This post highlights my thoughts on beating mantracker. As I have discussed in the past, mantracker likes to play the hunting prey game on his terms. He uses the tactics I called A & A : antagonize and ambush. And he is very successful at being cranky and winning the game in 2 days or less.
The antagonize and ambush plan plays out like this: he tries to run down the prey and he pushes the prey to waste their strength and make mistakes. He finds the prey's tracks sooner or later, estimates the overall direction of travel, and tries to think one step ahead to find the best spot to run out and ruin the prey's day. The first day is not about winning, it seems he waits until the second day to make sure he can catch the prey. This is a smart goal because he doesn't want to risk losing the prey for good. He wants to know the real direction so he can guess the final destination. This happens to be his last resort for information. If the prey keeps heading in the same general direction on day one, then he has the prey figured out and it becomes a matter of time.
Antagonizing the prey makes them exhaust themselves whacking through brush, draining their strength, and forcing them off path. Antagonizing makes for good television, it makes the prey seem desperate and the tracker seems better than normal.
Ambush requires the right direction of travel, a good guess at where the prey are, and where they will cross the dangerous areas. Ambush works this way; the mantracker finds a track behind the prey long enough to predict the next move then scouts a way around without being seen, and then moves ahead of the prey without detection to wait for the prey to approach. Mantracker likes to catch the prey in a spot where they have no cover and the horses can run them down in any case. Getting ahead is no problem if the mantracker can hide his approach and the horses are twice as fast as humans in open ground. But he can't spring the trap if the prey don't stay predictable long enough.
Mantracker's A & A strategy is successful so there's no reason to change until it doesn't work. This is the main weakness you can exploit: he uses a predictable strategy on a predictable schedule. Of course, the mantracker is very experienced at his job and the prey are first time victims so this is a real advantage unless you start the game off with a better strategy designed to defeat him before you start running.
My recommended tactics to beat this is a game plan I call D&D: distance and deception. This strategy can beat Mantracker's A & A strategy if you follow it religiously.
The first part of my proposed plan - Distance - requires the prey to run from cover to cover and hide in the cover when the mantracker antagonizes them. If you play mantracker's game you need to make up a lot of distance in a hurry. Prey seem to think they can trick the mantracker by hiding in bush and deception tactics alone. And then he rides up behind them and they run disorganized into trouble. I would argue that he is very good at tracking, so don't assume you will keep him lost for long. The prey waste time learning that he is very good at tracking. And he gets lucky. Instead of hoping the deception works, you need to make the distance. Expect he will catch up from time to time and that's when you run for cover, hide or change directions and then resume course. Above all else, you need to make it across over half the distance on day one.
I would argue deception on day one should focus more on hiding the true direction of travel from the mantracker. If your true heading is North, then you should run Northwest or Northeast for most of the day. Most of the time mantracker lost on past episodes the prey accidentally travel in the wrong direction so long, mostly by bad orienteering, that it confused and befuddled the old cranky mantracker so he can't take advantage of this key information. It's ironic that the best efforts to hide and run normally lose and the worst accident's succeed. The reason seems to be that this erratic heading does more to change the outcome than all the other reasons combined. The prey are unpredictable.
The prey must use routes to travel the distance quickly and use the bush and cover only when the mantracker nears. You may need to hide quiet for long periods and let the mantracker pass ahead. Or you may need to back track until the mantracker cannot find your direction. Your movement must be unpredictable but along a general correct direction. Keeping to the roads will speed up travel and allow the prey to rest for day two. You will give the mantracker the false direction of travel so this isn't a complete waste of time. If viewed from above, the prey's travel should look like a zig zag, where the prey move from cover to cover and hide where they are appropriate.
Day one should end with most of the distance covered and the prey healthy enough to sprint when needed. This allows the prey to wait patiently for mantracker to pass them on day two because they have the time to make up the final distance.
I wouldn't recommend sleeping that day one night: drink lots of water and keep going.
Day two's main tactic is deception. Mantracker is going to try to ambush you all day to catch you. He will get ahead of you and then make your life difficult. You need to change your direction of travel, hide and wait, and other deception tactics. Part of day two will be needed to watch for mantracker. You will need to know where he is so you can go the other way.
The first travel on day two should be in a different direction: 90 degrees from the original course on day one. When he sees these tracks, he will be lost as to the right overall direction and then he can't predict your general travel. Then in a kilometre or so, change back to the true heading for a period to make up some time.
