By Fritz Spence
Fritz Spence has been coaching the Penn State Nittany Lions’ multi-event, long, triple, and high jump athletes for 20 years. He has coached 33 All-Americans, nine top-5 NCAA finishers, and 24 conference champions, and has contributed to two top-4 team finishes at the NCAA Championships (2008 and 2010) and a Big Ten conference triple crown (2009-2010). His team was the USTFCCCA Scholar Team of the Year (2010). He is a 5-time USTFCCCA Mid-Atlantic Region Assistant Coach of the Year.
To be successful, a multi-events (pentathlon, heptathlon, and decathlon) athlete must have the ability to train and focus on each individual event during training and competition. A coach must combine and implement speed, speed endurance, agility, power, and technique as part of the athlete’s daily training, while trying to avoid overtraining and injuries. A coach must also balance training to best enable the athlete to develop and learn each individual event. Training and competing in multi-events require a multitude of physiological and technical skills, along with mental toughness.
The multi-events are perhaps the most demanding events in track and field, with the pentathlon taking place on one day and the heptathlon and decathlon taking place over two days. The multi-events are not for everyone; training is intense. The athlete must have the ability to sprint, hurdle, jump, throw, and run middle-distance, which test a variety of physical skills, such as speed, strength, flexibility, coordination, and endurance, and possess a great desire and aptitude to quickly learn the different technical events. During training, a coach should stress the technique all season long. This includes performing javelin and discus drills. The coach and athlete should select the most important exercises and best training methods based on the athlete’s fitness, talent, and technical level.
To be a successful multi-events coach, you must understand how to improve fitness and performance, know the various body positions in each event to maximize performance, and how training will affect the athlete’s body. Training for the multis is complicated, to be sure. It takes an innovative, creative, and well-organized coach who can put all the training pieces together and maximize the different energy systems of the multi-eventer. The physiology behind training for the pentathlon, heptathlon, and decathlon are important for success in the individual events. A coach must study and learn how the body will respond and adapt to multi-event training throughout the season.
Sprints
100 Meters (men)/200 Meters (women)/400 Meters (men)
Several factors influence sprinting performance, including starting strategy, stride length and frequency, physiological demands, biomechanics, and muscle composition. The energy used at the beginning of each race comes primarily from anaerobic sources. Including different high intensity and explosive workouts, such as short bursts of sprinting, stair sprinting, and plyometric jumps, trains anaerobic performance. Example workouts include:
- 40- to 60-meter flying sprints on the curve at maximum speed
- 150-meter block starts from a 200-meter start
- 200 to 300 meters, starting from a 3-point stance (in spikes), at 85-95% intensity (and at race pace for the first half of each rep), with 7 to 10 minutes recovery between reps
Short speed-endurance
- Sprint accelerations first, followed by short, horizontal bounding
- 30 to 60 meters (in spikes and using blocks)
- short hill runs or sled-pulls for 20 to 30 meters at 85-95% intensity with 6 to 8 minutes or walk half the distance recovery
Short and long speed endurance
Short speed development first, follow by longer speed endurance
- Short speed: 80- to 150-meter sprint-float-sprints (sprint on straight/float on curve/sprint on straight)
- Long speed endurance: 250 to 350 meters (in training flats) at 85-95% intensity, with 7 to 9 minutes or walk half the distance recovery
- Short horizontal plyometric bounding drills: 20 to 40 meters skip for height, straight leg bounds, alternate leg bounds. (Start with low-intensity drills, focusing on technique before adding power.)
Speed endurance intervals during the early phases of training will start to build the athlete’s neurological system, mobility, and technique, which will help prepare the athlete’s mind and body for longer speed work that will come later. In the early stages of training, it is important for a coach to build a good central nervous system (CNS) base, with high intensity and short duration training from 30 to 60 meters. Over time, the duration of training will start to get longer (80-100 meters). A coach can also implement different activities other than sprinting to achieve CNS firing, such as explosive medicine ball slams, overspeed and resisted sprinting, plyometrics, and band exercises at maximal effort. If the coach does not build a good CNS base, the athletes will be fatigued much faster during practice or competition.
