Juniors learn about contours at Washington Common

Karen's amazing contour model

Karen's amazing contour model

Last Updated: Sun 23 Jan 2022

At Washington Common on 22nd January, we held our third training session of the season for our younger juniors and some new adults. We had a great turnout and had four large groups taking part. Our main focus for this session was understanding the brown features on the map. Washington Common is a good venue for this as there are lots of steeper features.

We started by looking at contours on the map and comparing them to a 3D model to help picture the ground. Can you see how the model relates to the map below? You may need to rotate it slightly!

Brown only map

Brown only map

The trainees were given a map with only brown features on the map – no paths or vegetation! This is a great exercise to encourage Orienteers to look to see what clues the ground is giving.

Each coach then walked a group around a series of 19 locations and asked the trainees to stand where they thought the centre of the circle was. The children had lots of fun with this as there were knolls to stand on, depressions to stand in and earth walls to traverse along.

We learnt the difference between earthwalls and earthbanks and how to understand when you're going uphill, downhill of flat.

Coaching at Washington Common

Coaching at Washington Common

Everyone did really well and learnt to look around a bit more. They were rewarded with a birthday cake for Lucas’ birthday and those that finished early had a go at creating contours in sand afterwards.

Briefing session

Briefing session

Looking at the contour model

Looking at the contour model

What's that feature?

What's that feature?

Which route shall we take?

Which route shall we take?

Birthday cake reward!

Birthday cake reward!

Training done!

Training done!

Categorized under: Social, Juniors, Coaching