Information about
Elements of Orienteering


Lots of videos about orienteering in general and various orienteering skills at OUSA

An 11-minute video that introduces what orienteering is all about, Orienteering All Welcome

A 27-page booklet (12 MB) explaining orienteering from the European point of view by Goran Andersson, Orienteering in Simple English
Although the text is in English, some maps have their legends in Swedish.

For a basic description of what orienteering is all about, try Heather Williams' pages.

To introduce orienteering to children, try James Baker's pages.

For teaching orienteering in schools, try the O' in Schools Newsletter or  Teaching O

Guide to orienteering with links to different perspectives, try  A Guide to Orienteering

To learn about how to use the compass, try Kjetil Kjernsmo's compass lessons

Here are some PowerPoint presentations about orienteering generated by WPOC:

  1. This is an explanation (5 MB) of  What Orienteering is all about. Be sure to read the notes.
  2. This is a shorter version of the same material (4 MB)  Explaining Orienteering.
  3. This is a two part presentation; the first part is an explanation of how to teach beginners; the second is about working with scouts (7 MB) of Teaching Orienteering to Beginners + How Scouts can work with O Clubs.
  4. This is an explanation (10 MB) of How to Make Low-Cost Orienteering Maps Be sure to read the notes.
To learn about symbolic control descriptions, try Mike Currie and Steve Lang's pages updated by Ian Atkinson

To learn about making maps for orienteering, try Hans Steinegger author of OCAD.

To look at orienteering equipment, try  O Vendors

For magazines and journals related to the sport of orienteering, try these publications

All about orienteering in the USA, try the Orienteering USA

All about orienteering world wide, try the IOF