When to Raise the Hurdles in Practice
Lowering the height of the hurdles below race height during practice sessions is a very common practice among hurdling coaches, including myself. Lowering the hurdles in full-speed workouts allows hurdlers to focus more on being fast. Lowering them in drills allows hurdlers to learn proper technique without developing bad habits, which can often happen if drilling at race height.
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Rarely, however, do we raise the hurdles in practice. Rare are the occasions when I do it myself; hardly ever do I do it with beginners. Nevertheless, there are scenarios in which raising the hurdles can be a very useful and effective strategy. If done intelligently (as opposed to wrecklessly), and done in small doses, it can give hurdlers a competitive edge and a confidence boost that can propel them to new levels of success.
Let me explain some scenarios in which I’ll raise the hurdles above race height in certain drills and workouts.
One of the most critical lessons I teach my hurdlers is that they need to have a forceful, explosive push off the back leg when attacking the hurdle. Without this big push, the lead leg is forced to do the lion’s share of the work in getting the body up and over the crossbar. The big push off the back leg raises the hips above the crossbar while still allowing the hips to push forward horizontally. So, raising the hurdles serves to exaggerate the need for this push, compelling the athlete to push off with even more force than is normally required. The athlete then comes to understand – in a muscle-feel sort of way – how much momentum can be gained, and how much speed can be generated, from pushing off the back leg with as much force as possible.
So what I’ll do is set up five or so hurdles on the race marks and raise them one click above race height. For collegiate and professional males, the top half of the hurdle will be raised above the last click, which adds about an extra inch of height, as opposed to three inches. I’ll have the hurdlers doing a warmup-style easy five-step between the hurdles, with no emphasis on speed at all. The emphasis will be on exaggerating the push off the back leg and keeping everything else the same. Keep the lean the same, keep the lead-leg drive the same, keep the forward thrust of the hips the same. Just push off the back leg harder.
What the athletes usually discover – and sometimes it’s quite a revelation for them – is that the higher height doesn’t feel that much higher at all. Sometimes, with girls, especially, there’s a feeling of trepidation that comes with approaching the 36-inch barrier. “Why are you making me do this? They’re not this high in a race.” That’s the kind of reaction I’ll often get. But it usually doesn’t take more than a couple reps before they realize their fears were unfounded.
The danger with such a drill is that it can cause the hurdler to jump “up” as opposed to jumping “forward.” That’s why the coach has to be present and observing quickly to keep a close eye on what the hips are doing. I have found that such a problem usually works itself out on its own, as I only have experienced hurdlers try this drill at all. So, they can feel their hips raising, and they’ll most often make the necessary adjustments on their own – sometimes within the very same rep, but definitely within a rep or two.
Another drill in which I’ll raise the hurdles is what I call the speed version of the one-step drill. In a normal one-step drill, the hurdles are placed about 7-10 feet apart, depending on the hurdler’s height and what I’m trying to accomplish with the drill. But with the speed version, I’ll put the hurdles more like 15 feet apart. The hurdler will sprint to the first hurdle from a standing start, and sprint over the rest of them, taking only the one step between each one. Because they only have that one step before clearing the next one, they have to constantly focusing on pushing off, pushing off, pushing off. There’s no opportunity to relax or gather themselves.
With this drill, with the hurdles raised higher, the push off the back leg becomes even more important as it provides the only hope of clearing each hurdle without crashing into it. With enough reps of this drill, hurdlers become super-explosive. And to me, explosive equals fast. The more explosive you are, the more speed you’re generating.
I don’t ever raise the hurdles when it comes to full speed hurdling out of the blocks. To me, raising the hurdles above race height is a drill-only thing. I do believe that full-speed hurdling over higher hurdles can create bad habits and cause confidence issues. The only situations in which I’ve had hurdlers clear higher hurdles in practice is when they’re in a transition year – a 14 year old getting ready to transition to from the 33’s to the 39’s the following year, or a senior in high school getting ready to transition from the 39’s to the 42’s the following year. We’ll do some higher-height hurdling in small doses just so the transition won’t be too jarring when the time comes. But with competition in the current season being the main focus, too much hurdling at the higher height could compromise immediate goals.
One year, I was coaching a high school girl who enjoyed the drills over higher hurdles so much that she did some experimenting on her own one day. She was only 5-2, but very strong and athletic due to her background of competing in gymnastics for about eight years. Emphasizing the push off the back leg fit her skills and athletic history perfectly. Anyway, one day, she set up a hurdle at 39 inches, bounded up to it and cleared with little effort. She then went ahead and set up two more, on the boys’ race marks, and five-stepped them with no problem. After a rep or two, she drew a crowd of teammates and lacrosse players who had been practicing on the infield.
To me, it wasn’t a big deal. Push off the back leg, and keep everything else the same.
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