If travel on day one resembles a zig zag, then travel on day two should be even more messy. Reading a map and understanding which ground is best for travel needs to be augmented with a prediction of what mantracker thinks you will do. If he figures you will stay to a trail along the original heading then you must deviate out of your way to stray outside his view. Mantracker doubles back when he thinks he has lost the trail, and you can make him keep guessing long enough to make up the distance from your deception tactics.
Day two is when you employ all those deception tactics people have tried in the past. Deception tactics like reverse boots, covered boots, track decoys, double back, wiping tracks, sound decoys, body decoys, wolf/bear urine, and so on will have more effect because on day one you didn't try those tactics - he will assume you won't try them on day two because you didn't try any on day one and make that one critical mistake you can benefit from. I doubt it will work for long but it may work long enough.
The goal of day two's travel is to keep him guessing long enough to avoid ambushes and have him in the wrong ambush spot when you cross the finish line.
Showing posts with label mantracker. Show all posts
Showing posts with label mantracker. Show all posts
Monday, June 14, 2010
Sunday, March 14, 2010
The Tactics of Mantracker Part 5
The game of Mantracker versus prey has many twists and turns. While the TV show ( a 30 minute show for the first season or 1 hour for the rest ) tends to amp up the hype and the suspense so you will watch next week, I guess that the actual race is a lot like being in a war; long periods of absolute boredom punctuated by moments of shear terror.
Many competitors do not realize just how hard it is walking / running 50 km let alone running from a horse that can run 50 km/hr. Few people walk more than the distance from a restaurant to the car. If you compete on Mantracker you need to be ready for the adrenaline dump and the long dull pain of sore legs and bruises. You need to bring electrolyte supplements and water, and advil or Tylenol so you can keep feeling normal.
The race is a game of patience and skill as much as it is about endurance or intelligence. Mantracker has made big mistakes and cashed in on some really bad mistakes. If you are the prey you need to be right 100% of the time, so you better keep thinking and keep focussed. There will be openings to exploit just like any other competition and if you try and force them then that's when mistakes cost you the game.
Many competitors do not realize just how hard it is walking / running 50 km let alone running from a horse that can run 50 km/hr. Few people walk more than the distance from a restaurant to the car. If you compete on Mantracker you need to be ready for the adrenaline dump and the long dull pain of sore legs and bruises. You need to bring electrolyte supplements and water, and advil or Tylenol so you can keep feeling normal.
The race is a game of patience and skill as much as it is about endurance or intelligence. Mantracker has made big mistakes and cashed in on some really bad mistakes. If you are the prey you need to be right 100% of the time, so you better keep thinking and keep focussed. There will be openings to exploit just like any other competition and if you try and force them then that's when mistakes cost you the game.
Friday, March 12, 2010
The Tactics of Mantracker Part 4
I have watched Mantracker episodes over and over just like Mantracker looks for each and every footprint. His methods are revealing.
One of Mantracker's strengths is his ability to get inside the thought process of his prey. He knows how to escape and he knows how to move over all types of terrain. So he makes a simple guess as to how smart the prey is and how much he needs to out think the other side. He guesses right most of the time, and sometimes that can be his undoing.
The game of mantracker versus prey is really a mental game. His horse is the muscle and he is the brains. He has seen all the tricks, and while some of them work he knows that people are trying hard to beat him. When you try hard to trick him that is when he knows not to trust the trails he has been given. If it is too good to be true, then it is and he will distrust what he sees. That too can be taken advantage of.
Here is what he knows about you as the human prey: you are human, you need water, you are slower but can climb obstacles, you are trying to outthink him and you were dumb enough to sign up to a 36 hour foot race against a horse.
Here is what he knows about you as a human trying to outthink the Mantracker: if you can figure out the terrain ahead and how to lose mantracker, then he knows that is what you are trying to do at all times and he predicts your next move. This is the most important factor to take advantage of. If he sees you pointing right he knows you are going left. If he sees a fake trail that makes no sense to the direction of travel then he knows its a deception. More on this later on.
In an earlier post, I talked about his strategy of A & A: antagonize and ambush. He can antagonize you by keeping you from water. He can antagonize you by separating the prey and keeping you apart. He can antagonize you by sitting in ambushes or sprinting down the road at you and making you waste energy or driving you out of your way. He can antagonize you by sitting on the tallest hill or on the only bridge and force you to punish yourself through bad terrain to avoid capture.
Basically, he has it pretty easy. While he doesn't know the finish line he has a lot of time to find you and a lot of time to correct past mistakes. Of course it is easy because he is very good at finding tracks, and those times he wasn't then he was also extremely lucky. As the saying goes, you need to be good to be lucky.
