One of our great recent initiatives, the women's training weekend, enjoyed another successful version last weekend.
Whilst numbers were lower than in previous years, the enthusiasm of the ladies was huge. Coaching was led by AO Head Coach Nick Dent and the ladies were very appreciative of his knowledge and wisdom.
Many ladies will now be able to make the progression to more difficult orienteering having gained many new and improved skills in orienteering. Thanks also to Hilary Wood and Paula Shingler for assisting by running sessions and to Liz Abbott from ACT who gave the ladies running hard courses insight into how she attacks a hard course.
Here's some great feedback from Uringa rookie Faye Forster: "The ladies, many of whom were quite experienced, were so welcoming. It calmed my nerves right away.
"It really was a special environment: lots of practical sessions covering physical aspects (run techniques, pacing, distance estimation) and technical skills (map skills, route selection, identifying attack points and catching features, control entry/exit).
"We finished off the weekend by doing the first SHOO event for their winter series where we were all able to put it into practice. This was my first ever bush course (moderate) and gave me ample opportunity to practise my relocation skills.
"I had a loss of confidence at one point and second guessed myself... 20+min/2+km later (nice detour on a short course) I was back on track. It certainly reaffirmed one of Nick's key teaching points about how much of the sport is a mental challenge.
If you missed this year's training look out for it next year as it is now a regular fixture on the orienteering calendar in March.
Thanks to Robyn Pallas for all her efforts in putting together, and for this report.
