Hurdle Drilling & Conditioning Workout
by Steve McGill
These days, with so many things being unpredictable in regards to what the 2021 season will look like, probably the most important thing an athlete can do is stay in shape. That way, once there is some clarity regarding how many meets there will be and what the safety precautions will be in regard to the coronavirus, training can intensify as need be. This month’s workout is designed with that edict in mind. It’s a workout that will keep the athlete’s muscles accustomed to the hurdling action, but it isn’t as strenuous and a fall hurdle-conditioning workout would be.
[am4show not_have=’g5;’]
[/am4show][am4guest]
[/am4guest][am4show have=’g5;’]
The workout consists of the following, in the following order:
1) 10 reps of trail leg wall drill
2) 10 reps of lead leg wall drill
3) 10 reps of marching popovers over 6 hurdles
4) 4 sets of 4 quicksteps over 4 hurdles with 4 minutes rest
For the wall drills, refer to the video below to see how to do them the way I teach my athletes to do them. For the trail leg wall drill, it’s important to initiate each rep with a forceful push off the back leg. Don’t just swing the leg through at the end of each rep. Take a quick second to re-gather yourself and push. For the lead leg wall drill, no hurdle is necessary. The key, as you will see in the video, is for the foot to skim the wall and continue to cycle under the hip. Skimming the wall, as opposed to stopping the foot at the wall, will cause you to fall forward. Allow that to happen, and catch yourself with your hands as you fall forward, like the athlete does in the video. The point of skimming the wall instead of stopping at the wall is to keep the continuous, pause-free action going.
The marching popovers, just like the trail leg wall drill reps, are all about pushing off the back leg. A forceful push off the back leg allows both legs to cycle over the hurdle, one right behind the other, as opposed to the lead leg kicking out and the trail leg lagging behind. Also, the upper body stays forward the whole time. Now standing up erect when coming off of hurdles. Check the video below for how it’s supposed to look when done correctly.
The quicksteps are my go-to hurdle endurance drill. The athlete should walk back to the start line after each rep, and then take four minutes rest between sets. Usually. We’d do these over at least five hurdle, with a max of ten. And we’d do a minimum of five reps per set. But again, this is about staying in shape and maintaining muscle memory; it’s not a full-blown fall conditioning workout. The quicksteps can also be used to identify and address technical issues. For spacing, I put the first hurdle 33 feet from the start line for a six-step standing-start approach, and space the hurdles 24 feet apart. For females it may be better to put the first hurdle 30 feet fro the start line, and to space the hurdles 21 feet apart. Check the video below for the quicksteps being done properly.
The workout can either end there, or if the athlete is feeling okay, it’s good to end the workout with a return to the wall drills prior to cool-down.
[/am4show]
