Everyone Needs a Map in an Orienteering Team

Plan for a map for each person.

We strongly recommend that each person have his/her own map. It is impossible to learn orienteering if someone else is holding the map. The two main skills you want to develop in orienteering are holding your thumb on your location with the map oriented correctly, and noticing the features on your map and in the terrain while you are walking in the forest. Therefore you need the map in your hand so you can adjust it when you turn a corner or pass a feature. Each of those changes in direction or seeing a feature is a teaching moment. If you are sharing a map the continuity is lost, too much time is spent stopping and showing stuff to the kids, and the kids aren’t recognizing the stuff for themselves. Extra maps are only $2 each. Please get a map for each person. Also, your kids can keep their maps as souvenirs.

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