Sprint Hurdles
110-Meter Hurdles (men)/100-Meter Hurdles (women)
Hurdlers should always train at 100% max speed. Hurdle sessions should be held twice per week, paired with speed or acceleration workouts for efficiency. To prevent injuries, avoid doing high-intensity hurdle workouts on back-to-back days. During training, special focus should be placed on proper technique, rhythm, and mobility. Hurdle drills can be beneficial to the success of a multi-event athlete. Coach and athlete should continue to work on lead- and trail-leg drills, practice each leg movement separately over lower hurdles, 1-step rhythm drill (working on ground contact), 3-step rhythm drills (developing consistent footwork between hurdles), and 5-step rhythm and speed drills (developing faster footwork between hurdles). During training, the athlete’s body position is important, with the chest up, driving the knee up and forward, and snapping the trail leg through quickly. For hurdle spacing, the coach should reduce distance and height to build confidence, then gradually increase spacing.
Jumps
Long Jump (men & women)/High Jump (men & women)/Pole Vault (men)
The jumping events demand a stronger, more flexible athlete with good foot spring, and strong legs, hips, shoulders, arms, and core. Improvement of the athlete’s skill in the jumping events demands a combination of speed, power, strength, flexibility, and agility, along with good body position and knee drive at takeoff, action in the air, and landing. The greater the speed and body position at takeoff, the greater the height and distance. Controlled speed with efficient technique will allow multi-event athletes to generate the necessary momentum and power for a successful jump. If the athlete’s body at takeoff is not in the correct position, speed is basically irrelevant. Training for all the jumping events should include movements that build strength, such as deadlifts, squats, and plyometrics. Pole vaulting is a special case, for which the athlete must develop the ability to control his body position and posture while in motion in the air as well as on the ground. A pole vaulter must be technically sound, have great core strength to bend the pole, lift his body upside down after leaving the ground, and jump high. Pole vault drills consist of pole plants and body position at takeoff (short approaches before moving to full runs). For upper-body strength, incorporate pull-ups, core exercises, and explosive technical and stability drills as part of weekly training.
The athlete should have two jump sessions weekly. A coach should keep volumes moderate to prevent lower-leg stress. All the jumping events drills should be focused on the development of anaerobic power to help improve explosiveness by including sitting (sitting on a lower box) and standing box jump (18-42”), static and dynamic hurdle hops (18-42”), straight leg bounds (for 30-40 meters), alternate leg bounds, and skips for height. Success in all jumping events depends on the vertical velocity and body position at take-off. The greater the vertical velocity and force applied to the ground, the higher or farther the athlete will jump. The physiology behind training is to develop speed endurance, including hill sprints for 15 to 20 seconds or sprints of 80 to 250 meters.
Throws
Shot Put (men & women)/Discus (men)/Javelin (men & women)
Speed is essential to achieving maximum throwing distance, especially in the javelin, but also in the shot put and discus, since the release velocity of the implement (the speed of the implement when it leaves the athlete’s hand) is the most important factor related to distance thrown. A small increase in release velocity results in a much farther throw. In order to increase throwing speed, the multi-event athlete needs to become technically aware during training and competition. The athlete’s technique ultimately is responsible for speed enhancement.
The physiology behind throwing is addressed by the Olympic lifts, including power cleans, snatches, and jerks. Deadlifts, bench press, incline bench press, broad jumps, and vertical jumps are also of great benefit. The development of the upper back is crucial for a multi-event athlete and should be addressed with exercises that target the shoulders, trapezius, and triceps (e.g., lat pull-downs, rows, pull-overs, and overhead press).
With these lifts, throwers develop power by increasing muscular strength, enabling the athlete to generate velocity through the transfer of power from the bigger and stronger muscles (legs) to the smaller and faster muscles (arms). The multi-event thrower needs a combination of muscular strength, explosive power, and proficient technique.
