Lagganlia 2016

Generic information about Lagganlia

Team Manager's Report

Lagganlia Staff

Aidan Rigby (CLOK) Forest Team
Michael Adams (SYO) Coach
Ella Gilbert (NOR) Forest Team
Nev Myers (EBOR) Lead Coach
Hazel Gibbs (SYO) Chef
Nick Jarvis (SO) Junior Coach
Julie Emmerson (OD) Coach
Pippa Dakin (SYO) Forest Team
Jonny Hooton (EBOR) Senior Coach/Video
Roger Thetford (TVOC) Senior Coach
Katie Wright (LOC) Junior Coach
Steve Kimberley Senior Coach
Lecky-Thompson (LOC) Senior Coach
Tony Carlyle (AIRE) Tour Manager, Safeguarding
Marie Gibbs (AIRE) Chef
Wendy Carlyle (AIRE) Pastoral, Safeguarding
Matthew Fellbaum (MDOC) Forest Team

We took a smaller coaching team this year in line with the reduced number of athletes who were able to attend.  Once again the mix of coaches/helpers proved very successful and I offer thanks to all concerned on the juniors’ behalf for all the work that was done to ensure a successful week.  The experience of the senior coaches and enthusiasm of the younger ones ensured that logistics went smoothly and exercises were ready when athletes arrived at the areas.

Julie Emmerson and Michael Adams took the lead role under Nev’s guidance for one of the coaching groups and did an excellent job with their athletes.   Katie Wright joined the team again to build on her experience from last year and should be encouraged to take a Level 2 qualification next year.  Aidan Rigby, Ella Gilbert, Matt Fellbaum and Pippa Dakin joined the forest team for the first time this year and all showed an excellent aptitude for coaching and should be encouraged to attend more tours in the future. 

Lagganlia Athletes

Adam Thorpe EPOC
Lizzie Stansfield FVO
Alexander Mitchell HOC
Louis MacMillan ECKO
Alice Wilson CLYDE
Matthew Gooch MAROC
Daniel Campbell MOR
Oliver Lunn OD
Evie Conway AIRE
Oliver Flippance OD
Felix Lunn OD
Oscar Healy SBOC
Finlay Johnson SROC
Peter Molloy FVO
Harry Stagg BOK
Peter Reed LVO
Jasmine Silk SWOC
Rosie Spencer WCOC
Jeneba Hampshire-Wright NN
Sam Hague WAOC
Laura Harrison EPOC

The athletes had a wider level of ability/experience this year but the level of staffing enabled all to have relevant input from the coaching team.   A week at Lagganlia did much to improve confidence and in this year’s tour championship races the athletes performed really well and the spread of finish times was much reduced than in previous years.

All athletes came well prepared in terms of appropriate clothing and attitude towards training.  There were no discipline problems and the athletes kept good time.  Briefings, evening sessions and departures for the forest all kept to schedule.                

Travel and Transport

Organisation of transport arrangements to and from Lagganlia was left up to parents. Athletes were met at Aviemore station and transferred to Lagganlia by minibus.  One athlete was also picked up at Inverness airport from an early flight, too early for picking up minibuses which meant an extra journey to Inverness.

Most athletes arrived on the 16.19 train at Aviemore which enabled us to get them quickly settled in, fed and then make good use of the time on Saturday evening.

Going home was straight forward as most left on the 8-30 train from Aviemore, or were picked up by parents.  Two athletes flew from Inverness airport and even though flight times were spread out arrangements worked well.  Roger was able to take one early and then took the opportunity to complete the Inverness Park Run before heading to the minibus hire depot to pick up the drivers.  The second athlete was taken by minibus before the bus was returned in nice time to meet Roger for the journey back to Lagganlia.

Once again two 17 seat minibuses were hired from Focus Vehicle Rental in Inverness and were used for transport to and from the areas.  We had 5 designated drivers for the week who were covered to drive any of the buses.  This gave flexibility for the organisation of forest sessions and ensured that there were at least 2 adults in each bus for every journey.  The forest team used one car each session.  At least one other car was used each day to ensure a spare vehicle for use in case of an emergency.

Accommodation and Catering

We had three lodges allocated:

Sgorans (16 beds); Social and meeting/presentation area, girls and coaches dormitory.

