Les Gramantik is the coach of the University of Calgary, an educator and a past president of the Canadian College of Coaches.  He was born and trained in Romania as a coach before he came to Canada twenty years ago.
 

 Combined Events (Decathlon, Heptathlon, Pentathlon, etc.) are usually thrown in at the end of manuals and books on track & field, but it is interesting that we learn that generalization is better than specialization at younger ages in terms of skill development.   In this respect,  Combined Events should be ideal!  Many countries have success with little talent because of using ingenious combined events competitions for athletes at younger ages.  In Romania they utilize mostly triathlons, pentathlons, and heptathlons - even crazy combinations like 200 meters, shot put and long jump or 100 meters, high jump and softball throw.  These are fun and provide good generalization to aid in total motor development for young athletes.  It is the coaches obligation to provide challenging training and competitions for youth with the appropriate implements, hurdle heights, spacings, etc.  Coaches also need to provide a moral technique package in which they deal with ethical & moral issues, and they must be firmly grounded in the art and science of coaching.

 In most of those track and field books, Combined Events is a combination of events, as if it were just a group of specialized athletes who do a variety of events gathered from several coaches.  Do not think of Combined Events this way!  People always ask Michael Smith,  "Michael, what is your favorite event?"  He always answers, "Decathlon!"  It is one event made up of ten parts and must be thought of in those terms.  I strongly recommend that you plan, organize and lead all the training for your athletes.  Seek advice from specialized coaches, but work into this advice into your plan - do not separate them or their training from your plan.  I have learned a lot from Dan Pfaff, but I integrate his ideas into my program; I do not send an athlete down to Texas for a week and say, "work with him while I sit on the beach!"

 Coordination abilities are directly related to performance and are much more significant  than the other abilities (Figure 1). Emotional abilities refers to attitude and  cognitive understanding of the event. Work capacity (Figure 2) can affect test variance:  for example, a simple 250 meter test for Mike Smith was similar before two quite different 400m performances!  In terms of strength, pillar strength is vital  - there can never be enough. Strength deficit is also an important concept to consider.  This is the difference of weight room strength compared to skill strength.  This may be up to 40% difference, and therefore a great concern in training. Combined eventers are not weight lifters, but strength work is vitally applicable.  Senso-Motoric abilities links all the others together in the scheme of conditioning training.

 Coordination was once defined in a simple way as, "the proper thing at the right time!"  There are five components to coordination:

1. Rhythm - There is music to the skill (turn your back and listen).
2. Balance - This is the premier quality, for without adequate balance none of our skills can exist!  For example, top level sprinters have balance problems at end of race. There are also stato-dynamic qualities: the ability to maintain static abilities while you are moving!  We take shot putters to glide on a balance beam or even on the steeplechase barrier: there is water on one side, track on other - take your pick!  They learn to balance!
3. Differentiation of Dosage - An athlete needs to develop an understanding of what 80% of maximum effort feels like!  This is more important in vertical jump training; for example, when athletes are barely clearing heights in the high jump and pole vault, yet they continue to clear each successive height.
4. Orientation - This is ability to feel kinesthetically where the body is, especially in things such as the spin in throwing and in pole vaulting.
5. Reaction / Anticipation - This is not as important as the other types of coordination.

My personal view is that in North America, coaches spend excess time developing technique and perhaps speed & power without considering the importance of senso-motoric development and early strength development.

Talent Identification When looking at talent for Combined Events, speed ability is very high on the list because of its utility in most of the events within Decathlon and Heptathlon. Coordination is also high, and a gymnastics background definitely helps.  Speed is especially imperative in heptathletes, but not so much for decathletes (remember Christian Schenck's 11.41 in Seoul!).  A throwing background is also important - especially javelin slinging!  This ability is hard to develop if it is not already in place!  In this respect, the softball throw can be a very successful tool.

 Coaches must be cautious about published information on talent identification.  There was a talent identification study done in Romania in 1971, for example, but is this data applicable to other places?  Probably not, and coaches need to develop their own data for their specific situation.  The Germans have shown that if you base your talent identification only on certain tests, then athletes will practice those specifically to become better at the test, not to become more generally skilled athletes!

 The 24 hour athlete!  This is the ideal of what a Combined Event athlete should look like.  It is a harsh title; we don't want to see them that much, but the concept is that the whole day figures into the development of an athlete. Sports Scientists and psychologists worry about overtraining, but I am talking about twice a day for a total of maybe five hours; that leaves nineteen more hours for the athlete to sleep and do everything else!

Planning (Periodization) Failing to plan is planning to fail!  Planning is a vital concept in order to achieve success training athletes.  The first concept of planning came about in 1910 with Butovsky.  He suggested training for three weeks prior to the Olympic Games!  In 1913, Murphy (GBR) used eight to ten weeks for the Olympics.  Today we need to implement the art of coaching to introduce a seventeen year old into training to get some base and buildup instead of going straight into performance training - a big North American problem!

