Selecting a course for Juniors

Published: Mon 7 Aug 2023

Courses at our Saturday and Sunday events are graded according to their length and difficulty. The colour coded system makes it easy to understand which course is suitable for your level of skill and fitness. The colour coded system is used by all orienteering clubs so you can take part in events organised by other clubs and choose the correct course for you based on its colour. All necessary equipment can be borrowed at the event.

New Juniors would normally start on the Yellow course. These courses are easy and short and use simple line features like paths, walls and streams to lead you round the course and find the control sites (check points). All the control sites will be on a line feature and easily visible.

Once you are proficient in completing Yellow courses, you would normally progress to Orange courses where basic use of the compass is needed and you will have to choose the best route to the next control. Control sites on orange courses are generally placed off line features and you need to be able to read the map more accurately to find them. Orange courses are also longer than Yellow courses

Older and more experienced juniors then progress to Light Green courses which are more difficult than Yellow and Orange. Control sites may be on ‘point’ features, such as small depressions, well away from line features so good map reading skills are needed. On these courses there might not be a path option to get to your next control.

Check out the upcoming Saturday and Sunday events on the ‘Events’ page and Junior results on the ‘Results’ page.