Hillend (18 beds); Cooking and eating, boys and coaches dormitory.

Anderson (11 beds); Cooking, coaches work and social area, coach dormitory.

Marie and Hazel continued with the high standard of catering that they produced last year.  The quality of meals produced was excellent and empty plates spoke for themselves.  This year we didn’t have a BBQ on the rest day but had an informal buffet with all the BBQ trimmings instead.  This worked really well especially as the heavens opened and we would have been unable to cook outside.

It isn’t easy to ensure that the athletes and coaches are well fed and able to make the most of the days out in the forest so Marie and Hazel have our gratitude for their hard work in keeping us well fed and watered.  Not having to worry about the catering side made my job easier so special thanks to Marie and Hazel on my part.

Maps

Maps were sponsored and printed on waterproof paper by BML Printers Ltd.

One map per athlete and coach were provided for all the planned exercises so that all had a copy for their files. 

All control maps were printed for logistics and use by the forest teams.

Programme and Logistics

Saturday – Evening

Welcome
Brief introductions  
Community building activities
Meals & Food
Rotas
Coaching groups

Sunday AM; Uath Lochan.  Compass work and pacing.  Warm up routines. Star relay.

Sunday PM; Inshriach, chequerboard area.  Fine orienteering, control descriptions and visualisation in the circle.

Monday AM; Loch Vaa. Simplification, relating map to ground, visualisation.  Map walk and map memory.

Monday PM;  North Granish. Sketch maps, 3 person relay.

Tuesday all day; Roseisle. Contour Day.  Simplification, contours as line features, attack points and catching features.  Longer legs.  Warm up routines.  Odds and evens relay.

Wednesday – Sprint racing
Sprint Qualifier; Moor of Alvie
Sprint Final; Badaguish

Wednesday PM/evening; The Rings (Badaguish), Swimming (Loch Morlich) Shops (Aviemore).

Thursday AM;
Lagganlia, timed track and terrain runs.
Grantown. Athlete centred coaching.  Two planned loops, coaches decide on skill/technique focus for athletes in their group. Encourage Talk O.

Thursday PM; Anagach, Peg relay and terrain loops.

Friday AM; Inshriach Tour champs classic race

Friday PM; Lagganlia Fun relays and mazes

Friday Evening; Dinner, prize giving, entertainment, packing and cleaning rooms.

Saturday – Disperse

Comments

The Lead Coach (Nev Myers) put the programme together and passed on responsibility to the coaches for planning and delivering forest and classroom sessions.

During the week the coaches worked with groups of athletes as shown below.

All coaches/helpers were asked to complete log entries for the athletes they worked with.  These contained lots of information and most focused on particular skills and coaching points; and related to how the athletes applied them during exercises.  Asking all members of the team to complete log entries gave value to their efforts and enabled the younger and less experienced members of the team to develop their own observational and performance analysis skills.  Under the guidance of the senior coaches all coaches were responsible for putting together draft reports for athletes in their groups.  These were then passed on to Nev Myers as lead coach to ensure consistency across all reports.  All athletes left with three areas to work on in the coming months.

Athletes were expected to work with their group coaches but were also encouraged to talk to and work with the other coaches so that they could access the wide experience available from within the coaching team. 

The daily coach debrief sessions on the day’s activities provided much useful discussion and encouraged all to contribute as well as providing a useful opportunity for coach development.  Nev Myers took notes on the feedback for use when putting together next year’s programme.

Logistics for control hanging were worked out each day in the coaches’ briefing and worked well.  Having five named drivers for the minibuses gave flexibility and allowed drivers the opportunity to hang controls. 

Coaching group time was factored into each day.  Usually this was between 5-00 and

6-00pm, but was kept flexible for days when travel delayed the return time to Lagganlia.   This allowed structured time for debrief of the day’s activities, including race analysis.  Coaches not only got to know their athletes, but were able to review, build on the day’s activities and set action points for the next day.  Being part of the structure for the day it was readily accepted by the athletes.  Listening in to the group sessions there was a lot of two-way interaction between the coaches and athletes and often sessions went on longer than planned in response to athlete participation.

