White courses are the courses designed for beginners, i.e. those just starting out in orienteering. They should be designed so that everyone finishes and, just as importantly, we should be trying to make the courses interesting. This is important as we are trying to hook these beginners, and their families, into orienteering, NOT to turn them off for life.
Yellow courses should follow on from this. They should be MORE interesting. There must be a challenge. They should allow those with better skills some advantage over those with lesser skills. There must be an element of competition for those that want it and don’t agree with the politically correct “everyone must win” idea.
Orange courses are the next step and are for those who are learning contours, and the more intricate features, but don’t feel confident enough for a Red course yet.
Red courses are the ultimate test of an orienteer’s ability to navigate and follow the map. These courses must be done as fast as possible if you want to win. BUT, and it’s a big BUT, you don’t have to run fast to do Red courses. Lots of people enjoy red courses and do them at a walk. It’s the challenge of navigation that is the enjoyable part, not the physical exertion. To see a guide on how to plan a challenging course, see How to plan challenging (red) courses.
Short Red Course
The Short Red should be aimed at competitors dropping down the grades rather than juniors moving up through the grades. These older orienteers need a course that is less physical than Red Long/Med (i.e. minimise amount of climb) and control locations that are do not have difficult access. The technical navigational difficulty should be consistent with Red Long/Med. This course should preferably be at a larger scale to compensate for older competitor’s poorer eyesight.