One of Mantracker's strengths is his ability to get inside the thought process of his prey. He knows how to escape and he knows how to move over all types of terrain. So he makes a simple guess as to how smart the prey is and how much he needs to out think the other side. He guesses right most of the time, and sometimes that can be his undoing.
The game of mantracker versus prey is really a mental game. His horse is the muscle and he is the brains. He has seen all the tricks, and while some of them work he knows that people are trying hard to beat him. When you try hard to trick him that is when he knows not to trust the trails he has been given. If it is too good to be true, then it is and he will distrust what he sees. That too can be taken advantage of.
Here is what he knows about you as the human prey: you are human, you need water, you are slower but can climb obstacles, you are trying to outthink him and you were dumb enough to sign up to a 36 hour foot race against a horse.
Here is what he knows about you as a human trying to outthink the Mantracker: if you can figure out the terrain ahead and how to lose mantracker, then he knows that is what you are trying to do at all times and he predicts your next move. This is the most important factor to take advantage of. If he sees you pointing right he knows you are going left. If he sees a fake trail that makes no sense to the direction of travel then he knows its a deception. More on this later on.
In an earlier post, I talked about his strategy of A & A: antagonize and ambush. He can antagonize you by keeping you from water. He can antagonize you by separating the prey and keeping you apart. He can antagonize you by sitting in ambushes or sprinting down the road at you and making you waste energy or driving you out of your way. He can antagonize you by sitting on the tallest hill or on the only bridge and force you to punish yourself through bad terrain to avoid capture.
Basically, he has it pretty easy. While he doesn't know the finish line he has a lot of time to find you and a lot of time to correct past mistakes. Of course it is easy because he is very good at finding tracks, and those times he wasn't then he was also extremely lucky. As the saying goes, you need to be good to be lucky.
Wednesday, March 3, 2010
The Tactics of Mantracker Part 3
Mantracker has a few ways of finding where the prey have gone: ground signs ( tracks, love notes left behind, snapped twigs, etc.), audio signs, and visual signs. And on a few occasions eye witness help but that's a rare help.
When you plan your movement you need to consider all these signs and try and minimize them as you go. Consider moving in stages, sneaking up to ridge line to run along behind it and then duck into bushes to stop and determine if you were spotted. With this tactic in mind, here are my helpful points about the various signs.
Of course ground signs are the well known part of what he does. He looks for disturbances and mantracker prides himself with his skills. Most times he can figure out what is going on and he has the time and space to correct wrong guesses and wrong trails. He tends to look for clues to decide where the prey is going and but sometimes he forgets his discipline. He wants to stay behind the prey to confirm he is right. Since he has so much faith in his ability sometimes he has a problem admitting he went the wrong way. When he is wrong it takes him some time to admit that he was wrong and retrace his steps to find the true direction. You can exploit that, and I talk about that in a later post.
The two underestimated signs are visual and audio. If you are running from mantracker, you need to stop talking and stop standing in the open and you willl take away a lot of his extra luck away.
If you are unfamiliar with military terms, then lets use the term silhouette that means something (an outlined form) that stands out. One way to avoid giving yourself away is to not silhouette your body as you move in the open. That means keep lower than the things around you because moving objects are easier to see than static ones and the more "human like" then the more noticeable. If you move quickly it is very easy to see you from even kilometres away. When you move in the distance you are more obvious when you cross the viewpoint of an observer and less obvious if you move towards or away from observer. Slow movement over small open areas can be just as effective as running the entire distance if you move undetected. Try and stay lower than the height of the hill beside you. Try and guess where mantracker is behind you and stay on the other side of trees, hills, and dead ground (ground that drops away from the surrounding so it doesn't look like its lower) so mantracker can't find you from a kilometre away. Running along ridgeline is a very novice way of escaping. Mantracker wishes for simple mistakes like this so he doesn't have to work so hard and still keep his reputation.
In the open, sound is not such a big deal unless mantracker is near you or near water or steep slopes. Sound carries down hills and across water so you need to be aware when you cross hills and water. In the bush, sound reverbs around off trees and rocks and will give you away from any direction. So hiding in the bush does nothing unless you are quiet. Speaking should be kept to a minimum. You should speak in a low voice and as rarely as needed. Low frequencies travel farther but are less detectable further away by the human ear. The best way to talk to your team mate is to lie right on the ground facing each other and talk quickly.
To keep the signs to the minimum, it makes sense to plan out every move down to the places you will stop, the places you observe open areas and where it makes sense to move without visual detection. Mantracker thinks inside the heads of the prey. So what? So he is going to think like an escaped convict and guess at how much field smarts you have. He will think where you should go next from he thinks you are.
