Lagganlia 2018

Generic information about Lagganlia

Team Manger Report

Lagganlia Staff

Don McKerrow (SLOW) Senior Coach

Lecky-Thompson (LOC) Senior Coach

Fiona Bunn (TVOC/CUOC) Junior Coach

Louise Adams (SYO/EUOC) Junior Coach

Freddie Carcas (INT/LUOC) Junior Coach

Megan Harrison (EPOC/LUOC) Junior Coach

Grace Molloy (FVO) Junior Coach

Nev Myers (EBOR) Lead Coach

Hannah Crane Chef

Nick Jarvis (SO/LUOC) Senior Coach

Ian Maxwell (RR) Senior Coach

Nick McKerrow Chef’s Assistant

Jonny Hooton (EBOR) Senior Coach

Pip McKerrow Chef

Julie Emmerson (OD) Senior Coach

Roger Thetford Senior Coach

Karen Clark (EBOR) Senior Coach

Tony Carlyle (AIRE) Tour Manager, Safeguarding

Laura King (AIRE/EUOC) Junior Coach

Wendy Carlyle (AIRE) Pastoral, Safeguarding

The coaching team for 2018 had very experienced senior coaches as group leaders who were supported by enthusiastic junior coaches/helpers. It was good having three of this year’s JWOC team with us, Fiona, Grace and Laura who brought that extra competitive experience to add to the coaching. Fiona is ready now to complete her level 2 at Hawkshead and Grace found the experience very useful in preparation for her coaching visit to Australia. With Grace and Laura, Freddie, Louise and Megan were first time coaches at Lagganlia. The group leaders were very pleased with their commitment in getting controls in and out of the forest and with the mature way in which they interacted with the athletes which reflected on their own experiences of being coached. Julie and Nick are becoming seasoned hands at Lagganlia and their experience is proving to be much valued. Special mention to Jonny Hooton for his video work and interaction with the athletes and to Wendy and Karen for their photography which is much appreciated by athletes and parents. The senior coaches keep on returning and continue to get on with minimum fuss to provide the athletes with a first-class experience. I offer thanks to all concerned on the juniors’ and their parent’s behalf for all the work that was done to ensure a successful week. Feedback from parents this year was highly complementary, and I have included extracts from their thanks with the athlete comments.

Lagganlia Athletes

Angus Ivory INT Holly Stodgell WCH

Anna Cox BASOC Jamie Goddard FVO

Barney Steventon-Barnes SUFFOC Joel Gooch MAROC

Ben Squire NOC Libby Barber LEI

Emily Turner LOC Max Mobus SYO

Euan Tryner SYO Maya Hampshire-Wright NN

Ewan Musgrave MAROC Olin Davies SLOW

Finlay Raynor INVOC Oscar Shepard INVOC

Florence Lunn OD Rebecca O’Donovan LOC

Hannah Kingham MOR Ruby Owen BOK

Hannah Thomas MWOC Sam Crawshaw SYO

Herbie Ashworth WCOC Sam Griffin GRAMP

Early in the year it looked like numbers would be reduced this year but a late flurry of championship standards in the later selection events gave a full compliment of 24 athletes. One athlete had to pull out and after a request to Squad Managers for a replacement Sam Griffin was selected to deservedly take up that place.

We had a record number of athletes from one region this year, nine athletes from Scotland. I was concerned how this might affect the group but regardless of ability the athletes got on really well together. They were all highly motivated to improve their orienteering and this was reflected in their work rate in the forest and in their interactions with coaches. Domestic duties were also done with a smile and I didn’t have to chase anyone to complete their tasks.

Overall they were a great group of athletes to work with.

Travel and Transport

Organisation of transport arrangements to and from Lagganlia was left to parents. Most athletes were met at Aviemore station and transferred to Lagganlia by minibus. Two athletes were picked up from Inverness airport.

The 16.19 arrival time at Aviemore Station was again popular and enabled us to get the athletes settled in, fed and then make good use of the time on Saturday evening. This year all the athletes were there in time for the evening meal and team building activities.

Holly had to leave early for a previously arranged commitment and was taken straight to Aviemore station from training. Emily was picked up by mum at the end of Friday evening activities in order to get holiday flights.

Two athletes were dropped off at Inverness Airport. The majority were taken to Aviemore station for the 08-30 train to Edinburgh and the remaining athletes picked up by parents.

