Arm Action: How Men can Learn from Women
by Steve McGill
Arm carriage is of huge importance in the hurdles. The general rule is, the lower the arms are, the better. And the quicker the arms are, the better. Lower, quicker hand action leads to less air time, a quicker transition back to the ground, and more speed between the hurdles. While this point is one that few people would debate against, we see all kinds of varying arm actions among hurdlers, particularly among males, some of which are more efficient than others, and some of which are quite inefficient. But among female hurdlers, it has become evident in the past 10-15 years, and particularly within the past five years, that lower/quicker hands leads to faster times, even if other technical flaws are evident.
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As a result, I find myself concluding that male hurdlers, and coaches of male hurdlers, should study female hurdlers if they’re looking to become more efficient with their arm action, as female hurdlers are more advanced in that regard. Granted, obviously, the males’ hurdlers are higher so their hands can’t be as quick, but the idea is to study the females and to experiment with finding a modified version of what the best female hurdlers do.
A little backstory:
As many of you who have been subscribed to this magazine already know, I coached Keni Harrison in her last two years of high school. She has been an Olympic silver medalist, a five-time national champion, a world record holder, and has had an outstanding professional career that is still ongoing.When I was coaching her, we emphasized a lead arm that punches up and punches down, which is a style that helped lead to great success and that she still uses to this day. It has helped her achieve her personal best of 12.21 back in 2016 and has helped keep her in the 12.50-12.30 range for most races in her career. Problem is, in this contemporary women’s hurdling scene, 12.50-12.30 isn’t slicing the bread like it used to. With this new generation of hurdlers, led by Masai Russell, running under 12.30 is becoming the new standard of excellence, and sub-12.20 has become common enough that we aren’t losing our minds when we see a woman run that fast.
When I look at Russell race, I don’t see a perfect hurdler. Her hips twist a little bit. Her trail leg flattens out a little bit. But her hands are low and quick. Her lead-arm hand rises barely as high as her neck before it drives downward, and it’s driving downward before her lead-leg foot has even reached the crossbar. So by the time she gets to the hurdle, she’s already sprinting. So, at no point in hurdle clearance is she actually hurdling. No wonder she’s so dang fast. Looking at Keni, the hand of her lead arm goes above the crown of her head before it punches back down. So even though it’s punching up and down with no lateral motion, the high height of it is keeping her in the air longer. Five years ago it wouldn’t have mattered, but now it does. I think Keni could benefit tremendously from cycling the lead arm, in the manner that I explained in an article last month. If the lead arm cycles, it doesn’t need to go up so high, even for a smaller hurdler like herself. Also, the cycling action will pull her forward, which will push down the lead leg. She’s losing time on the ground because she’s losing time over the hurdle. It’s not a lot of time, but it’s enough time — enough that if she doesn’t nail the start, she has no chance, because she isn’t going to catch Russell, or Stark, or any of these girls going sub 12.30.
So, the argument I derive from this observation is that, for the women anyway, overall technique does not matter as having quick, low hands that minimize air time and that create more space to sprint. If you take a look at the women’s 100H final from the USA championships in July, and focus on Russell and Harrison, you’ll see what I mean. Technical precision does matter more in the men’s race because technical mistakes can more readily lead to making contact with the barrier, which can be a rhythm killer.
Over the years, as I’ve developed preferred lead-arm methods, I’ve always looked at male hurdlers for my examples. Years ago, I settled on Allen Johnson and Liu Xiang as my go-tos. Johnson because of how tight and efficient his action was, and Liu because of how low his lead-arm hand was (thumb touching the forehead) and how fast it was on the way down. But neither of them looked as quick and efficient as the best female hurdlers of the early 2010s — Sally Pearson and Dawn Harper. They were the first two hurdlers I’d ever seen who cycled the lead arm, and they were running crazy fast times for that era. Today’s best women hurdlers are even tighter and quicker with their arm action than Sally and Dawn were, although it’s hard to tell if Russell, Stark, Camacho-Quinn and others are consciously cycling. What is obvious is how low the hands are, which I thought was due to Camacho-Quinn’s height, but Russell and Stark aren’t as tall and they’re doing it too.
I feel like, if male hurdlers were to study the female hurdlers, and try to adapt what the females are doing to the higher 42-inch hurdles, they’ll find that being all extra with the hands ala Aries Merritt isn’t necessary to run faster times even though it worked very well for Aries. While the women are showing us that the lead arm need raise no higher than the neck, or even the chest, I think male hurdlers could keep that hand as low as the cheek or the eyes. They would still be able to clear the hurdle without making contact once they figure out the proper body angles. Grant Holloway keeps his hands low, and so does the collegiate hurdler from Auburn who won NCAAs this past June.
As discussed in last month’s issue, when I worked with two collegiate hurdlers this summer, and taught them the cycling action of the lead arm, both were able to understand it, implement it in drills, and implement it somewhat at full speed. The one kid who runs for the University of Pennsylvania is only 5-9, so he had to raise the hand higher once we got to 42s, but the other athlete, who is 6-1, could keep the hand low and cycling even over 42s, so he’ll just have to do enough reps to where it becomes second nature.
While females don’t necessarily need to cycle the lead arm to keep it low and quick, I would argue that men do. I would also argue that it is quite doable just by observing the women and seeking to mimic their movements, and ingraining the new action until it feels natural. The coach’s job would be to help the athlete make the necessary adjustments to body positioning, and to the increased speed they’ll have coming off the hurdles.
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