Confident Orienteering

  AFTERWORD by Klas Karlsson Lohja, Finland, June 18th 1986. Gårdsby IK, my mother club, was on the road a few days after Jukola. After a training, we happened to end up in a sauna with Hiidenkiertäjät and their reigning World Champion Kari Sallinen. While chatting, a friend (no, it was not me) asked Kari for some advice: “What do I do wrong? I usually run well but always end up missing one control with like ten minutes.” Kari smiled and answered: “You are just lucky on the other controls!” That’s how the Afterword begins — a powerful closing reflection written by Klas Karlsson , one of the test readers for Book 2 of Confident Orienteering . In reality, his contribution went far beyond a typical test read. His review was so thorough and insightful that he essentially acted as an editor. As a result of his feedback, we made several important improvements to both the main text and the practical examples throughout the book. And on top of that, Klas wrote a brilliant piece — part...

Control Elevation Analysis  The task was to arrange the controls from the lowest to the highest. First, we draw the index contours of each level using different colors. The lowest index contour on the map is marked in blue , and the next one above it in light blue . See Figure with mark "1". In this task, it is easier to start determining the control elevations by identifying the highest controls first, because the top of the slope is easier to recognize on the map. We can see that controls 3 and 2 are the highest, with control 3 higher than control 2 . Next, we distribute the remaining controls between the blue and light-blue index contours. The lowest among them is control 9 , as it is located just above the blue index contour . Next comes control 4 , and then  control 1 , followed by control 5 , which is the highest of this group because it lies only one contour below the light-blue index contour . The most challenging part of the task turned out to be the remaini...

  The Road to JWOC 2026, #2 (Long Distance) Short  Leg 1: what to do In the previous post in this series, we identified—based on the terrain characteristics and extensive experience from many previous competitions in this area—that a short first leg with complex navigation is highly likely. In this post, we focus on what exactly to do in such a situation. Let us begin by explaining why we are specifically discussing short first legs . If the first leg is longer , it will most likely intersect paths , as this terrain is full of paths of different types . In that case, an athlete has several safety options : – choosing a detour along paths; – or navigating less precisely on a bearing , deliberately aiming off early to hit a path and then restoring exact position while running along it. https://www.livelox.com/Viewer/JVM-test-lang/D20?classId=392774&live=false&tab=player In such scenarios, the initial nervousness and uncertainty at the beginning of the co...

The Road to JWOC 2026, #1 (Long Distance) The Junior World Orienteering Championships 2026 will be held in late June – early July in Karlskrona, Sweden. https://www.jwoc2026.se Here on the blog, I’m starting a series of posts focused on technical preparation for these championships. I’m sharing these analytical posts openly, in the hope that they will be useful to athletes preparing for the event. Let’s begin with the terrain: it features highly diverse vegetation and a great number of small details — both in terms of contours and vegetation features. An analysis of long distance courses held in this type of terrain shows that course planners often include a short first leg , sending athletes straight into detailed navigation right from the start. In the context of a peak-season competition like JWOC, such legs become even more challenging due to the psychological pressure to execute the beginning of the course as fast and as cleanly as possible. My advice to athletes is ...

 O-Puzzle: Relative Elevation of Controls    Which of the controls in the picture is located higher than the others in the terrain? map from a recent competition with a mass start in the city of Poznań (Poland). Organiser: OK Hades.  https://www.livelox.com/Viewer/GrandPrix-2025-08-Dziewicza-Gora/Srednia3?classId=1090956&live=false&tab=player Let’s break this task down step by step. To begin, let’s mark the index contours of different elevation levels using different colors. The lowest contour in this section will be light blue . The next higher contour will be blue . The highest one here will be red . Now, let’s start determining the relative elevation of each control , beginning with the lowest — in this case it is probably the easiest way to go. The lowest control is Control 7 — it is the only one located below the light blue contour. Then we have Control 4 , Control 3 , and Control 8 , which are positioned between the light blue a...

 New Feedback on the Confident Orienteering Series from a Nottinghamshire Orienteer A reader recently sent me a letter with feedback on my Confident Orienteering series. The person who sent it preferred to remain anonymous but kindly gave me permission to use their feedback in promoting the book. They also posted their reviews on the pages of the online store, where you can see them as well ( Book 1 and Book 2 ). If you’d also like to leave a review, you can do so by visiting the book’s page in the online store again. The system recognizes that you’ve already made a purchase and will allow you to leave a rating and write a review. Below is an excerpt from the reader’s letter, along with the reviews themselves. Thank you — it's truly inspiring! Hi Aleksandr, … I have drafted the following and am happy for you to use it, attributing it to "Nottinghamshire Orienteer" rather than my personal details...   ..I think you've made a great contribution to orienteering l...