When you plan your movement you need to consider all these signs and try and minimize them as you go. Consider moving in stages, sneaking up to ridge line to run along behind it and then duck into bushes to stop and determine if you were spotted. With this tactic in mind, here are my helpful points about the various signs.
Of course ground signs are the well known part of what he does. He looks for disturbances and mantracker prides himself with his skills. Most times he can figure out what is going on and he has the time and space to correct wrong guesses and wrong trails. He tends to look for clues to decide where the prey is going and but sometimes he forgets his discipline. He wants to stay behind the prey to confirm he is right. Since he has so much faith in his ability sometimes he has a problem admitting he went the wrong way. When he is wrong it takes him some time to admit that he was wrong and retrace his steps to find the true direction. You can exploit that, and I talk about that in a later post.
The two underestimated signs are visual and audio. If you are running from mantracker, you need to stop talking and stop standing in the open and you willl take away a lot of his extra luck away.
If you are unfamiliar with military terms, then lets use the term silhouette that means something (an outlined form) that stands out. One way to avoid giving yourself away is to not silhouette your body as you move in the open. That means keep lower than the things around you because moving objects are easier to see than static ones and the more "human like" then the more noticeable. If you move quickly it is very easy to see you from even kilometres away. When you move in the distance you are more obvious when you cross the viewpoint of an observer and less obvious if you move towards or away from observer. Slow movement over small open areas can be just as effective as running the entire distance if you move undetected. Try and stay lower than the height of the hill beside you. Try and guess where mantracker is behind you and stay on the other side of trees, hills, and dead ground (ground that drops away from the surrounding so it doesn't look like its lower) so mantracker can't find you from a kilometre away. Running along ridgeline is a very novice way of escaping. Mantracker wishes for simple mistakes like this so he doesn't have to work so hard and still keep his reputation.
In the open, sound is not such a big deal unless mantracker is near you or near water or steep slopes. Sound carries down hills and across water so you need to be aware when you cross hills and water. In the bush, sound reverbs around off trees and rocks and will give you away from any direction. So hiding in the bush does nothing unless you are quiet. Speaking should be kept to a minimum. You should speak in a low voice and as rarely as needed. Low frequencies travel farther but are less detectable further away by the human ear. The best way to talk to your team mate is to lie right on the ground facing each other and talk quickly.
To keep the signs to the minimum, it makes sense to plan out every move down to the places you will stop, the places you observe open areas and where it makes sense to move without visual detection. Mantracker thinks inside the heads of the prey. So what? So he is going to think like an escaped convict and guess at how much field smarts you have. He will think where you should go next from he thinks you are.
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
The Tactics of Mantracker Part 2
Mantracker is a guy on a horse. He tracks people for a living and he tracks prey for TV. He has 36 hours to find you while you run like a scared chicken. That is unless you know what you are doing.
Here is the reality: you cannot move without leaving tracks. No matter what you do: wrong footwear, double back, wiping tracks, and all the other tactics, he will eventually find your tracks. So what? So there should be a simple limit to how much effort you spend in trying to confuse the tracker. Eventually, he will catch up. So what? You need to prepare for an ambush or for mantracker to just luck out and stumble on where you are. Often times prey run through the bush only to see mantracker 50 yards down the trail. Walking in thick bush may make it hard to track but you need to leave that cover eventually.
Another realization is that sometimes you want to let him find your tracks. More about this later on.
If he finds your tracks from time to time he will eventually figure out your direction of travel. This is important, and often overlooked. The shortest distance between two points is a straight line. If you were to follow a trail of bread crumbs, and then none, and then bread crumbs again soon you don't need anymore bread crumbs. You can extrapolate from the line where the line is going. If you miss it at one point, then you have a line to follow based on history. If a horse moves at twice the speed of a man then the mantracker can catch up over and over. The best way to avoid getting caught is to consider a path that doesn't give away your true direction of travel. A longer path may mean more running but it also means less predictability and that may mean less mantracker.
There are a lot of simple obstacles that stop the horses: fences, steep terrain, cliffs, thick trees, bushes, and soft sand. Very few mantracker episodes happen in complete prairies with no cover. So you need to know what the local obstacles are as you move over the terrain.
Here is the reality: you cannot move without leaving tracks. No matter what you do: wrong footwear, double back, wiping tracks, and all the other tactics, he will eventually find your tracks. So what? So there should be a simple limit to how much effort you spend in trying to confuse the tracker. Eventually, he will catch up. So what? You need to prepare for an ambush or for mantracker to just luck out and stumble on where you are. Often times prey run through the bush only to see mantracker 50 yards down the trail. Walking in thick bush may make it hard to track but you need to leave that cover eventually.
