The purpose of this study was to clarify technical tasks that affect discus throw performance in decathletes and compare their performance with discus throwers with comparable performance. The subjects were 59 decathletes and 74 discus throwers with record throws ranging from 30 to 50 meters. The discus throwing movements were recorded with two video cameras. Throwing movements were evaluated by the observational evaluation criteria. The evaluation for each factor was made with two-options, satisfied or not. Subjects were divided into two performance groups based on their throw distances within each specialty, decathletes or discus throwers. Interactions of throw distances were examined between the performance and specialties with a two-way ANOVA. Differences in the achievement rate for each factor were analyzed between performance groups with a chi-square test. No significant difference in throwing distance was found between the two (higher and lower performance) groups. The higher performance decathletes showed significantly greater scores on factors related to the body drive in the throwing direction. On the other hand, the higher performance discus throwers showed significantly greater scores on rotational motion and power position factors. The results of this study suggest that techniques required for obtaining higher discus throw performance differs between decathletes and discus throwers.