Nationwide Hire were used again this year and they secured two 17 seat minibuses from the Thrifty branch at Inverness. The minibuses were delivered and collected from Lagganlia by Thrifty.

We had 4 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 four lodges allocated:

Sgorans (16 beds); cooking and eating, girls and coaches dormitory.

Caerketton (17 beds); cooking, social and meeting/presentation area, boys and coaches dormitory.

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

Ptarmigan (6 beds); cooking, coaches and chefs dormitory.

Pip and Hannah proved to be very efficient and organised and continued with the high standard of catering set in previous years. The quality of meals produced was excellent and this was reflected in athlete comments, however empty plates spoke for themselves. The same catering arrangements put in place by Pip and Lesley last year were used again with small improvements based on last years experience. The use of a hot water urn for hot drinks worked well and kept athletes and coaches away from the sinks and preparation areas.

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 Pip and Hannah 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 Pip and Hannah on my part.

For next year if we have the same arrangements then I shall request that Lagganlia upgrades the oven/hob in at least one of the Sgorrans kitches.

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. Warm up routines, compass work and pacing. Star relay.

Sunday, PM; Watched the WOC 2018 mixed sprint relay then to Moor of Alvie for further compass work.

Monday, AM; North Granish. Simplification, relating map to ground, visualisation. Sketch maps and map walk.

Monday, PM; Glenmore Lodge. Sprint racing, sprint qualification race. River Feshie swim

Tuesday, all day. Culbin. Contour Day. Simplification, contours as line features,

attack points and catching features, longer legs and low vis green exercise. Odds and evens relay.

Wednesday, AM; Lagganlia timed runs track and forest. Checker Board fine orienteering.

Wednesday, PM/evening; Sprint Final Badaguish

The Rings (Badaguish), Shops (Aviemore).

Thursday all day;

Roseisle, Athlete centred coaching. Two planned loops, coaches decide on skill/technique focus for athletes in their group. Encourage Talk O. Peg relay and terrain loops. Low vis green exercise.

Friday, AM; Lagganlia Tour champs classic race

Friday, PM: Lagganlia Fun relays

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

Saturday – Disperse

Comments

The Lead Coach (Nev Myers) put the programme together.

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 and to distribute to athletes and Regional Squads. All athletes left Lagganlia 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 de-brief 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 four 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 or Karen to ensure all details were recorded and appropriate follow up taken. Next morning all who had attended the evening clinic had to see Wendy and Karen 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 were no incidents that required reporting to parents.

ACCOUNTS

Expenditure was within the allocated budget of £11,379. I made an error when calculating the cost per athlete by using a formula from Lagganlia 2017 accounts which had 26 athletes. As a result, I underestimated the athlete contribution as we had 24 athletes this year meaning income from athlete contributions was less than in the original budget.

There is still a coach expense claim to come in so accounts are not final, but savings in some budget areas means there is currently a shortage of income over expenditure of £271.62.

Lagganlia accommodation was a known cost when the budget was set. The Centre has been booked again for next year at the same cost as 2018.

Pip and Hannah kept within the food budget which worked out at £5-01 per person, per day.

We used Nationwide again for the minibuses. However, I would not recommend using Nationwide again as Thrifty were disorganised, not only delivering a minibus with an illegal tyre they also messed up the pick-up of the buses. Charges were made to my credit card which I am still challenging with Nationwide. These charges are not included in the accounts.

The flexibility of having an extra driver and all drivers able to drive any bus helped with the daily logistics and was well worth the extra insurance premium.

Diesel for minibuses was above budget reflecting higher pump prices.

Maps were provided at no cost by BML printers, many thanks to Nigel for his continued support.

Once again Nev liaised with local clubs for areas and access and invited their juniors to attend the training. Consequently, there were no costs for area admin and map files and the only access cost was the Badaguish donation. MAROC took up the offer and joined us at Culbin and Roseisle.

Volunteer travel expenses stayed within budget thanks to those who shared transport and the three coaches/helpers who did not wish to make a claim to cover their travel costs.

Once more a big thank you to EBOR for their continued support in providing equipment at no cost.

All the First Aid kits were checked and out of date supplies replenished.

Conclusions

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. Putting a daily selection of Wendy’s photographs on line for parents was also much appreciated.

All athletes were provided with a questionnaire at the end of the week which reflected a very positive experience for all athletes.

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).