We continued operating the First Aid clinic.  After training each day anyone with an injury, or who had first aid administered during the day, had to report to Wendy to ensure all details were recorded and appropriate follow up taken.  Next morning all who had attended the evening clinic had to see Wendy between 8-15 and 8-30 for any treatment, e.g. blister covering, and to get the OK for training that day.  Group coaches were informed of any concerns. 

This worked very well in maintaining athlete participation and keeping track of injuries and ensuring that athletes didn’t make their injuries worse.

This year we had an incident where an athlete had to be taken to hospital.  Oscar was running along a ride at Uath Lochan, stepped onto a fallen tree trunk and slipped.  As he fell he put his hand out to break his fall and in so doing dislocated his left elbow.  The accident happened in sight of the activity base and Oscar was seen to fall and not get up.  One athlete ran to his aid and others quickly informed me of the fall.  I went out to Oscar and it was obvious that the elbow was dislocated.  He was in some pain but coping well with the injury.  He was able to walk slowly back to the base where he was examined further and the decision made to get him to the medical centre in Aviemore as soon as possible.  There was no mobile signal in the area and by the time someone could have got in range to make a call Oscar would have been well on the way to Aviemore.  So Oscar was given a chair carry back to the car park, made comfortable and taken on to Aviemore.

At the medical centre he was seen quickly by the Doctor who confirmed the dislocated elbow and administered pain killers before arranging for an ambulance to take him to Inverness hospital for an X-ray.  With a confirmed diagnosis I contacted parents to inform them of the accident.  I travelled with Oscar to hospital and after the X-ray the consultant decided that they would take him to theatre to put his elbow back in place.  Once Oscar was returned to the ward and settled for the evening I was then picked up by Roger and returned to Lagganlia.

Next day I went back to the hospital to pick Oscar up, his main concern was that he would have to go straight home.  The hospital provided clear instructions for his medication and were happy that he could participate in activities if there was little risk of further injury.  Parents agreed that he could stay on at Lagganlia until Thursday so that he could participate in some of the activities.  On Thursday I took Oscar to Inverness airport for a flight home where his father met him to take him to the local hospital for a check up.  He reported back that all was well and the bone was set well and already

healing and a new lighter pot had been applied.

Further comments on the incident are included in the conclusion.

Conclusion

Coaches, helpers and athletes all put in a lot of effort to make the tour a success.  The programme demanded a lot from both coaches and athletes, but athlete comments showed that they were happy to work hard and that they took much away from the week. 

The safe arrival and mid-week e-mails were sent again this year and were well received by parents.  Knowing the difficulty of making mobile contact from Lagganlia and that the parents appreciate the contact, I recommend the use of e-mails again next year for the arrival and midweek updates. 

All athletes were provided with a questionnaire at the end of the week which reflected a very positive experience for all athletes.  The majority of comments for improvement included less midges, better weather and Wi-Fi which are beyond our control.  Following a comment midge nets will be added to next year’s kit list.

Minimum transport requirements: two 17 seat minibuses each with 2 drivers; two private cars available each day, 1 for forest team and 1 as an emergency vehicle.

Recommended minimum staffing:
Tour Manager
Cook plus helper
6 experienced coaches, 6 junior coaches/helpers (at least 4 able to drive minibuses).

Once again the grant allowed a higher ratio of coaches to juniors and this was beneficial to the athletes as they gained from more individual attention.  Extra staffing allowed specific tasks to be allocated to individual coaches without impacting on athlete contact. 

This was noticeable this year with the accident in the forest.  As this is the first incident of its kind that I have encountered since I have been involved with Junior Squad activities there are a couple of points worth noting for future incidents;

• Mobile reception in the remoter areas around Lagganlia is not good so if the patient is mobile and can be moved comfortably without further injury then it would be quicker to get them to the medical centre by car rather than driving round hunting for a signal and trying to get an ambulance or mountain rescue.
• Ambulance availability in the Aviemore area is not generous and if there had been a more serious incident to be dealt with then the wait for an ambulance could have been much longer.
• Aviemore Medical Centre was very efficient and quickly dealt with Oscar.
• Both the Medical Centre and hospital were complimentary over the information at hand on the Athlete medical and data forms.
• Good communication with parents was important to keep them informed.  Phone calls, e-mails with photographs of Oscar involved with the other athletes did much to put their minds at rest.
• With careful risk assessment and management Oscar was able to take part in some of the planned activities.  Where the activities were too demanding he was involved by helping with checking in and out, starting timed runs and other small organisational tasks.  He enjoyed the days that he was able to stay and it helped him become part of the group.  It can be worthwhile keeping an athlete on tour providing they are able to participate in some way.  This may well depend greatly on the individual athlete concerned and the nature of the injury.
• I was unable to participate in the training as much as previous years so don’t feel I know the athletes as well as in previous years.  However my absence didn’t impact on the juniors as there were sufficient experienced staff available to maintain the activities and deal with the extra demand of managing the injured athlete.

