Falling

“But oh when you fall, oh when you fall …” –Joan Armatrading

No matter how much experience you may have as a hurdler, the possibility of falling never goes away. For beginners the fear of falling is often palpable. For the elite hurdler the fear is minimal, but the danger increases. Over the past couple months, I’ve had a total of five hurdlers fall – four in practice and one in a race. All except one were beginners. Two suffered injuries.

This sudden wave of hurdle crashes got  me thinking that maybe I need to be doing a better job of identifying warning signs. It also got me thinking that writing an article on the topic might benefit other coaches and hurdlers besides myself and my own group. So this article will explore the question of what causes hurdle falls, how they can be prevented, when they’re  most likely to occur, and what the hurdler’s mindset must needs to be regarding the possibility of falling.

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Ironically, a lot of hurdle falls occur on a good day – when the athlete is having a great workout, a great rep, or a great race. This is true at all levels. Some of the most famous falls in hurdling history have occurred during “race of my life” races. Namely I’m thinking of Gail Devers’ fall at the 1992 Olympic final in Barcelona, and Lolo Jones near-fall at the 2008 Olympic final in Beijing. In both cases, they were on their way to a sure gold medal before hitting a hurdle late in the race. Devers fell over hurdle ten and Jones clobbered hurdle nine.

My first crash in a 110 race occurred in a similar scenario. I was in my first year of hurdling as a sophomore in high school. My first three or four races had been garbage, but in this race everything was clicking and I was beating a trash-talker from a rival school who had destroyed me in my first race. But I clipped hurdle ten with my trail leg and fell and that was that.

Similarly, regarding the athletes I’m coaching this year, two of the falls occurred on the same day, toward the end of practice, one right after the other. The first one, a girl named Diana was looking outstanding in the quick 3-step drill we were doing. She was looking so good, in fact, that I stopped practice to explain to the other hurdlers how they needed to cycle their legs the way Diana was. I felt so proud of her, because she was not the best hurdler on our team, but she was having a breakthrough workout, proving that she belonged.

Then on the very next rep she dropped the toe of her trail leg and fell. Man.

So the question is, what caused the falls? There are a few plausible theories. Particularly in the cases of Devers and Jones, it could be that they were victims of their own speed. Sometimes in big races you’re so amped up that you can’t control your speed. Your airtime over the hurdles stays the same but your speed between the hurdles is faster than ever. You lose control. You crash.

Another theory is the fatigue theory. In the hurdles, fatigue can be both physical and mental. People who don’t run the hurdles don’t realize how long a hurdle race is. Even the 100/110m hurdles is a long race when you consider the level of concentration required to successfully negotiate ten barriers while opponents are vying for victory on either side of you. One minor lapse of concentration can lead to a major calamity. And due to fatigue, a lapse of concentration is much more likely to occur late in the race.

Both Devers and Jones were flying. In both cases, fatigue and speed seem to have played a role in the accident. In Devers’ case, her lead leg began locking over the last few barriers, taking away space to clear the obstacle. She hit the final hurdle with the foot of her lead leg as it was rising. In Lolo’s case, her arms starting hanging in the air too long, impeding her ability to get back on the ground and transition off the hurdle. When moving that fast, if you don’t get back on the ground, your touchdown is too far out there to give you room to fit in your three steps to the next hurdle. That’s what happened to Lolo.

In the case of my athlete, Diana, I think that my act of singling her out as a model of excellence led directly to her fall. Instead of boosting her confidence, it made her feel pressured. She tensed up and reverted back to an old habit (dropping the toe) that she had long ago fixed. Lesson learned on my part. From now on, whenever I give her props, I’ll do so one-on-one, not in front of the whole group.

But fatigue played a part in her fall as well. It was late in the workout and we’d done a lot of reps by that point. Fatigue dulls your senses; it slows down your reaction time, thereby making you more susceptible to hitting hurdles, floating over hurdles, and crashing into hurdles.

