Course Setting For BAOC COOL Meets
Setting a course involves the following steps:
- Read an article about how setting a course for a certain level of difficulty needs to be done (see below).
- Draw a course on a map that meets the above guidelines.
- Visit the site (a "field check") to make sure that your course will work and make sure that the map is still accurate. There could be new trails, burned areas, or construction that happened since the last event.
- Make any corrections to your course based on the field check.
- Enter your course in a computer program called Condes. This will be used to print the maps.
- Set out your controls early on the day of the event, finishing by 9 AM.
For the courses at BAOC COOL meets, we like to use the British specifications for Technical Difficulty (TD), and follow their course guidelines:
- Course 1 – TD1
- Course 2 – TD2
- Course 3 – TD3
- Course 4 – TD4, or TD5 if the terrain permits
Here are links to the articles that you should read before setting one of these courses:
TD1 (PDF/596KB) (http://www.britishorienteering.org.uk/downloads/documents/planners_whitecourses.pdf) TD2 (PDF/784KB) (http://www.britishorienteering.org.uk/downloads/documents/planners_yellowcourses.pdf) TD3 (PDF/608KB) (http://www.britishorienteering.org.uk/downloads/documents/planners_orangecourses.pdf) TD4 (PDF/816KB) (http://www.britishorienteering.org.uk/downloads/documents/planners_lightgreencourses.pdf) TD5 (PDF/540KB) (http://www.britishorienteering.org.uk/downloads/documents/planners_greenandblackcourses.pdf) Sprints (PDF/2.9MB) (http://www.britishorienteering.org.uk/downloads/documents/planners_whatsdifferentaboutsprint.pdf)
Start with the TD1 course (our Course 1), read the article, plan a course, then talk to the BAOC COOL 
. Then, if you're ready for more, move to the next level...