2017

School holidays may present a problem next year as English school’s have end of term dates ranging from 14th July to the 26th July, with most finishing on the 21st July.  The Scottish 6 Days begins on Sunday 30th July.  I propose keeping Lagganlia at the week prior to the 6 Days and booking the week 22nd to 29th July.  I am sure that schools will authorise absence at the end of term to attend Lagganlia, especially if a letter can be written to the school on behalf of the athletes.

Tony Carlyle
Tour Manager 2016

Athlete Comments

Midweek comments

Lots of new friends, good training, really funny bus journeys

Fun, serious, tiring, new friends, great areas, learnt lots, funny, rollers, big guns is on Aire, races

Very fun, met new friends, great training and bus journeys

Learnt lots, meanwhile making friends and enjoying the week

Lagganlia has been a great time and I have improved

Funny, unique, informative, tiring, development, friendly, tough, great time, learnt lots

Banter, fun, serious, tiring, friends! Simplification, awesome, great terrain, spear-tackle

Fun, hilarious, informative, exciting, tiring, improvement, friendly, quality, learning lots

Did some orienteering and had a nice time

Met great new friends, good training – I’m really tired

Lagganlia is fun, intense and learnt lots, also made friends

I have enjoyed my time here and I have ‘Improved’

Lots of fun and lots of midges

Fun, informative, hard work, made a lot of new friends

Lagganlia is brilliant and very fun.   Have learnt loads already

Fun, banter, serious, uptight, hard work, made 6 more friends! Interesting

Really fun.  Have learned lots.  Made lots of new friends.

No rain, lots of midges

Had a great time so far and met new friends

Good Hard Amazing Brilliant Banter Uptight Friends Interesting Great Tiring

Amazing terrain, brilliant courses, enormous fun.  An awesome few days

Final comments

I have had great fun running, navigating and using different skills.  I also enjoyed training with Jonny and Matt.

It was really fun and enjoyable.  If I could I would come again.  The bus journeys were really funny/great.

Useful, fun training with a nice mix of exercises.  Really enjoyed meeting new people and had a really good time.

My best time orienteering ever!  Amazing terrain, testing exercises and brilliant coaches with valuable advice.  I loved all of it.

Challenging, hard, great, helpful, friends, fun, banter, good areas, laughs, technical.

Lagganlia was really fun, challenging and tiring.  I enjoyed a lot of the exercises and areas.

Lagganlia was really fun and quite intense.  I thought most of the exercises were very good, but some of them I had already done quite a lot on.  It was brilliant to meet new people  and I liked the quantity of training.  I particularly liked the talks and that was where I learnt some new skills that I put into practice in terrain.  The areas were brilliant!

I loved Lagganlia especially because of the amazing areas and meeting new friends and the food was very, very good.

Fun, informative, interesting, great experience, met lots of new friends, lots of midges, tiring, achy legs, hilarious, greatest week ever.

Loved the areas and the coaches were awesome.  The banter was unreal.  Great food.  Spear tackle. (?)

I have learnt a lot at Lagganlia with the help of my coaches and to know my strengths and weaknesses.

This was an amazing experience.  Beautiful and technical forests, great coaching, made friends, had lots of fun.  Delicious food too.

Fun, informative, developmental, exciting, tiring, too many midges, leg aching, fantastic experience, new friends, interesting, best time and people, coaching was great.

Lagganlia was fun, educational and a great experience.  It was great getting to know the other athletes in your age group.

Lagganlia was great!  Made so many new friends and learnt so much.  Training was brilliant.  Very tired but very happy.

I loved it.  I’m really tired but I met great new friends and the training was really fun and useful.

I found it really fun and informative and I really improved my orienteering.  I made great friends but it was very tiring.

