Decathlon

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The decathlon tests an athlete's overall athletic ability by competing in 10 track and field events over two days. It requires a combination of speed, strength, endurance and skill.

For men: 100m, long jump, shot put, high jump, 400m, 110m hurdles, discus, pole vault, javelin, 1500m. For women: 100m, discus, pole vault, javelin, 400m, 110m hurdles, long jump, shot put, high jump, 1500m.

Mobility, skill, speed and explosive strength.

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Decathlon

Decathlon
Training Plan

Competing in the decathlon competition is the ultimate challenge for the senior male and
female athlete. The competition is against oneself and the scoring tables and the aim is to
score more points than anyone else does. It is the supreme test of mind and body;
challenging the person's character, attitude and determination and their physical abilities. It
is impossible to 'tame' the event because nobody has ever achieved the perfect score
(although some have got close) - there is always room for improvement and progress.

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TheEvents

Track & Field


Training Aids

The Decathlon (10 events) for Men is held on two consecutive days in the following order:

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Day 1

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100 metres
Long Jump
Shot
High Jump
400 metres

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The Decathlon (10 events) for Women is held on two consecutive days in the following order:

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Day 1
100 metres
Discus
Pole Vault
Javelin
400 metres

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Day 2
110 metres Hurdles
Discus
Pole Vault
Javelin
1500 metres

Day 2
110 metres Hurdles
Long Jump
Shot
High Jump
1500 metres

Training
When training for decathlon, athletes will work on techniques and conditioning, during which
each event sets its own major physical demands.

SITESEARCHFACILITY

The elements in each of the combined events and the key physical demands of those
elements are detailed in the following table:
Aerobic
Gross
Relative Running
Explosive Speed
Strength
Skill
Mobility
Endurance Strength
Strength Speed
Strength Endurance Endurance

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Event

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100m

Low

Med

Med

High

High

High

High

Med

Long
Jump

Low

High

High

High

High

High

Shot
Putt

High

High

Med

Low

Med

High

High
Jump

Low

High

High

High

High

High

400m

Med

Low

Low

High

High

Med

Low

Med

High

110m
Hurdles

Med

High

High

High

High

High

Med

Discus

High

High

Med

Low

High

High

Pole
Vault

Med

High

High

High

Med

Med

Javelin

Med

High

High

Low

High

High

1500m

High

Low

Low

Med

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Skill Training
Events Training

Speed and strength (power) are of vital importance, and so it seems reasonable to conclude
that successful combined event athletes must be fast and strong. The predominant
requirements of the decathlete are mobility, skill, speed and explosive strength.
The long term planning of combined events includes the planning of technique and strength
conditioning. This concept is true for athletes of all ages - whereby technique is dove-tailed
with conditioning, but to varying degrees depending on ages.
For younger athletes (13 to 15) during the years of early training, athletes should work on
the simple disciplines, ones that are more 'natural' to learn, such as sprinting, hurdling, long
jump and high jump.
Later training (15 to 18 years) should include more complex events such as shot, javelin and
pole vault events that are more demanding.

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Conditioning
Conditioning should take the form of, primarily, body weight circuits and running, bearing in
mind young athletes will be developing a fair amount of strength, agility and endurance
simply by practicing the events themselves.
For senior and top level athletes, conditioning should be worked on more extensively than
technique.

DeniseLewis
In 1997, Denise Lewis trained six days a week and the key element for Denise was
conditioning, which underpinned the whole training program throughout the year. A weekly
schedule would include:

two aerobic runs


two body weight circuits
one medicine ball session
two weight sessions
two track sessions
two technical sessions. This involves a hurdles session (outdoors) during the week but
the main sessions are done on a Sunday morning where usually two events were
tackled each time. (11 training units)

Mobility underpins the conditioning program and includes a mixture of general and specific
exercises.

TheEarlyYears
Tony is a Senior British Athletics coach with many years experience in coaching young and
senior athletes in the combined events. The following is some advice from Tony in introducing
young novice athletes to the Combined Events.
A training regime for a novice multi eventer might be two technical sessions and a running
session on every training night/day e.g.
Tuesday long jump, shot & running
Thursday high jump, hurdles & running
Sunday would be to concentrate on the weakest event and/or develop the new skills
the athlete would need to compete in the next age group, plus a running session
Running sessions are based on 400 metres training but much less volume and athlete
specific.
The fun begins as a coach and athlete have to start fitting in basic weights, strength,
mobility, conditioning, GCSE exams, A levels, girlfriends! etc.
The basic premise that I would work on would be to improve the weakest events first but
continue to develop the other events at the same time.
Coordination training (skill work) should be done predominantly during the early years (13-18
years)
Speed, particularly running speed, can be ideally developed during the early years (13-18
years) but maximum strength training should be undertaken almost exclusively by top level
athletes.

Hard anaerobic endurance training is not appropriate for younger athletes and should be
reserved for top level athletes only.
Coaches who work with young athletes must work primarily on skills, technique and speed
training. Training athletes to become stronger can take place at a later stage.
If coaches try to develop a strong young athlete and ignore developing skills and technique,
then there will be an accelerated improvement initially followed by a 'stunted' improvement
later.
If the skills and abilities are laid down at these young ages, then continued long term
improvement will ensue.
It is vital that combined event athletes develop high levels of coordination before engaging in
strength conditioning work.

SeniorAthletes
For senior athletes, very high emphasis is placed on strength conditioning and technical work
takes a subsidiary role during the winter.

PointsCalculator-CombinedEvents(Male)
Select if the event had electronic timing, the event, enter your result and then select the
"Point"s button.
Electronic Timing
Yes

Event
60m

Result

sec

Points

PointsCalculator-CombinedEvents(Female)
Select if the event had electronic timing, the event, enter your result and then select the
"Point"s button.
Electronic Timing
Yes

Event
60mH

Result

sec

Points

FreeCalculator
Senior Combined Events points Calculator - a free Microsoft Excel spreadsheet that you
can download and use on your computer. This spreadsheet addresses all the senior
male/female combined indoor/outdoor events.
The scoring tables for specific boys and girls combined events (80 metres & 110 metres
Hurdles boys, 800 metres boys and 75 metres & 80 metres Hurdles girls) are not based on a
polynomial equation so a simple algorithm cannot be used to determine the points. Copy of
these tables can be obtained from Neuff Athletic Equipment.

RulesofCompetition
The competition rules for this event can be obtained from:
International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF)
British Athletics

PageReference
If you quote information from this page in your work then the reference for this page is:
MACKENZIE, B. (2001) Decathlon [WWW] Available from:
https://www.brianmac.co.uk/decath/index.htm [Accessed 25/10/2016]

RelatedPages
The following Sports Coach pages provide additional information on this topic:

Pentathlon
Hexathlon
Heptathlon
Octathlon
Decathlon
Planning the Training - 6 stages of development
Find a Coach
Sport/Event specific articles

AssociatedBooks
The following books provide more information related to this topic:
LEASE, D. (1999) Combined Events. 4th ed. UK: British Athletics

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