Another realization is that sometimes you want to let him find your tracks. More about this later on.
If he finds your tracks from time to time he will eventually figure out your direction of travel. This is important, and often overlooked. The shortest distance between two points is a straight line. If you were to follow a trail of bread crumbs, and then none, and then bread crumbs again soon you don't need anymore bread crumbs. You can extrapolate from the line where the line is going. If you miss it at one point, then you have a line to follow based on history. If a horse moves at twice the speed of a man then the mantracker can catch up over and over. The best way to avoid getting caught is to consider a path that doesn't give away your true direction of travel. A longer path may mean more running but it also means less predictability and that may mean less mantracker.
There are a lot of simple obstacles that stop the horses: fences, steep terrain, cliffs, thick trees, bushes, and soft sand. Very few mantracker episodes happen in complete prairies with no cover. So you need to know what the local obstacles are as you move over the terrain.
Friday, February 19, 2010
The Tactics of Mantracker Part I
The TV show Mantracker, produced by Bonterra Productions is a TV show about a search and rescue tracker that plays a 36 hour game of cat and mouse with 2 human "prey" across a roug wild terrain. Men and women pit their boastful skill against a man who can figure them out, and uses his horse for muscle. The prey have to run about 50 km in 36 hours, and usually sleep for about 6 hours of that. All the mantracker has to do is come within spitting distance and he has a nasty habit of making the prey gives up.
The prey are given a map and a compass and are told where the finish line is. Mantracker gets nothing but his horse and a guide. The mantracker starts 2 km back and can only use his eyes ears and cowboy common sense to keep up with the two fleeing victims. When a flare goes off the prey start to run and the mantracker rides up to where he thinks the chase started and then looks for the direction of travel.
Here is the reality; a horse can outrun a man on most open terrain. The man can out-traverse and out climb a horse in treed, sloped, and rough terrain. So what? The prey has to be careful about where they choose to run and which way they should escape. Bad panic decisions make for easy captures. The prey should always move thinking about the right direction to escape based on the current terrain. One wrong move means one short day.
The terrain varies per show. In most cases the distance is about 40 to 55 km over hills and valleys. The path is rarely straight and easy. The reality is that the distance is a hard one to make on foot without risking it on the paths and trails. Prey try every trick in the book to evade the tracks - but in most cases the tracker catches up because he is that smart and eventually tracks of some kind are left.
Mantracker has a common, time-tested , strategy I call A & A: antagonize and ambush. He has a capture rate of about 70% by my stats so it is nothing to trifle with. The first step in the strategy is to antagonize: make the prey tired and panic and cause them to run down their mental and physical resources. Prey lose direction, compasses, water bottles, clothing, their patience and their energy.
The second part of the plan is ambush. Once mantracker thinks he can, he gets out ahead of the prey and tries to run them down. He is not the most successful with ambush, but he has many chances in a 36 hour race to fail many times.
If you want to take on mantracker, stay tuned for more helpful tactical thinking here.
The prey are given a map and a compass and are told where the finish line is. Mantracker gets nothing but his horse and a guide. The mantracker starts 2 km back and can only use his eyes ears and cowboy common sense to keep up with the two fleeing victims. When a flare goes off the prey start to run and the mantracker rides up to where he thinks the chase started and then looks for the direction of travel.
Here is the reality; a horse can outrun a man on most open terrain. The man can out-traverse and out climb a horse in treed, sloped, and rough terrain. So what? The prey has to be careful about where they choose to run and which way they should escape. Bad panic decisions make for easy captures. The prey should always move thinking about the right direction to escape based on the current terrain. One wrong move means one short day.
The terrain varies per show. In most cases the distance is about 40 to 55 km over hills and valleys. The path is rarely straight and easy. The reality is that the distance is a hard one to make on foot without risking it on the paths and trails. Prey try every trick in the book to evade the tracks - but in most cases the tracker catches up because he is that smart and eventually tracks of some kind are left.
Mantracker has a common, time-tested , strategy I call A & A: antagonize and ambush. He has a capture rate of about 70% by my stats so it is nothing to trifle with. The first step in the strategy is to antagonize: make the prey tired and panic and cause them to run down their mental and physical resources. Prey lose direction, compasses, water bottles, clothing, their patience and their energy.
The second part of the plan is ambush. Once mantracker thinks he can, he gets out ahead of the prey and tries to run them down. He is not the most successful with ambush, but he has many chances in a 36 hour race to fail many times.
If you want to take on mantracker, stay tuned for more helpful tactical thinking here.
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