WOC: The Magic Formula I

Posted by Mike…

Earlier this year Holger Hott Johansen came to Hamilton for a National Training Camp. At that camp we listened to Holger discuss his approach to achieving his dream goal of being an individual World Champion (he had already won WOC gold in the relay). So it was extra special seeing him achieve that goal last week at WOC in Denmark – taking gold in the middle distance race at Gjern Bakker. Holger trains more than 800 hours a year and lives close to many excellent maps and terrain and is in a club with a large budget for elite training and racing. As he mentioned it was ‘no mistake that he ended up in Kristiansand’. It was all part of the plan or the magic formula to become a World Champion.

So after spending a few months in Sweden racing and now that I'm looking forward to coaching athletes, how can North America do to develop athletes to be among the top 20 at WOC or to achieve a dream goal of developing a World Champion? Well conventional wisdom would suggest that we need to send our best orienteers to Scandinavia to live, train and race for several years. But after spending the last few months in Sweden and talking to several people at WOC I’d like to challenge that wisdom and suggest that while the conventional wisdom might be the most ideal it is not the most practical. Why? People have jobs, school and family -- and living in Scandinavia isn't cheap. Anyway I am certain that we CAN create World Class (Top 20 of better) orienteers right here in North America. What? Is Waddington crazy? I mean we’ve been told for years that:

a) our woods are too thick,
b) we don’t have enough competitions,
c) the quality of our maps aren’t good enough,
d we don’t have enough good orienteers, yada yada yada.

Yes, it is true that we have heard these statements before but these are just excuses, excuses, and more excuses and this is how I would answer them:

a) We have many areas with open forests and sprint orienteering in non forested areas is the same ‘openness’ no matter where you are in the World
b) Sure we do, it is just that we don’t travel enough or we don’t take the smaller races serious enough
c) That is absolute crap and one of the lamest excuses I've heard. Many of the maps I have raced on in North America are among the best in the World and many maps in Sweden aren’t close to the quality of say the maps in Harriman SP and the Rocky Mountains of the US
d) Yes this is true but if you want to be the best in the World then you can’t accept ordinary results or just race hard enough to win. Instead you have to challenge and push yourself no matter what the field.

So what is the Magic North American formula?
I have to think about that a little more but the fact that Hanny Allston from Australia is now a World Champion shows that you don't have to live in Scandinavia to be the best. Visit yes...but you don't have to live there. Stay tuned for part II some time in the next month or so when I've had some more time to think about this...