The diagnostic protocol presented here allows orienteers to compare themselves to others in the sample and to analyse the proportion of physical and technical skills in their overall performance. In order to test the protocol 3 female and ­ 11 male leisure athletes completed two short orienteering courses, one with four control points (distance 0.80 km, al­titude 5 m) and one with eight (distance 1.95 km, alti­tude 40 m). The average running time was 6 min and 40 sec (± 2 min 18 sec) on the short and 17 min 36 sec (5 min ± 1 sec) on the long course when orienteering. After courses were marked with the optimum route running times decreased, as expected, to 3 min 45 sec (± 48 sec) on the short and 9 min 21 sec (± 1 min 19 sec) on the long course.