course planning resources

"I am still learning."       Michelangelo

Nothing makes so big an impact on orienteers' enjoyment than the quality of the courses they are given to run. To help course planners be good ones, here are some resources to help you set fun, fair, and challenging courses.

Note that although many countries use different terminology & color schemes to refer to courses and technical difficulties, this lack of standardization should not cause any serious confusion for we students of course planning.

From the UK

The British Orienteering Federation's website has a number of good course planning resources on their "Event Information" page. Some of the best include:

Splitting techniques to avoid pack formation

From Adrian Zissos

Course planning software


If you have suggestions for other course planning resources to include on this page, please email them to adrian 'at' barebones.ca