You have paid your entry, clipped a dibber to your finger, and been handed a map with a purple line on it. Around you, people with mud up their calves are jogging towards the start. It looks like a race, but nobody has explained the rules. The good news is that orienteering is built from four skills, and you can practise all of them on your first course: reading the map, choosing a route, finding and punching the right control, and working out afterwards where it went slightly wrong. Here is what each of those looks like in practice.
Before the beep: sorting yourself out at the start
Most of the time lost on a first course is lost before the first step. The start lane is a bad place to discover that your map is folded so you can only see the finish, or that you have not read the control descriptions at the bottom.
Ask for the beginner course if you are unsure which one to enter. Clubs normally offer a short, easy course — often white, yellow or orange on the sign-up sheet — that follows paths and obvious features. Take that one. There is no prize for skipping a level.
Then run through this before you walk to the start triangle:
- Check the scale and contour interval. Most club maps are 1:7,500 or 1:10,000, so one centimetre on the map is 75 or 100 metres on the ground. Contours are usually drawn at 5 m intervals, which tells you how much climbing you are looking at.
- Read the control descriptions. These are the small table, usually printed on the map, listing each control's order, its code number, and the feature it sits on — "boulder, north side", "path junction", "marsh edge". Read the column order once and it will make sense all day.
- Find the start and finish. The start is a triangle, the finish a double circle. Know roughly which way you will be heading when you begin.
- Fold the map small. Fold it so that the first leg fills your hand. You should be able to look at the map and keep walking.
- Clear your card. If the event uses electronic punching, insert your dibber into the clear unit, then the check unit, until each one beeps or flashes. If you are using a paper card, keep it dry and out of the way until the first control.
Reading the course, not just the line
The course is drawn in purple: a triangle, then numbered circles joined by straight lines, then a double circle. The lines are not a route. They are a statement of order, nothing more. Following the purple line on the ground is the single most common beginner mistake, because the line ignores every cliff, marsh and bramble patch in its way.
What matters is the ground under and around each circle. Learn a handful of map conventions well and the rest follows. White is runnable forest; yellow is open ground, often rough or tall grass; green is vegetation that will slow you down, and the darker it is, the harder the fight. Blue is water, and a blue line is a stream you will probably get your feet wet in. Brown lines are contours. Black is rock and man-made features. Anything hatched in olive or purple is out of bounds — respect it, even when the detour is annoying.
Contours are shapes, not decoration
A beginner tends to count contour lines. Better to see the shape they make. A closed ring of brown line is a hill or a hollow; small tick marks on the inside mean a depression, on the outside mean a knoll. Lines that bend into a V pointing uphill mark a re-entrant — a shallow valley, often the easiest way up a slope. A V pointing downhill marks a spur. If you learn to spot knolls, re-entrants and spurs, you can place yourself on the map without a compass.
Rule of thumb for leg one: if you cannot describe the control's feature in plain words, you are not ready to run yet.
Choosing a route: think in legs, not in steps
Route choice happens standing still. When you have punched a control, step off the track and take five seconds before you move. Look at the leg you are about to run, not the one you have just finished, and orient your map north with your compass so that features line up with the ground.
Then ask three questions, in this order:
- What can I see from here? Match a few large features to the map — a path junction, a field corner, the shape of the hill in front of you.
- What line can I actually hold? A path that goes the long way round is usually faster than a straight line through green, and it gives your brain a rest.
- Where do I leave the safe line? This is your attack point: a distinct feature, maybe 100 to 200 metres from the control, from which you take a bearing and walk carefully. A bend in a path, a boulder, the corner of a marsh. Pick something you cannot miss.
Two techniques do most of the work for beginners. The first is the handrail: follow a stream, fence, path or field edge that leads you in the right direction, then cut off it deliberately. The second is aiming off: instead of steering exactly at the control, aim at a point to one side of it, hitting a handrail or a line feature you cannot overshoot. When you reach it you know which way to turn. You will find the control far more often than by trying to walk a perfect bearing through indistinct forest.
Into the circle: finding and punching the control
Slow down before you get there. Runners who arrive at speed at the edge of the circle often run straight past the control, or punch the wrong one. From about 30 metres out, walk, check the feature against the control description, and only then look for the orange and white kite.
Check the code number on the control against your description before you punch. Not after. Codes exist precisely because two similar boulders can sit 50 metres apart, and one of them belongs to someone else's course.
Punching itself is simple. With electronic punching, push the dibber firmly into the unit until it beeps and flashes — do not snatch it out. With a paper card, punch cleanly in the correct box so the pattern is readable. Either way, glance at the unit afterwards to confirm it registered.
Then reset. Stand still for a moment at the control, turn your map to north, find your line to the next circle, and leave in the correct direction. Most mistakes on the following leg are made in the ten seconds after a good punch. If you do miss the control, do not wander in circles — go back to your attack point and start the approach again. That is always faster than hoping.
After the finish: the review that makes you better
Download your card, catch your breath, then do the part that most beginners skip. Compare your split times with your own expectation of each leg, and look at where you lost contact with the map. A short review, done while the course is still fresh, is worth more than three extra training runs. Keep a notebook with three lines per course: the leg that went well, the leg that went badly, and the one thing you will do differently.
Common beginner errors, worth checking against your own course:
- Following the purple line instead of choosing a route.
- Not thumbing the map — keep your thumb on your current position so your eye can find it instantly.
- Punching without reading the code number.
- Leaving a control without orienting the map first.
- Abandoning the control too early because the terrain "looked wrong".
- Skipping the control descriptions in the rush out of the start.
Your first few courses, in practice
Enter the easy course for three or four events before you move up. Walk the first leg and jog the rest; you learn more at a pace where you can still read. Budget more time than you think you need — an hour on an easy course is normal for a first attempt. Carry a spare compass if you have one, wear shoes with grip and long trousers for the undergrowth, and take water on warm days. Tell the organiser you are new; somebody will usually walk the first leg with you or point out the trickier symbols. Then go, punch the start, and enjoy the quiet part of the forest where nobody else is running.
Photo: Саша Алалыкин / Pexels
