual orienteering games:

• Virtual-O - the most recent virtual orienteering game with lifelike graphics. Link Steam store: https://store.steampowered.com/app/529020/VirtualO/.

• Catching Features - the original virtual orienteering game with old school graphics, but active community with competitions taking place all the time. Link to website: https://www.catchingfeatures.com/.

• Running Wild - online tool for orienteering that allows users to draw and compare route choices on a map with a time constraint that encourages fast decison making, providing a platform for analyzing, visualizing, and discussing navigation decisions . Upload any map and draw or choose from list. Requires setup for own maps. Link to website: http://3drerun.worldofo.com/2d/runningwild.php.

• Route choice game - simple route choice game, requires quick decision-making. Link to website: https://www.routechoicegame.com/login.php.

• Route memory game - based on ski-orienteering maps, where athlete must memorize route to control and get there by memory. Link to website: https://catchingfeatures.com/b/skiomapmemory.html.

• Orienteering simulator 'Simurastit' - primitive simulator with new courses every week. Link to website: http://routegadget.net/simurastit/.

• Labyrinth game - basic, but very hard and demanding game, requires a lot of attention. Link to website: https://routegadget.net/laby/.

 Map reading   Attention&Memory   Decision making&Executive function   Perception   Relocation   Reflection 

Plan courses

Planning courses gives an athlete a different perspective on orienteering, instead of thinking how to complete the course, one has to think how to challenge someone who would run that very course. One must analyse the terrain in a different way and understand how can it be used best. When planning courses, visualization of the terrain takes place without much effort. When a course is planned, reflect on the quality of the course - could it be done better? Why and how? Use the free software 'Purple Pen' - https://www.purple-pen.org/.

 Perception   Reflection 

Run through a line

Have two maps of the same terrain - one with a line, other with a few controls on the line. Run through the line, visualize everything you can. Switch to the controls map and identify which controls did the line pass through. The goal is to improve visualization. This exercise requires setup by a coach or a third person.

 Perception   Reflection   Attention&Memory 

Livelox

On top of drawing your route and reflecting, one can use online tools to help analyzing as well. Livelox provides great features to compare yourself to other runners and draw conclusions on where to improve, what decisions were right or wrong and spot mistakes that were missed.

 Reflection