ESOA Training Gullane 2026Sunday 4th October
The final ESOA coaching session of 2026 took place on Sunday 4th October at Gullane bents. The session was enjoyed by novice to advanced juniors as well as several adults and I would strongly recommend them to other club members.
Myself (Helena) and Helen Bridle planned the sessions, a big thanks to Helen and all the other coaches who gave their time to help.
Next year, we plan to repeat the series, look out for the dates which should be announced by the end of the year!
Helen Bridle reports:
Over 40 orienteers came to Gullane for training on Sunday 4th October. We were lucky that it was warm and dry, if a little windy.
The older juniors and adults started off with a line exercise in small groups. They followed the line on the map looking out for different features like hills, depressions, re-entrants and spurs.
The group then ran a series of short courses at the far West of the Gullane map, navigating well among challenging small contour features and the bracken!
After a fun clock relay and lunch it was time to put their new contour recognising skills to use on a set of 4 courses by the beach near the central car park. One option was to try navigating with the paths removed - this did create some extra challenge with trying to find routes through the green.
The final challenge of the day was an excellent team challenge on the beach where groups worked together to recreate contour features in the sand. Helena was an exacting judge checking the shapes were to scale with extra points on offer for speed and also decoration.
Several people then finished the day off with an ice cream.
Thanks to all the coaches and Helena for organising
Other entries categorised under: Juniors - Coaching/Training