Fine-O and Coarse-O
or Traffic Lighting
Fine O vs Coarse O
Or how to tackle a leg, particularly a medium or long leg. Are you one-paced? Or do you go full throttle in some parts of the legs and not others? Read Richard's article, and it may become apparent why the skill is known as traffic lighting.
In a previous article I talked about attack points. These are distinctive features which are easily found and which help you navigate to the control. When the control is difficult to find then breaking the leg down into two stages can be useful.
The first stage is finding the attack point and then the second is finding the control. I have heard this described as coarse-O and fine-O. The advantage of thinking this way is that naturally coarse-O is easier to navigate than fine-O. So in coarse-O mode, relax concentration slightly, and just cover the ground as quick as you can. You still need to navigate a bit, but hopefully you are not slowed down too much.
Then for the fine-O, switch on full concentration and maybe slow down a bit and make sure you navigate accurately when you need to. Here's an example from the blue course at a forest league race at Great Breach Wood. My route choice from 9 to 10 is shown.
I ran fast (coarse -O) for all the path running, simply looking out for the major track junctions, until I reached my attack point at the track junction. From there I navigated directly (fine-O) the short distance straight to the control. There are other route choices which in hindsight might have been better, but this strategy worked for me.
Richard Sansbury
- Skilling Up- Hints and Tips for Improvement, #21 from QuOnicle 161, May 2015