March 28, 2014
Just when you think you’ve seen it all, you see something new. This past Tuesday I had written an article that will appear in the April issue of The Hurdle Magazine. In the article I mention that hurdlers who want to take 15 steps between the hurdles in the 300/400 hurdles need to take 22-23 steps to the first hurdle in order to establish the stride length and stride frequency necessary to make that transition.
Later that very same day one of my athletes took 25 steps to the first hurdle and the 15-stepped hurdles two and three. On the first rep, he took 25 to the first hurdle and then 16-stepped hurdles two and three, alternating lead legs. I thought I mis-counted, that he must’ve taken 23 steps to the first hurdle. So I told him for the next rep to open up his stride off of hurdle one for the 15-step to hurdle two.
This time I made sure I counted closely, listening for the foot-strikes and watching the feet move. This time I was certain he took 25 steps to the first hurdle. He went on to 15-step hurdles two and three. I was like, he’s not supposed to be able to do that. So I had him switch his feet at the start (we were using a 3-point start) so he could 24-step the first hurdle, then continue on with the 15.
He did 24-step the first hurdle, but it was a bit of a stretch, and he ended up 16-stepping hurdles two and three again. So I told him to go back to what he had done the previous rep. Go ahead and 25-step the first hurdle and then just keep running. That’s what he did. And he ended up 25-stepping hurdle one and 15-stepping hurdles two and three again.
In the meet yesterday, he 25-stepped the first hurdle, then 15-stepped all the way through hurdle six before 16-stepping the last two hurdles of the 300m hurdle race. Now if you had told me before the race that someone could 25-step the first hurdle and then 15-step through hurdle six, I would’ve said no, there’s no way.
We’ve had very few warm days to train, so that 25-step to the first hurdle will probably come down to 24 or even 23 later in the season, but I’m not going to try to force it to happen. The lesson I learned from what happened this past week is that there’s an exception to every rule, that you have to coach each athlete as an individual, and you always have to be ready to go counter to your own assumptions.