We were fortunate once more to have a higher ratio of coaches than the minimum and this was beneficial to the athletes as they gained from more individual attention. Extra staffing also allows specific tasks to be allocated to individual coaches without impacting on athlete contact.

2019

Lagganlia will take place between Saturday 19th and Saturday 27th July 2019.

It was agreed to book Lagganlia for the week before the Scottish 6 Days. Many English schools are still in term time that week, so athletes need to be made aware that they may have to apply for leave from school if their summer term has not finished.

Proposed budget for Lagganlia 2019 based on same structure as 2018

To avoid any mistakes with athlete contributions next year I have shown costs for different number of athletes in the table below. I have assumed that JROS will be able to maintain the £70 subsidy per athlete. As it is a 6 Days year volunteer travel expenses are expected to be well within budget, so I have rounded down the athlete contributions.

Tony Carlyle

Tour Manager 2018

APPENDIX 1

Athlete Midweek Comments

Fun, interesting and you learnt a lot.

Best week of orienteering I have had. Technical, fun, difficult.

Technical, challenging, thoroughly enjoyable fun. Best week ever.

Mum, please can you pack my shorts for Italy. Thanks

I love Hannah Thomas and Emily Turner.

Lagganlia has been great, very useful and interesting.

Good training, not got lost much, I actually have friends.

Going well, Lagganlia has been fun so far. Very Midgey.

Lots of training, good fun, easy to run, see you Saturday.

Hey, it’s amazing here. I bet I’m not your daughter.

Really fun and great areas but tiring.

Joio yma Mam cofia pigo fi lan! o fi see ya! (I think I’ve got that right?)

Training is tough but fun. Food is nice.

Good training, good banter, good food, Yes Nev!

Fun training, good coaches, nice terrain, sort of cumfy beds.

No shower, Yes Nev, Bantz, Friends, orienteering training, cheesecake 20 out of 20.

Good fun and great areas. I bet you’re jealous.

I am alive. Fun, tired. I can orienteer now.

Lots of training. Lots of coaches. Good fun.

Lagganlia training, accommodation, coaches and food are excellent. Nine out of ten J

Useful training, fun swimming, Yes Nev lots of fun.

Hi it’s fun but the midges are annoying.

I’ve enjoyed progressing and now feel so much more confident.

It’s great, useful and eye-opening. I’ve progressed a lot.

Athlete final comments

Great, confidence gaining, helped me realise and start to sort out errors in my technical skills and plans for the future.

I had the best coaching from Karen and Freddie. I learned so much and am sad to leave early. I would love the opportunity to do more in the future.

Fun, friends, orienteering, amazing, bud(?) kids, more!

Really enjoyable and useful, nice big dorms, complex areas, really supportive helpful coaches, minibus banter, Yes Nev, orienteering pick-up lines.

Very good areas with great coaches and good exercises. Too many midges, FIX THE MIDGES. Had amazing time. Yes Nev.

Very good training and very helpful to develop different skills and enhance performance. I liked having junior and senior coaches.

It was fun, interesting, useful and everyone was nice.

Solid premium training, Banta, centipede(?). Exhausting yet brill, banging friends, improved techniques. Some showers, YES NEV. Thank you.

It was the best training I’ve ever had! The coaches were lovely. Great atmosphere. Learnt so much in one week.

Lagganlia has been amazing. I have learnt so much. Everyone was so nice and I have had so much fun.

Great coaches, great exercises, great areas. Much better at ‘O’, centipede, banging friends. Yes Nev, wish I could do it next year. Thank you.

Nice date, lots of banter, nice areas, crappy Wifi, learned a lot, very midgy! Great food, made great friends.

Fun, exhausting, complex areas, annoying midges, learnt, got better. Yes Nev.

Very fun with great areas, coaches and exercises. It was good meeting new people but tiring and midges.

Fun, tiring, friendship, exciting, interesting, midgey, bad signal. It was great.

It was fun.

Amazing orienteering areas and dedicated coaches. The courses were well planned for, fun training exercises. The food was great. Yes Nev!

It has been the best week of my life, I loved every moment of it. All the coaches were amazing, but Don, Meg and Louise were especially good, they helped me massively.

It has been a great orienteering experience and I have really enjoyed it. The training and food are good.

Loved it, three four five six seven. Food was amazing, training was amazing, fourteen fifteen sixteen, orienteering pick-up lines, yes Nev.

Parent feedback

Thank you also for running the camp with Tony. Please could you pass on my thanks to Tony. Also, to the other helpers too if you see them. It has been a brilliant week for Finlay and he says he has learned a lot, as well as had a great time.