Great fun, lots of helpful support from coaches, not just in the forest.  New friends, fantastic experiences.  Lots of improvement.

Selections

Daniel Campbell - MOR
Oliver Flippance - OD
Matthew Gooch - MAROC
Flurry Grierson - DEVON
Sam Hague - WAOC
Oscar Healy - SBOC
Finlay Johnson - SROC
Felix Lunn - OD
Oliver Lunn - OD
Louis MacMillan - ECKO
Alexander Mitchell - HOC
Peter Molloy - FVO
Peter Reed - LVO
Harry Stagg - BOK
Adam Thorpe - EPOC

Evie Conway - AIRE
Jeneba Hampshire-Wright - NN
Laura Harrison - EPOC
Jasmine Silk - SWOC
Rosie Spencer - WCOC
Lizzie Stansfield - FVO
Alice Wilson - CLYDE

Selection Policy

Date

The camp will run from Saturday 30th July – Saturday 6th August 2016

Eligibility

The Camp is principally for M/W14’s born in 2002, but may include M/W15’s born in 2001 (see below)

Numbers

The camp will be for a targeted number of 24 juniors.

Nominations

each of the 12 British Orienteering Regional Associations may nominate up to 2 eligible M/W14 athletes, as defined above, who have achieved the standard set out below. In addition reserves may be nominated (M/W14 or M/W15) who have achieved the standard. In the selection process M/W14s will take precedence over all M/W15s.

In addition a Region may nominate other athletes, as reserves, who they feel are worthy of selection but who have failed to satisfy the qualifying standard. Such nominations must be supported by a statement from the Regional Coordinator.

Each Region is encouraged to nominate a junior who they believe would benefit from attendance on the tour.

All nominations should be listed in a ranked order by the Region, with number 1 being their top choice.

Nominations must be received by the Chair of JROS Selectors by 3rd May 2016.

Criteria

Juniors wishing to be selected will have achieved the standards set out below in at least one of the following races;

• Scottish Championships, 2015  (23rd May)
• Southern Championships, 2015  (8th Feb)
• Northern Champs, 2015  (19th Sept)  or  2016 (17th Apr)
• Midland Champs, 2015 (15th Feb)  or  2016 (28th Feb)
• Scottish O League (SOL1) 2016 (6th March)
• JK Day 2, 2015 (4th April)  or  2016 (26th Mar)
• JK Day 3, 2015 (5th April)  or 2016 (27th Mar)
• British Long Distance Champs, 2015 (18th April or 2016 (30th Apr)
• British Middle Distance Champs, 2015 (10th May)
• Northern Ireland Champs, 2015 (24th October)

Qualifying standard; M/W14’s Juniors being nominated will have achieved championship standard in at least one of the above races.

Nominated M/W15’s will have achieved a championship standard at M/W16 or at M/W14 in at least one of the above races.

Selection process

The priority for selection will be (for more detail see below);

-2 athletes per Region with qualifying standard

-Additional qualifying athletes

-Athletes nominated by Regions with no qualifying athletes

-Additional nominations

All nominated athletes (without qualifying criteria) must be agreed by the selectors whose decisions will be final.

The two M/W14 athletes from each Region with qualifying standard will be selected first.

They will then be followed by any M/W14’s with qualifying standard not yet selected.

If there are still spaces the selectors may select M/W14 athletes nominated by a Region who has no athletes who have achieved the qualifying standard.

If there are further spaces the selectors will then select from the M/W15’s, with qualifying standard.

If there are still spaces the selectors may select from the remaining nominated athletes who have not achieved the qualifying standard.

At all times selections continue up to the maximum number of athletes on tour or until the selectors deem there are sufficient athletes selected of an acceptable standard.

If there are two or more athletes with equal results and fewer places available, the selectors may seek further information from the Regional squad, with positions attained at British Championships and JK being the differentiator.

The tour selectors are

Susan Marsden (SEOA) Sue Roome (NWOA) Pauline Olivant (EMOA)

Selections will be announced via e-mail by JROS Secretary or Chair. The Regional Coordinators will be informed of all athletes attending a few days before the athletes are informed.

Any disagreement with selections should be addressed to the Chair, not the selectors.

Calculation of Championship time

For details of the calculation of championship standard times refer here