Discussion: ask the lost generation

>How do we take the next step and not have another lost generation once they go off to college or real life?

ask them what they want!

But first I'll echo the excitement about the younger orienteers in the US and the competitive women's trials this year. It was this along with an exec director, good maps and great events that got me excited about the coaching job last year (too bad it didn't work out). But all is on track for the US to beat the Canucks at the NAOCs this year. But that is just a baby step because the US thinks bigger and better than that in all sports and orienteering shouldn't (and won't be) an exception to that (and knowing the goals of some of the team members from last year they ARE thinking bigger).

So like you said the big question is to keep the current young generation from being lost and how to make them better. This seems to always be the problem in North America. How many US and Canadian juniors that ran JWOC in the last ten years have run WOC? How many are still racing? How many are still in the sport?

Boris, you may remember getting your butt kicked by several of the Ontario Jr. Team athletes I coached in the 90's. Remember that? Well they together never ran one WOC. But you on the other hand have run several. Those juniors I coached all went to different universities. Some went to Europe that some argue is necessary to get better. It didn't work because they got separated from their group of orienteering friends and found something else instead. In the end most quit the sport.

Why was there better retention of the US orienteers of your age group? Well it was likely because there was a group attending school in the Boston area.

Ask some of the recent lost generation and they will say that they would love to race and train and would love to be in an enthusiastic training group like what existed in B-town. Some will be back. They promised me that but school is more important right now.

So a strong effort needs to be made to get this young group of athletes closer together. Reduce their geography into some area in the US Northeast. Involve the entire community about the possibility of billeting or donated scholarships to make it easier financially.

having said that I've been pushing for this model in Canada for years. It hasn't and likely won't happen. There is either too much resistance or too little commitment (or a combination of both). But perhaps what the US needs is for Boris to step up to National Coach and make it happen. There the challenge has been put in writing.

Hammer is right on, and I think we are acting on some of those ideas now. The CSU-Boston group has been training together on a weekly basis for 3 years now, and we just held 2 training camps for the northeast community this spring. If we can keep that up, grow on it, and institutionalize some of those ideas so they don't die off when one critical person moves away, I think we'll be in pretty good shape.

And Hammer's last point is a good one: if one wants it to happen, one has just to step up and do it. I remember so many conversations with Jon Campbell when he was at MIT, talking about what it would take to start a training group and how it would never work because there weren't enough people. In the end, we just had to put together a listserve and get things started. It was kind of rough for the first year, with Ross putting on some ridiculous number of the trainings, but a couple years later it's pretty solid. Now we just need some better maps...

That said, none of the college students currently living in Boston come out for our trainings or events...

The lost generation problem is nothing limited to US or Canada - we have it in Sweden too. In my club we have had a bunch of very good juniors for a number of years. Many of them come from "orienteering families" with a solid support from home. Still we lose them - out of 9+8 boys and girls born in 1991 (a huge number in any context) we now have maybe 3 or 4 that are still active and in serious training.

The phase where juniors turn into college students is very critical since that´s when they usually lose contact with their old O friends and very often make new non-O friends instead. There are also other processes going on in their minds and bodies that take up a lot of energy.

This loss of interest/social platform/training buddies etc. is a natural development - a phase in life - but of course hits harder if you have a limited pool of talent to choose from.

I don´t intend to say that we just should sit still and accept it. Of course we have to fight to keep our juniors! But we also have to realise that we can´t keep them all...

I agree with what is said above - hard work from a small group of dedicated coaches/club leaders is always good a starting point. One solution that sounds reasonable is also to try and concentrate a group of talent in a limited region to make it easier to keep them together and organize training and other activities. It may take a number of tries (and years and burned out coaches?) but once the program is institutionalized - as Brendan says - the chance of success is greater.

Nice discussion with philosophical incline: it is not just related to orienteering, it applies to all competitive sports. Kids enjoy early success, because competitive pool is relatively small, especially in North America. Then they go to college and O. becomes secondary (whatever collegiate sport they do, mostly running related). After 4 "lost" years, they come back from college and face 20-25 years span of competitors ("elite"). I do not see that situation change in the nearest future, but here is my proposition to make them better faster and keep in competitive loop: introduce mentor mentality into senior team. I would make it plane and simple: you see a young orienteer having a bad race, try to help afterwards, sit and go into detailed analysis of that race. Actually, not just a bad race, all races. My long time dream is to bring digital projector to an A-meet and have post course analysis for members of junior and senior team - mandatory attendants - all selected team members + those who are interested in getting better faster. I, personally, would like to see one on one analytical sessions, where every aspect of the process is discussed - pre-race preparation, set of technical and physical goals, flow, reading map in advance, etc., etc., etc. After several generations it will pay back huge, because that mentality will come naturally to those who are junior now and seniors then.
..., too much typing for me.