To maximize the force and angle of the implement leaving the hand, the multi-event athlete must continue to focus on learning the correct technique and body position. The athlete can also benefit from exercises that improve balance and strengthen the core muscles to enhance overall body control.
Endurance
800 Meters (women)/1,500 Meters (men)
Middle-distance running events are complex and require a mix of aerobic, anaerobic, and neuromuscular training to perform at a high level. The multi-event athlete must train different aspects of speed endurance and endurance. Speed endurance training must focus on both anaerobic and aerobic workouts to help increase the velocity and intensity at which the athlete can run. In order to race fast, the athlete needs to train fast.
800-meter workouts
- 1-2 endurance sessions per week at moderate pace
- progressive runs of 2 to 4 miles
- 300-800 meters at 80-90% intensity or at race pace, with 8-12 minutes or walk half the distance recovery
- 200, 400, & 600-meter reps
- 1 x 600 meters + 2-4 x 200 meters + 10-12 x 100 meters, with 2 minutes rest
1,500-meter workouts
- 1-2 endurance sessions per week at moderate pace
- progressive runs of 2 to 4 miles
- 400- to 1,000-meter reps at 80-90% intensity or at race pace, with 5-7 minutes or walk half the distance recovery
- 1,000, 600, 400 meters with 3-5 minutes recovery
- 6-10 x 400 meters with 2 minutes recovery
- 3-5 x 600 meters with 5 minutes recovery
Supplemental training
- sled-pull exercises
- 5-8 static and dynamic hurdle hops/standing box jumps (18-42”)
- pair lighter endurance workouts after heavy technical sessions
Learning the science behind good body position and proper mechanics is what often separates the good from the great athlete. A coach must use different methods to influence his or her athletes’ success by teaching them to be aware of their bodies’ positions during training and competition. For most of the events in the multis, speed is the key factor. Event modeling in practice can reinforce consistency during competition and help ingrain the rhythmic changes the athlete will experience when moving from one event to the other. It is important during training to implement back-to-back high intensity practice days with speed-endurance workouts, followed by a dynamic session. By linking different events together, a coach can help the athletes to become more technically sound and enhance efficiency.
Targeting different muscle groups during each training session enables athletes to have active recovery days while still training for individual events throughout the week. Muscle overload during training will also help the athlete to adapt to the demand of all the events later in the season. After weeks and months of intense endurance training, the body will naturally adapt, and the athlete will perform at a high level.
At the beginning of each week, a coach should have a daily training design ready for the athlete.
The coach and athlete must adjust distances, intensities, and frequencies based on personal fitness and competition timelines. Following these guidelines and customizing training to the athletes’ strengths and weaknesses will allow them to have a successful career. For competition during the season, the coach should rotate between the jumps (long jump, high jump, pole vault) and the throws (shot put, javelin, discus). Balancing these events prepares the athlete to utilize different energy systems. Decathletes should compete in the pole vault when possible. Not only is pole vault a highly technical event, but it is often hard to achieve the necessary practice time. The high jump is another event with unique technical demands. Athletes should also compete in the high jump when possible. It is important for the multi-event athlete to race 100, 200, and 400 meters, either open or as part of a relay. The multi-events require longer duration and more frequent training sessions. As a coach, tapping into the physiological perspective of training can pay dividends to having athletes practice in two to three events. This will enhance confidence and adaptability, and develop efficiency, balance, focus, timing, and organization.
References
Baum, K. The Mental Edge: Maximize Your Sports Potential with the Mind-Body Connection. New York, NY: Berkley Publishing, 1999.
Mann, R.V. and Murphy, A. The Mechanics of Sprinting and Hurdling. Independently published, 2024.
Rovelto, C. Heptathlon. In USA Track and Field Coaching Manual. Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics, 300-308, 2000.
Silvey, S. World Class Elite Hurdling Training Program Clinic, 1999.
Ungerleider, S. Mental Training for Peak Performance. Emmaus, PA: Rodale, 1996.