Ruby had an amazing week and came back buzzing. Thanks so much for your hard work and inspiration. I’d be grateful if you could thank all the other coaches and helpers who made the week possible.

Thanks so much to you and all the other leaders for a great week. Angus clearly had a whale of a time (he’ll be in touch himself of course). It sounded like fantastic training and a lot of fun too. Lovely to see some photos to get an idea of what it was like! He’s very grateful to have had the opportunity and is now very motivated to keep improving at events this autumn.

Enjoy the rest of your summer.

Just want to say a big thank you to you and Wendy for providing a fabulous week of training at Lagganlia. Oscar loved it. He has new skills and new friends plus many good memories!

Thanks also to all the helpers.

Florence has just about recovered after returning, from what can only be described as an incredible experience, from Lagganlia. She enjoyed the experience immensely and I am sure that her orienteering has improved as a result.
Thank you both for everything you did to facilitate the week away and for the care whilst Florence was with you. It is appreciated by all of us.
The photos are a great way of keeping in touch with the week and we have spent a lot of time looking at them since her return, so a big thanks for those too.
That's three of my children who have now been fortunate to have the 'Lagganlia experience' - Felix and Oliver still talk fondly about their time with you in Aviemore. It’s such a a great experience from start to finish,

Sam reports particularly enjoying getting to know the Scots better through the week and is looking forward to resuming competition / friendships at the Sprints / Middles, JIRCs (and hopefully JHIs) soon :-) All the kids who got off the train in York had big smiles – lovely to see.

Sam’s still gushing with stories from his week :-)

I just wanted to write and tell you how much I enjoyed the week. I really appreciate all the effort that went into the coaching and organisation and I have got a huge amount out of all the training. I had a fantastic time and I would like to thank you for giving me the opportunity to attend. Please can you pass on my thanks to all the other coaches.

Please can I thank you, your wife and the team of coaches who delivered back to me an absolutely exhausted daughter who had had an amazing week.
She says she has learnt a lot, made new friends and had a brilliant time.
Many thanks for all your hard work.
Hope this week is a bit quieter for you all!

I'm on my last train now so nearly home!

Thanks again for this week it has been incredible! Hol

Thank you for all your hard work this week, please pass on my thanks to everyone else involved.

I know Sam has personally thanked you but one week on (and over 1700+ photos later and still counting I believe :-)), I must echo Sam’s thanks for organising such a fabulous experience and for including Sam at such short notice.

He seems to have thoroughly enjoyed the week and is still talking about it, the new friends he has made, the exercises he did and the great food.

What prompted me to write today was when he appeared downstairs this afternoon with all his old O maps he’d found and proceeded to go through and file them in his own folders.

His enthusiasm, and belief in his ability, for orienteering has grown so much after being included, for which we cannot thank you enough. The change since giving up football and the phrase ‘borienteering’ disappearing 6 months ago has been fast and the Lagganlia week has certainly accelerated it. Long may it continue!

Please can you pass on our appreciation to all your helpers and young coaches for all their hard work and enthusiasm.

Kindest regards

Zoe

Selections

Congratulations to the following athletes who have been selected to attend.
All athletes have been contacted separately.

Herbie Ashworth, NW

Libby Barber, EM

Anna Cox, Scot

Sam Crawshaw, YH

Olin Davies, SE

Jamie Goddard, Scot

Joel Gooch, Scot

Maya Hampshire-Wright, NE

Angus Ivory, Scot

Hannah Kingham, Scot

Florence Lunn, WM

Max Mobus, YH

Ewan Musgrave, Scot

Rebecca O'Donovan, NW

Ruby Owen, SW

Finlay Raynor, Scot

Oscar Shepard, Scot

Ben Squire, EM

Barney Steventon-Barnes, EA

Holly Stodgell, Wales

Hannah Thomas, Wales

Euan Tryner, YH

Emily Turner, NW

Emma van Dam, YH

Selection Policy

Date

The camp will run from 4th – 11th August 2018

Eligibility

The Camp is principally for M/W14s born in 2004, but may include M/W15s born in 2003 (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 22nd May 2018.

Criteria

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

Qualifying Standard

M/W14s Juniors being nominated will have achieved championship standard in at least one of the above races.

Nominated M/W15s 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/W14s 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/W15s, who have not previously attended, 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

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