July 20, 2018
Hello hurdle coaches everywhere!
Coach Hector Cotto and I are pleased to announce that we will be conductiong our first-ever Team Steve Hurdle Coaches’ Clinic this coming fall.
It will take place at the same place as our first two camps for athletes – the JDL Fast Track in Winston Salem, NC, on Saturday October 13, from 9am – 4pm. At the coaches’ clinic, I will be giving hurdle coaches the opportunity to learn the methods I’ve used in coaching some of the best hurdlers to come out of the state of North Carolina over the past 20 years or so, including current 100h world record Keni Harrison. For more details and to register for the clinic, follow this link at Coach Cotto’s sprinthurdles website: https://go.sprinthurdles.com/team-steve-speed-hurdle-camp.
My goal for this clinic is for coaches to be able to coach these methods to their athletes – methods that I am convinced will lead to consistent success and significant improvement regardless of the athlete’s talent level. The concept is simple: the less effort you can put into getting over the hurdles, the more effort you can put into getting down the track. At the clinic, I will be breaking down the ways I use to make hurdling easy and efficient for the athlete.
Not all of my ideas are conventional, but they work. Here are a few:
- I like to do all drills to a three-step rhythm. No one-stepping, no five-stepping, etc., except in very specific cases. At the clinic, I’ll explain why.
- Except for the fence drill, I don’t like doing any drills that isolate the lead leg or the trail leg, except when I’m coaching absolute beginners. At the clinic, I’ll explain why.
- I hardly ever practice with the hurdles at full race spacing. At the clinic I’ll explain why.
- I don’t like doing any drills in which both feet aren’t off the ground at the same time, except when coaching absolute beginners. At the clinic, I’ll explain why.
More clinic-related blog posts will be coming. Hope to see you in Winston Salem on October 13th!
Steve McGill
