Hexathlon
The Hexathlon, for under 15 girls, comprises six events and is a competition against oneself and the scoring tables to score more points than the other competitors. It is a test of mind and body, challenging the person's character, attitude, determination, and physical abilities.
The Events
The Hexathlon consists of six events which are held over two days:
- 75m Hurdles (first event on day 1)
- Long Jump
- Javelin
- High Jump
- Shot Putt
- 800 metres (last event on day 2).
Training
Athletes will work on techniques and conditioning when training for combined events, during which each event sets its significant physical demands.
The events in the Hexathlon and their key physical demands are detailed in the following table:
| Event | Aerobic Endurance | Gross Strength | Skill | Relative Strength | Running Speed | Mobility | Explosive Strength | Speed Endurance | Strength Endurance |
| 75m Hurdles | - | Med | High | High | High | High | High | Med | - |
| Javelin | - | Med | High | High | Low | High | High | - | - |
| High Jump | - | Low | High | High | High | High | High | - | - |
| Shot Putt | - | High | High | Med | Low | Med | High | - | - |
| Long Jump | - | Low | High | High | High | High | High | - | - |
| 800m | High | - | Low | Low | Med | Low | - | - | High |
Speed and strength (power) are of vital importance. So it seems reasonable to conclude that a successfully combined eventer must be fast and robust. The predominant requirements of the pentathlete are mobility, skill, speed and explosive strength.
The long-term planning of combined events includes the plan of technique and strength conditioning. This concept is true for athletes of all ages - technique is dovetailed with conditioning, but varying degrees depending on age.
For younger athletes (13 to 15) during 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, bodyweight circuits and running, bearing in mind young athletes will be developing a fair amount of strength, agility and endurance by practising the events themselves.
The Early Years
Tony is a Senior British Athletics coach with many years of experience coaching young and senior athletes in 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 develop the new skills the athlete would need to compete in the following age group, plus a running session
Running sessions are based on 400 metres training but with much less volume and are athlete-specific.
The fun begins as a coach, and athletes must start fitting in basic weights, strength, mobility, conditioning, GCSE exams, A levels, and 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 simultaneously.
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). Still, maximum strength training should be undertaken almost exclusively by top-level athletes.
Hard anaerobic endurance training is not appropriate for younger athletes and should only be reserved for top-level athletes.
Coaches 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 techniques, 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 long-term improvement will ensue.
Combined event athletes must develop high levels of coordination before engaging in strength conditioning work.
Senior Athletes
For senior athletes, a very high emphasis is placed on strength conditioning, and technical work takes a subsidiary role during the winter.
Free Calculator
- Senior Combined Events points Calculator - aa free Microsoft Excel spreadsheet 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 for girls) are not based on a polynomial equation so a simple algorithm cannot be used to determine the points. Copy of these tables is available from Neuff Athletic Equipment.
Rules of Competition
The competition rules for this event are available from:
Page Reference
If you quote information from this page in your work, then the reference for this page is:
- MACKENZIE, B. (2000) Hexathlon [WWW] Available from: https://www.brianmac.co.uk/hexathlon/index.htm [Accessed