The Decathlon - From My Perspective

You just make a decision at some point not to go for the individual event.

And you always hear about those specialists who 'would' be the greatest decathlete in the world if he just trained for it.

And maybe Bolt is one of the rare examples of an athlete that could score high in the decathlon. Admittedly, as an ex-decathlete myself, Bolt probably could do it as long as he doesn't have any major weakness. Maybe he is just a retard with his arms so all the throws and vault take many many years to develop.

This highlights the real problem with individual eventers thinking they can be a great decathlete because they have 5 or 6 events at high levels. Everybody forgets about how poor the weaknesses might be.

Because the primary factor in decathlon is balance. So one goes about working on their greatest weaknesses from the beginning of their training for the event.

This means that minimal time is spent on their strengths. So Eaton at 10.25 or 8.30 or 45 point or 13.50. I can see one of those events being top in the world. Not the running because i can't see him sub 9.80 or sub 43.80, but he wouldn't be far off. The long jump is the standout - who is to say he couldn't jump 9 meters if he got down to 10 flat and spent 6 years developing that one event.

It all comes back to the weaknesses. grab the points book and see what happens when 14m shot 40m discus and 55m gets you in points.

Distance Runner Man wrote:

So I like Eaton and I want to like the Decathlon, but there is just something about it that bothers me.

Watching these guys gut out these mediocre times, jumps and throws puts this seed of doubt in my head about them being the best athlete.

I haven't read the other responses, so this has probably already been said, but Eaton would have made the U.S. longjump squad with his LJ performance in the deca. His 100m time was also better than the time that won the U.K. trials. The fact that you consider such marks to be mediocre puts these seed of doubt in my head about your ability to evaluate performances.

Yeah, this thread has taken on a life of its own, but to the people who might care:

I have tried to say that Eaton is a badass; I am talking about the Decathlon as a whole, not him. My first post was poorly written and came off too harsh on Eaton.

As I have also said a few times, I would get wasted in these events. I was a D1 steeple, 5k, 10k guy, so everything but the 1500 and maybe the hurdles would be way out of my league. I am not sure why people are attacking my talents, I am not claiming that I am better than these guys. My point is that as a spectator, it is kind of embarrassing watching these guys. It makes it even more embarrassing when the announcers start going on and on about how so and so is the worlds greatest athlete. I feel like they are over compensating.

Furthermore, all this talk about how grueling the Decathlon is seems SO FORCED. I know it is probably hard, but these guys are always lying all over the track, etc. I am sure it isn't easy, but neither is a double shift at the Piggly Wiggly. Seriously, though, all of the events at this level are back breaking.

The main point that I had was that most of these guys are pretty lame, and I would think that we could get better athletes out there.

I am not sure how Eaton would fare in the NFL, MLB or whatnot, but I guess we should be glad that we have him in track.

Again. Perhaps you should do one to get the experience. Then half of what you are saying won't leave your mouth.

Decathlon continues for anywhere between 6-10 hours per day. Can you keep your concentration for this period of time? Can you swap mentality from long jump to shot put and then back to the high jump before running the 400m? This is where decathletes naturally excel. Yet you wouldn't consider that perspective because you lack the experience of it. Running for 2 hours is not the same.

I don't know what level you are at in this sport. Maybe you are/were good enough to make the Olympic trials. I doubt it as your comments allude to a fairly low-brow understanding.

The main reason why decathlon seems so hard and they are collapsing after their last discipline is the characteristic of the first 9 vs. the last discipline:

The first 9 are all about strength, explosiveness, coordination and speed. The last one is about endurance. So of course they train for the first 9 and neglect the last one.

xmen, how many times does the guy have to say that it isn't about him? He is critiquing the sport in a fair way, IMHO. If people are allowed to criticize LeBron James, why not these no-name decathletes.

If I were him, here is how I would answer your question:

Can i keep intense focus for 9 hours? Yes, I can. I am an ER trauma surgeon and you'd better believe that intense focus is an everyday thing for me. Life or death.

I agree with OP. Ashton is a fantastic athlete, but I wouldn't call any of them the world's greatest. Here is the silver lining:

If Ashton Eaton can make this work by getting a huge contract and tons of media attention and ad deals, we will likely see interest in Decathlon skyrocket and maybe we will begin to see the worlds better athletes take to the track.

gardenply

Can i keep intense focus for 9 hours? Yes, I can. I am an ER trauma surgeon and you'd better believe that intense focus is an everyday thing for me. Life or death.

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You guys are over simplifying with these analogies. Can you play competition basketball for 9 hours? Can you maintain competition pace for the 1500 for 9 hours? And as for thinking Bolt can do anything because he is the fastest... using the logic that he could walk in a 9.8 second 100 to give him elite scores in other events would mean he should be able to run an 80 second 800 on his 100 meter training regimen. It's flawed reasoning.

The poster who compared the decathlete to the best all-round athlete in antique football - when players didn't specialize and had to be both offensive and defensive competitors, was more right on. In fact, American football quarterbacks are "decathletes" who run, jump, throw, and have to think and respond dynamically throughout the competition. Same can be said for many point guards and shortstops.

Decathletes have physical and mental durability above and beyond most other one and two event athletes. The javelin loads up your plant leg with excessive force and torques out your throwing elbow and shoulder. Try training through that while you are also over taxing your plant leg for the high jump, long jump, and pole vault, plus you're pushing the limits of your throwing arm and shoulder releasing the discus and shot and (hello) pole vault. Decathletes could use full time physical therapy, chiropracty, and massage to simply reright their body alignment during training, but only four or five in the US have sponsorship, and the others have so much training and recovery to do, it's hard to have even a part time job and their coaches are unpaid.

Go play basketball for nine hours outside, two days in a row, and then run a competition 1500 without training for it. The decathlon at the Trials level has no "mediocre" athletes. They are more like Navy Seals or Green Berets.