***

Falls that occur early in a race or somewhere in the middle of a race – let’s say between hurdles 2-6 – often occur due to pressing after falling behind. When someone pulls ahead of you, of course you’re gonna try to run down that opponent. But such over-eagerness can take you out of your rhythm – out of your cadence – and cause you to overstride. Next thing you know, you’re on top of the hurdle and have no room to get up and over it. This is part of the reason I don’t like my hurdlers running the 2^nd or 4^th leg of the 4×100 relay. Once you get used to opening up your stride there’s always the danger that doing so may carry over to your hurdle races.

When falling behind, that’s when it’s most important to focus on your lane. For hurdlers, it is very easy to pick up on an opponent’s rhythm and to mirror it without even realizing that you’re doing so. The best hurdlers don’t fall apart when they fall behind. They don’t panic and they don’t press. They make up ground gradually, between the hurdles and over the hurdles, totally attuned to their own cadence. With that being said, Allen Johnson, the greatest 110 hurdler in history, fell over hurdle six in the quarter finals of the 2004 Olympics in Athens after losing ground early in the race. And Greg Foster, another all-time great, often crashed into hurdles in races where he fell behind early.

Running to an opponent’s rhythm is something that can happen in the 300/400m hurdles too. And it can lead to falls. With the staggered start, a hurdler in an inside lane can become preoccupied with an opponent in an outer lane. Let’s say it’s the conference championship and you’re in lane three, with two of the best hurdlers in the conference in lanes four and five. You know you have to get out well to keep up with them. But off the first hurdle you can see that both of them touched down before you. So, to make up ground, you overstride, get crowded at hurdle two and get thrown off your stride pattern.

Take note that Edwin Moses never had that issue. He always knew his own rhythm. Thirteen all the way. He never ran to another hurdler’s rhythm.

One of the recent falls of one of my athletes occurred during an intermediate hurdle workout. In preparation for a rare high school meet that would include the 400m hurdles, I had my guys running 200s over the first five hurdles. Three guys were rotating in two lanes. Two would go while the third rested. In the first rep Mark and Jerry went together. Mark, who’d been hurdling for three years, had a great rep as he flew past Jerry, a beginner, by the second hurdle.

The next rep, Mark went up against Lawrence, who is our best returning intermediate hurdler. Lawrence was in the outer lane. This time, Mark smacked the first hurdle with his trail leg, twisted his knee upon landing, and fell to the ground writhing in pain. Going against Lawrence had thrown him off. Instead of duplicating what he had done against Jerry, he focused too much on trying to get out with Lawrence. I feared he may have torn his acl, but fortunately he had only sprained his lcl and was able to return to practice last week. But still, the point is clear: if your focus shifts from what you are doing, you can fall.

***

Mark’s fall served as a reality check moment for Jerry. As a new hurdler, still learning the ABC’s, seeing Mark rolling around on the ground crying tears of pain was quite traumatic. He had an open-mouthed look of shock on his face. I could tell he was done for the day. Maybe longer. “I don’t know if I wanna hurdle anymore Coach,” he said.

As the trainer came driving toward us in a golf cart to get Mark and take him to the training room, I gave Jerry what is perhaps the most inspired impromptu speech I have ever given:

“I’d like to tell you don’t worry about it, it’ll never happen to you. But I ain’t gonna lie to you. It could happen to you. If you’re gonna be a hurdler, it can always happen to you. There’s a reason why not everybody runs the hurdles, and you just saw it. It’s like football. If I’m a normal person and I see someone comin’ at straight at me full speed, I’m not tryinna tackle ‘im. I’m gettin’ out the way. Or pole vault. You’re upside down in mid-air and all you got between you and bustin’ your head on the ground is a fiberglass pole you’re holdin’ on to. That’s not for everybody. So what we do – runnin’ over hurdles at full speed – it’s not for everybody. Anybody can fall. No matter how good you are. No matter how long you’ve been hurdling. Allen Johnson – 1996 Olympic champion, four-time World Champion, ran more sub-13’s than anyone in history. At the 2004 Olympic prelims, crashed and burned. So if you’re gonna be a hurdler, this is what you’re getting into.”

