VOCABULARY IN THIS LESSON:

Orienteering is an outdoor sport using maps to find one's way.

Orienteering was originally a training exercise for military officers, but it has now become a federated sport. Participants have a map, usually a specially prepared orienteering map, and they use it to find control points.

The fastest person who finds all control points wins the race.

The International Orienteering federation recognises four types of orienteering: 

→ Foot orienteering 

→ Mountain bike orienteering 

→ Ski orienteering 

→ Trail orienteering ( in wheelchair)

But many times, orienteering is included in adventure raids or mixed with other sports, as horse riding or canoeing. 

The Map:

Orienteering maps are very detailed topographical maps (they show hills and valleys).

Their scales are  1:15,000 or 1:10,000. This means every cm in the map equals 15.000 or 10.000 cms (150 or 100m) on the terrain.

Map symbols are standardized by the IOF.

The orienteering course is marked in purple or red on a map. A triangle indicates the start and a double circle indicates the finish. Circles show control points.

Every other part on the map (rivers, roads, vegetation, etc) has a specific colour.

 Image: www.cuerpoymovimiento.com

What is a race like?

Orienteering races are time trials. You can run individually, in pairs or in teams. 

Control points are marked in the terrain by white and orange "flags".

Image: Blue Elf for Wikimedia Commons 

Control card and punching:

Each competitor must carry a control card, and has to present it at the Start and hand it in at the Finish. The control card is marked at each control point to show that the competitor has completed the course correctly.

Image: Una Smith for Wikimedia Commons 

 (Usually with needle punches, but most events now use electronic punching).

  A needle punch:

Image: Oriel for Wikimedia Commons  

Results:

The winner is the competitor who has found and passed through all control points with the fastest time.

You can see an orienteering race in this video:

There are maps on the bottom sides to show you how the racer is progressing from one control point to the next one.

 Here you have an orienteering compass: 

It is exactly the same as the ones we use in class. 

Do you remember how to use it? It had many steps, uh?

Don´t worry.

You will find a video below telling you how to use it.

Anyway, it is very important that you remember the name of its parts.

1. Baseplate 

2. Direction of travel arrow

3. Magnetic needle

4. Orienting lines

5. Orienting arrow

6. Compass housing with degree dial

Image: Wikimedia Commons modified. 

 Here you have some videos from www.ehow.com with their transcripts:

How to use a compass to navigate:

 SUBTITLES: 1. Clic the play button. 2. Clic on the grey rectangular button with two lines

 Hi, this is John Stewart, and this is how to use a compass. There is many different types and styles of compasses, but you can use a very basic one, and find your way, anytime you need to. There's many different things on a compass that you need to know about, for you to be able to use it. The first thing is the dial. On all compasses, there is going to be a dial, that's going to spin 360 degrees, a complete circle. In the center of your compass, there's going to be two arrows. One is red, and one is white. They point the opposite direction of each other. On the dial that spins around, there's going to be a red arrow also. This is going to come in handy, for lining up, and getting your direct measurements. On the outer edges of your compass, there are going to be measurements. Half inch, quarter inch, one inch, and centimeter measurements. These are going to be there, for when you're marking your distances, according to how a map is read. A map might say that one inch is ten miles, so you can use your compass, to measure out the mileage that you're expecting to have to hike, but how to use the compass, is very easy. Find your bearing. Say, you want to go twenty four degrees. You're going to take, and put the dial on twenty four degrees. Spin the dial, to where both red arrows line up. Once the arrows line up, you're going to walk that direction, and it's going to point you in the right way of going twenty four degrees, and that's how it is to use a compass.

How to use a map and a compass to navigate:

 SUBTITLES:  1. Clic the play button. 2. Clic on the grey rectangular button with two lines

Hi, this is John Stewart, and this is how to use a map to find direction. If you have a map and a compass, you can lay that map out, and find your way, wherever you need to go. The first thing you need to do, is just layyour map out on a flat surface, and then get your compass out. Line your compass up with north, and get it pointing in that direction. Your map is then going to have a point that points north on it. Line the map up, and the compass up, and get them pointing in north. Then you can put your compass away, and take and just look at the map, and figure out where you want to go from there. Once you figured out where you need to go, you can then take your compass. Lay it back on the map. Point it towards that area you want to go, and it's going to tell you, hey, you need to go ninety eight degrees in that direction, and you can take and use the measurements from the key, to figure how many miles you need to walk, or drive in that direction, to find your way, of where you're trying to go, and this is how to read a map.

You can find the complete "How to navigate wilderness areas" series Here

Physical fitness is the ability to do a daily physical workout without feeling too tired. For this, you need the four “S´s”

                           Strength                         Stamina                     Speed                         Suppleness 

1. Stamina:

Stamina helps your muscles to work for a long period of time.

