Choose the right course

When you enter an orienteering event, you will need to select a course to complete. Events will offer courses of different lengths and different navigational difficulty. This is a guide to help you choose a course with the right navigational difficulty for you.

If you’re after a quick answer: Families and children should start on white for forest/farm and easy for sprint orienteering, while adults should start on yellow for forest/farm and moderate for sprint. Then they should revisit this page after a few courses to gauges their progress.

For larger events like championships, you will need to select a class, instead of selecting a course directly. See this for deeper dive into classes.

Classes

We also provide posters of this content which can be printed on paper or corflute and displayed at events.

Forest/farm Sprint

Forest/farm vs sprint

There are 2 types of orienteering and experience in one does not mean you can skip the basics of the other.

The main issues that come from underestimating the difference between the 2 types are:

Not realising how difficult orange and red level navigation is – Without having done it before, it can be hard to realise how skilful experienced orienteers are when the going gets tough. Sprint orienteering can be fast and hectic, but even the most complicated sprint course does not prepare you for advanced off-road navigation.
Not understanding the out of bounds rules in sprint orienteering – It is very hard to get significantly lost in sprint orienteering because urban areas provide many distinct landmarks, but it is very easy to break fair play rules. Walls, fences, gardens, private lawns, hedges, and anything that the organisers believe could put fair play at risk may be marked on the map as uncrossable or out of bounds.

If you are still new to the symbols and colours on sprint orienteering maps, learn these first before taking on harder sprint courses where you are more likely to break fair play rules, as harder courses intentionally use uncrossable and out of bounds features to create route choice for the orienteers.

Therefore, this guide is split into 2 parts.

Can you handle the navigation required to confidently complete these legs?

Which number do you get up to before you lose confidence? And we are talking about confidence here, not to be confused with ambition!

If you made it to…

3 – There are lots still to learn, stick with white for now.
6 – If these legs look simple to you, it is time to take on yellow.
9 – These legs require multiple steps, but each step is simple, stick with yellow for now.
12 – These are harder yellow legs that require you to think a little more, it may be time to take on orange.
15 – These are typical orange legs that require you to use landforms for navigation, stick to orange until you are confident with contours.
21 – If you can do these harder orange legs confidently, it might be time to take on red.
30 – These are the hardest there is, designed to challenge experienced orienteers. Attempting these prior to mastering advanced techniques may be very frustrating.

Check out our Coaching and Training Hub for tips on how to get the skill required to move on to the next level.

If you made it to…

3 – There are lots still to learn, stick with easy sprint for now.
6 – If these legs look simple to you, it is time to take on moderate sprint.
9 – These legs require multiple steps and awareness of out of bounds symbols. Stay on moderate until you know the symbols and colours well enough to abide by all fair play rules.
12 – If you can do these moderate sprint legs confidently, it might be time to take on difficult sprint.
19 – These are the hardest there is, designed to challenge experienced orienteers. The many impassable obstacles force the orienteer to choose between multiple maze-like routes.