The next day Jerry approached me at the beginning of practice. “I’m ready to hurdle today Coach,” he said.

***

Falls can also occur at hurdle one. Such a fall is definitely caused by being too amped up in the moments leading up to the race. The most famous fall at the first hurdle was Perdita Felicien’s at the 2004 Olympic final in Athens (one night before Johnson’s fall). Felicien had won the World Championships the year before, she was having a great season, and had cruised through the rounds. But she ran straight into the first hurdle in the final. Her take-off was way too close and she had absolutely no room to get her lead leg up in time. Same thing happened to Jack Pierce and Larry Harrington at the 1996 US Trials after he had run a monster personal best of 12.94 in the semis.

The hurdles keep you humble. They remind you that they’re there. To avoid a crash at the first hurdle, it’s important to take deep, slow breaths while settling into the blocks. That’s the best way to control your nervous energy. If there were no hurdles in the way, there’d be no issue. But if you’re too amped up, hurdle one could be trouble.

***

While the possibility of falling remains ever-present, the danger can be minimized by mastering efficient running mechanics and hurdling mechanics, and by getting in enough hurdle repetitions throughout the year to maintain efficient mechanics through the course of a race, and through the rounds of a major competition.

If you do the basics right, you’ll be in more control of your body and therefore in less danger of falling. The basics include: lead with the knee, lean from the waist, keep the elbows bent, and keep the ankles dorsi-flexed so that the toes are pointing up. A toe pointing down is a sure way to hit a hurdle with the foot of the trail leg and fall face forward. That’s what happened to my athlete, Diana.

As you get faster and stronger through the course of a season and over the span of a career, your reactive abilities must improve with your speed. When you’re moving faster between the hurdles, you have to move faster over them.

For beginning hurdlers, the more afraid you are of falling, the more in danger you are of falling. For beginners, the number of crashes caused by being too tentative far outnumber the crashes caused by being too aggressive. It’s the self-fulfilling prophecy thing. The more you think you’re gonna fall, the  more likely your running and hurdling mechanics will break down (you’ll drop your hands, lower your knees, drop back on your heels), putting you in greater likelihood of falling.

At the advanced levels, particularly when you’re talking about males, you could argue that hitting hurdles without falling has become an art unto itself. Some of the greatest hurdlers in history, including, Johnson, Roger Kingdom, and David Oliver, were known at certain points in their careers for hitting a lot of hurdles. Ultimately, all three of these hurdlers went on to become very efficient technicians. But even Johnson, early in his career, hit a lot of hurdles.

What all three of them were good at was taking the crossbar down with them and just powering through. A lot of hurdlers, when making initial contact with a hurdle, stand erect or twist their hips, unintentionally increasing the chances of a fall. Kingdom, to use him as an example, hit most hurdles with the foot of his lead leg, at an angle at which he could easily power through it without falling or even losing momentum. Duane Ross was another hurdler who did this.

Really, hurdling is like anything else: learn how to do it right, and then get plenty of reps in. Only by getting in a lot of reps can you master technique, master rhythm, and master adaptability. If you spend most of your training time sprinting and you only hurdle once a week, then you can never master the nuances of hurdling to the point where you can trust your body to react on autopilot at hyper speeds.

***

Falling, in a weird way I guess, brings hurdlers together. Falling for the first time is a form of initiation. When you fall for the first time, that’s when you find out whether you’re a hurdler or not. Mark said to me a few days after his fall, “I always knew it could happen, but I never thought it would happen to me.”

When Diana fell, the other hurdlers on the team applauded her as she stood back up. She smiled, understanding that they had been where she was. One of them patted her on the shoulder and stated, “Now you’re a hurdler.”

 

 

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