Written by John Methven, Berkshire Orienteers.

Berkshire Orienteers had the opportunity to collaborate with Beat the Street in the West Reading area for 6 weeks during September and October this year. More than 6,500 players took part covering nearly 80,000 miles between them. 

Berkshire Orienteers worked with Beat The Street to provide a free MapRun activity in Prospect Park Reading towards the end of the six weeks. In addition, Berkshire Orienteers have provided a legacy MapRun score style event using the former Beat Box locations to encourage participants to continue their active journey. 

British Orienteering via the Rules Group is inviting feedback from members on the orienteering rules it has drafted for 2024.

• Group was reconstituted during the year and has adopted a policy of annual review to supplement arising issues, This years theme has been "maintenance" so although the eagle eyed will find many wording changes these are essentially clarifications, removal of duplication/ redundant practices, and movement of clauses/ groups of clauses to places where the context is more appropriate rather than a change of intent So in general a Rule "Spring Cleaning " with the aim of being easier to use.

Please note, as a result there has been a significant change in the order and in the numbering of individual clauses – too many to be able to sensibly mark up.

• The draft rules are available here.

The key change is that the historical anomaly that Men's and Women's classes had different winning times is addressed. This is in line with the IOF (International Orienteering Federation) policy to equalise men’s and women’s winning times for all age classes and the results of this Summer's well supported consultation - a big thank you to all that contributed.

There are New Courses tables for Long Distance but not Middle and Sprint which were already "done"

The consultation is open until 12 December, 2023 and responses can be emailed to rules@britishorienteering.org.uk."

The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) has published its 2024 Prohibited List. The
Prohibited List designates the substances and methods that are prohibited in sport.

 
Following an extensive consultation period by WADA, the 2024 Prohibited List was published on 27 September 2023. This gives athletes and support personnel sufficient time to make themselves aware of the changes, review any medications they use on Global DRO, and apply for a Therapeutic Use Exemption (TUE) if required before the updated List comes into effect on 1 January 2024.
 
Included on the 2024 List is the substance tramadol which will be banned in-
competition from 1 January 2024. Tramadol is an opioid analgesic and is classified as
a prescription only medicine in the UK. Tramadol misuse is of concern because of the
risks of physical dependence, opiate addiction, and overdose. It has led to it being a
controlled drug in many countries. If you are concerned about tramadol misuse, please
reach out to British Orienteering or speak to your doctor prior to the change in status on the
2024 Prohibited List.
   
Please visit UK Anti-Doping's website here to read a full summary of the changes on
the 2024 List. 
 
The following resources are also available to read on WADA’s website:
 
• The full 2024 Prohibited List  
• The WADA 2024 Summary of Major Modifications and Explanatory Notes
• The 2024 Monitoring Program which includes substances not currently on the
List but are being monitored by WADA for potential patterns of misuse in sport.

If you have any questions on the Prohibited List or a medication you may be using, please contact substance@ukad.org.uk.

You can also receive further information from our dedicated Anti-Doping Lead, pbrooke@britishorienteering.org.uk

2023 Coaching Review Report & Recommendations

Background

The Coaching Review was commissioned by British Orienteering to support the current strategic plan within the strategic theme of strengthening lifelong pathways.

The report was completed in July 2023 and was carried out by Dr Tom Leeder from the University of East Anglia. Data was collected via an online qualitative survey, which was open for 11 weeks from 10 March 2023 to 26 May 2023, and was completed by 34 Orienteering coaches. The survey explored coaches’ experiences of attending and engaging with British Orienteering’s current coach education pathway, in addition to their suggested changes and improvements to any future provision. Three focus groups were conducted, with the aim of expanding upon their survey responses in further depth and detail, while discussing proposed changes. One focus group was conducted with coach developers to understand their thoughts and experiences of both designing and delivering coach education programmes for British Orienteering. A huge thank you to all members who engaged in the review , your thoughts are highly valued and very much appreciated.

All of recommendations from the Coaching review have been approved by the British Orienteering  Board, The Coaching Advisory Group is now working on a plan of development and implementation.

The Coaching Review Report is now available via this link.

Recommendations

The recommendations are below and have been explored further,

Withdraw the current Level 2 from 1^st for Sport and develop our own Level 2 award.

This is a priority, as there is a formal process to follow which covers withdrawing the Level 2 from 1st for Sport. The process is very straight forward and can be done straight away, however we cannot simply withdraw without a replacement award, the Coaching Advisory Group has commissioned a Working Group of Hilary Palmer, Pat Mee and Howard Blackman to develop our own Level 2, with a working title of Orienteering Coach that supports the needs of our sport, while maintaining its integrity, robustness, rigour and quality. We aim to have a pilot run by early January 2024.

We have asked Tutors to hold off running any new Level 2 (1st for Sport) coaching awards until we launch our own version which will likely be in the earlier spring of 2024. The process for us withdrawing as a 1st for Sport ‘Centre’ cannot happen overnight as there are currently 37 members yet to complete their Level 2. We appreciate that some members may be very close to completing all their tasks and others not so.

We will do our best to keep members updated with progress of the development of the Orienteering Coach award.

Reintroduce a Level 1 and a Level 3 coaching award.

The development of these 2 Coaching awards will begin once we have launched the new Level 2 . At this stage we plan to develop the Level 1, working title Orienteering Instructor, during 2024 and then the Level 3,working title Orienteering Performance Coach, in 2025.

Develop a robust system of CPD for our Coaching workforce.

As the Coaching Review Report clearly points out ,there is current a lack of CPD opportunities for Coaches. The report set out an aspirational CPD system of embracing and recognising webinars, regional workshops and National Conferences, gaining ‘CPD points’ in the process. At this stage this is very aspirational as the database and booking systems would need to be developed to ensure that coaches are duly recognised with CPD points. We have not begun any work in this area and further discussion with the Coaching Community will be required to ensure we develop a system that supports Coaches rather than becoming a burden.

Develop a fair, transparent and robust Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) process.

The Report sets out a balanced argument around ‘fast tracking’ within a Coaching system. Whilst we all recognise that there may be members of squads with outstanding technical skills and knowledge who wish to transition into a Coaching role. A fair, transparent and robust RPL process would also need to ensure the ability to coach and not simply demonstrate the skill.

Work has yet to begin in this area and again further discussion with the Coaching Community will be required to ensure we develop a system that supports aspirant Coaches rather than becoming a burden.

A webinar covering the recommendations of the Coaching Review and one discussing the progress and specification of the British Orienteering , Orienteering Coach award, will form part of the Online Development Conference in January 2024.

Proposed Pathway