Heptathlon

Competing in the heptathlon competition is the ultimate challenge for the 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.

The Events

The heptathlon (7 events) is held on two consecutive days in the following order:

Day 1	Day 2
100 metres Hurdles High Jump Shot 200 metres	Long Jump Javelin 800 metres

Training

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

The elements in each of the combined events and the key physical demands of those elements are detailed in the following table:

Event	Aerobic Endurance	Gross Strength	Skill	Relative Strength	Running Speed	Mobility	Explosive Strength	Speed Endurance	Strength Endurance
100m Hurdles	-	Med	High	High	High	High	High	Med	-
High Jump	-	Low	High	High	High	High	High	-	-
Shot Putt	-	High	High	Med	Low	Med	High	-	-
200m	Low	Med	Med	High	High	High	High	High	High
Long Jump	-	Low	High	High	High	High	High	-	-
Javelin	-	Med	High	High	Low	High	High	-	-
800m	High	-	Low	Low	Med	Low	-	-	High

Speed and strength (power) are of vital importance, and so it seems reasonable to conclude that successful combined eventers must be fast and strong. The predominant requirements of the heptathlete 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 dovetailed 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 and javelin events that are more demanding.

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 practising the events themselves.

For senior and top level athletes, conditioning should be worked on more extensively than technique.

Training Equipment

Speed Training Parachute

Speed training resistance parachute provides additional resistance for sprint training.
Select this link to order your Speed Training Parachute.

Speed Agility Ladder

Excellent for improving speed and agility. Forces the feet to adapt to extremely fast patterns of footwork.
Select this link to order your Speed Agility Ladder.

Power Speed Resistor

Provides resistance from partner for sprint training drills.
Select this link to order your Power Speed Resistor.

Step Training Hurdles

Excellent for agility, plyometric and sprint drill training. Available in 6 inch, 9 inch and 12 inch heights.
Select this link to order your Step Training Hurdles.

Medicine Balls

Medicine balls are a great multi-purpose training tool that can be used alone or with a partner to improve core strength, functional movements, reaction time, and coordination.
Select this link to order your Medicine Balls.

Denise Lewis

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.

The Early Years (Tony William: UKA4 Coach)

Tony is a Senior UK athletics coach with many years experience in coaching young and senior athletes in the combined events. The following is some advice from Tony on introducing young novice athletes to the Heptathalon.

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 200 metres training but much less volume and is athlete specific.

The fun begins as a coach and athlete have to start fitting in basic weights, strength, mobility, conditioning, GCSE exams, A levels, etc.

If your Hepthalon athlete is a sprinter & long jumper, hurdles and high jump might not be as difficult for her as shot or javelin.

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.

Summary

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

Coordination training (skill work) should be done predominantly during the early years (13 to 18 years)

Speed, particularly running speed, can be ideally developed during the early years (13 to 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 co-ordination before engaging in strength conditioning work.

Points Calculator - Combined Events (Female)

Free Calculator

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.

Rules of Competition

The competition rules for this event can be obtained from:

Associated Pages

The following Sports Coach pages should be read in conjunction with this page:

Associated Books

The following books provide more information related to this topic:

Combined Events, D. Lease, ISBN 0 85134 148 9
Advanced Studies in Physical Education and Sport, P Beashel et al., ISBN 0 17 4482345
Physical Education and the Study of Sport, B. Davis et al., ISBN 0 7234 31752
Essentials of Exercise Physiology, W.D. McArdle et al., ISBN 0 683 30507 7
Physical Education and Sport Studies, D. Roscoe et al., ISBN 1 901424 20 0
The World of Sport Examined, P. Beashel et al., ISBN 0 17 438719 9
Advanced PE for Edexcel, F. Galligan et al., ISBN 0 435 50643 9
Examining Physical Education, K. Bizley, ISBN 0 435 50660 9
Sport and PE, K Wesson et al., ISBN 0 340 683821
PE for you, J. Honeybourne, ISBN 0 7487 3277 2