 Do not train your athletes just for performance today.  Chasing competitive results as the principal yearly goal of a program will eventually lead to little or no improvement.  Training in the 1990s goes on longer in life than ever before, due to improved training, better sports science, and the money that can be made in athletics.  In the 1996 Olympics, the average age of the 100 meter finalists was older than that of those in the 10,000 meters.  This would have been unheard of ten years ago!  Coaches must also consider training at the other end of the age spectrum.  There is a young pole vaulter who began at seven years old; by sixteen years of age, he was already a 5.00 meter vaulter with nine years of training.  There are four long term stages of development:

1. Base Training - From ages 10-14, training focuses on basic skill development in running, jumps, vault, and softball throw.
2. Build-Up Training - From ages 14-18, training focuses on fundamentals of strength development, speed development, hurdling, throws, and towards 16-18 elastic strength development.
3. Performance Training - From 18-22, training becomes more focused on speed endurance, advanced dynamic and elastic strength, and strength training.
4. High Performance Training - From age 22 on, the training objectives must be determined, but will focus on high skill development and the specialized development needed for competition in decathlon and heptathlon.

Obviously, an athlete who is seventeen and has never trained should not jump right into Build-Up Training, but begin with some Base Training.  It would be foolish and counterproductive for athlete and coach, however, if you were to train him or her for four years of Base Training before going to Build-Up Training.  Likewise, the 16 year old 5.00 meter vaulter would fall somewhere between Build-Up Training and Performance Training.  How to successfully and safely make that transition is one of the most difficult tasks of coaching.

 Within the training year, the Hungarians have done research on "Block Training" in planning with very good success.  There are 4-10 week blocks, and athletes must take one week transition training or completely off after each block.  50-60% of the total objective in that block is, for example, strength.  Other factors may decline some during special blocks, but these will recover if training is planned well.

 Coaches must understand the stress on growth plates caused by incorrect strength technique, but strength, especially for connective tissues, is vitally important early on in training if used in proper amounts and ways.  It is also imperative to work on gymnastics to develop special strength and coordinative abilities.  Hurdling ability has the most influence on success for combined eventers because of the positive qualities such as speed, strength,  and coordination that affect all combined events.  With the Pole Vault, the problem is that the athlete needs to be a little nuts!  This is an ability that is a little different from the other events.

 The right kind of training covers many of the abilities of combined events (with the exception of javelin).  What you compete in is not necessarily what you compete for!  In other words, general training is vital; for example, there is a high 400 Hurdle and combined training correlation.  What is important to remember, though, is that combined events will not kill you, but training can and will.  There needs to be late implementation of high intensity training of speed endurance and advanced dynamic and elastic strength in training for combined events to minimize the possibility of breakdown in these athletes.  If in doubt, under do it!  Plyometrics are useful, and jumping exercises can be properly utilized at younger ages, but be careful.  Depth jumping is the PhD of training; you jump and you are a prisoner!  As Bubka once said, "gravity has no day off!"
 
 Regeneration for the athlete is vital to super compensation, and research shows that mixed aerobic / anaerobic training gives an athlete quick recovery, even one day, through anaerobic threshold runs, etc.  But the big problem is that when it comes to recovery, researchers forgot the combined events! There is not enough recovery time in competition, but it must be remembered in training.

 When training for combined events, the actual even sequence of events does not have to be followed in training - it can be varied.  The protocol must respect the sequencing difficulties  of event combined events.  For example,  the 110 hurdles at the beginning of second day provides certain problems for flexibility and explosiveness the morning after the first day.  Also, the combination of 110 hurdles followed by the discus requires the ultimate test for relaxation, and this poses tremendous challenges for training.  The limitation of three attempts in the long jump and throws is an important training consideration.  Pole selection in the decathlon is different than in the open vault: athletes should not be going for the tree trunk!  There must be a different training approach in the decathlon.

 Combinations of training are useful to develop abilities necessary in several events.  Coaches can combine speed and long jump by doing  approaches on the track.  These are a form of speed work.  Strength work is done by more mature athletes almost solely through Olympic lifts; much broader types of strength work are utilized at younger ages.  With respect to skill development, our athletes work on the whole skill, then go to parts, then back to the whole skill again.  Alternate takeoff feet should be developed in training to prepare for the long jump (I had an athlete with an injury who developed as much success with the right foot as with the left).  Perhaps coaches should even explore the issue of having combined events athletes alternate feet for takeoffs in different events so not all takeoffs and throw blocks are on the same foot.  This could greatly reduce the possibility of injury through prolonged training.  Again, it is not competition, but training that will kill you!  The primary objective is always to stay injury free, because athletes cannot train effectively and compete at 80%.

 Decathlon and Heptathlon are two separate events.    There are times when they can be coached together (example: technique training in specific events like shot put and high jump), but it is impossible to coach them side by side at all times because they involve different training programs and thus must often be separated.  In my opinion, Decathlon for women is not needed at this stage.  Most heptathletes say no, and the coaches?  Meet organizers?  No!  Let's not push too fast; let the sport evolve!  This is not discrimination, but common sense.

 In terms of Training Program Preparation, the point tables need to be considered.  There is not a straight progression in points, but a point of maximized performance per points in each event.  True, there are "soft spots" in the tables, such as the women's high jump, where there are easy points around 1.80 meters.  For men, there are great long jump performance rewards over 7.50 meters.  The men's high jump has its limits, and it is not important to work on performance over a certain level.  A similarity in decathlon and heptathlon comes with the javelin.  It is extremely important to develop the slinging ability in athletes that can be developed into high level performance and obtain maximum points in the tables.

 There is no prepared road map or secret magic formula that would lead to success in coaching combined events.  The key is systematic development of talent by identification and a multi-disciplinary approach to training.  Planning has to be long term and must recognize general and individual development patterns during growth.  Finally, the key to success is a simplified approach to training program protocol which continuously improves the basic capacities of the athlete while allowing them to stay healthy and to improve performance.