With it, you can do exercices for a long period of time, no matter the intensity.

For example:

Cycling: In the Tour of France they ride more than 200km over a lot of days, but they also sprint!
Marathon runnners: they run for more than 2 hours at a very fast pace.
Swimmers: in the 1500m race
Footballers: they need to run for 90 minutes without being tired so they can dribble and shoot.

Stamina is also called Endurance or Resistance.

There are two types of Stamina: Aerobic and Anaerobic.

Aerobic Stamina: During aerobic activity, your heart and lungs give your muscles enough oxygen, so you can do exercise for long periods of time at a medium intensity. (marathon, cycling..)

Anaerobic Stamina: During anaerobic activity, your muscles don´t have enough oxygen. These exercises are shorter but have a very high intensity (100m sprint, a basketball attack).Wiht anaerobic stamina, you can do these exercises faster and get tired later.

Aerobic Exercise is very good for your health. It develops your heart, your lungs and your circulatory system.

2. Strength:

Strength is the ability to use muscles against a resistance (a force or a weight).

With it, you can move or lift weights, and you can move your body weight easier. 

Some sports in wich strength is important:

Weightlifting: to lift as much weight as you can.
Judo: to throw your opponent.
Climbing: you need to move your body weight up the mountain.
Athletics: to jump higher or longer and to throw the javelin or hammer.

There are three types of strength:

a) Maximum strength: to lift very high weights: the best example are olympic weightlifters.

b) Explosive strength: to do a movement as fast as we can, moving a small weight (javelin throwers, for example)

c) Resistance-Strength: to do exercises with medium weights for a long time (in judo, combats last 4 minutes; rowers must move the boat for a long time also)

3. Speed:

Speed is the ability to do one or more movements in a short period of time.

Some examples of sports where speed is important:

Fifty meters swimmers, react quickly to the horn and swim very fast.
Handball goalkeepers react very fast to stop balls.
Fencers must move fast to touch the opponent with their sword.

When we talk about the speed to move from one place to another (running, biking or swimming), we call it a sprint.

4. Suppleness:

Suppleness is the ability to do ample movements with any part of your body. It is also called Flexibility.

Flexibility is very important in all sports, because with it, you have better performance and less injuries.

It is important for gymnasts, for hurdle runners or tae-kwondo fighters to do kicks. 

There are two types of flexibility:

Dinamic Flexibility: you use it when you do wide and relaxed movements.
Static Flexibility: you use it when you hold one position for some seconds. There is no movement.

Flexibility is the only physical ability that decreases as you grow older.

You need to spend a little time everyday to maintain and enhance it.

Benefits of supleness training:

-You have less injuries.                     

-Your muscles are more elastic and more powerful.   

-Your movements are not limited.        

Acrobatic Gymnastics is a team competition accompanied by music.

It is a team sport, so your partners depend on you.

Teams create different structures and build human pyramids in time with the music.

It is a sport that needs physical strength, stamina, rhythm, coordination and balance.

It is a very old activity,  Egyptians did human pyramids more than 2000 years ago.

Vocabulary in this lesson:

Skills: habilidades

Grace: gracia

Allowed: permitido (to allow: permitir)

To be held: ser mantenido (to hold: mantener)

Qualifying: clasificatorio

Safety: seguridad

Helpers: ayudantes

A corresponding/matching music: una música que le pegue

To grow to the sides: crecer hacia los lados

To develop: desarrollar

Upper levels: niveles superiores

Needed: necesitados (en el contexto, necesarios)

Here you can see a couple of acrosport videos in the world championships from www. youtube.com.

Do not try them at home!!

Before we start: SAFETY FIRST !

Before starting with acrosport, we must do gymnastics to develop our body control.

Also, in the first acrosport class, we learn how to support our partner´s weight without hurting ourselves. A correct position is fundamental for a safe practice.

Next step is developing some strength by holding basic positions.

Now we are ready, but remember:

No playing around is allowed when we are practicing acrosport!!

Figure building rules:

1. Team members: Each team has more members than the ones needed to build the structure. They are the helpers and must always pay attention to their partners.

2. Know what to do: Each team member must know what his or her position is.

3. The build up: You must build the structure in a coordinate way. Help is always needed. The structure must start from the center and grow to the sides. The last part are the upper levels.

4. Stabilisation: The position must always be held, specially if you are supporting a partner. Structures must last at least eight seconds.

5. Dismantling the structure: It must be coordinated. In reverse of the building, and always with help.

6. Roles: Each person must practise each position when building a figure. Helpers must change places with their partners in the structure.

Our progression in class:

1. Basic body control positions

2. Benches

3. Structures in pairs, groups of three, four...

4. Structures with inversions

Try to remember three exercises for each part of the progression.