“Hold the Lean” — What it Means and What it Does
by Steve McGill
Body posture is one of the most important elements to hurdling effectively and efficiently. One of the many reasons that coaches emphasize the need for athletes to run tall on the balls of the feel with the ankles dorsiflexed and rack foot-stroke landing under the hip is because doing so allows for a naturally forward posture from the waist up. Therefore, the coach doesn’t have to constantly remind the athlete to “push forward” because they will already be doing so.
This forward posture, over the hurdle, is often referred to as a “lean,” and we coaches are often reminding our athletes to lean when they take off into each hurdle. In actuality, however, the idea isn’t to lean, but to maintain the forward posture already established in the strides between the hurdles (and out of the blocks to the first hurdle). I don’t tell my hurdlers to lean anymore. The word itself seems to instruct them to do something over the hurdle that they weren’t already doing beforehand, when that is not actually the case, and is not actually what I want.
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Really, “lean” is a verb that made sense back in the days of lead leg snapdown, when hurdlers ran very erect between the hurdles. The snapdown action of the lead leg caused the upper body to shift into this erect position, so leaning during take-off was essential to avoid contact with the hurdle and to avoid floating over the hurdle. But none of the female hurdlers at the elite level hurdle that way anymore, and hardly any of the men do. So the term “lean” as it had been used in the past has become obsolete, I would argue.
That’s why I always say, “Stay forward.” The idea behind the cue is that if we’re running tall on the balls of the feet between the hurdles, and our upper body posture is therefore already slightly forward from the waist, then we don’t have to “lean” when attacking the hurdle. It’ll still look like a lean, but all the athlete is really doing is staying forward as they’ve already been. The presence of the hurdle makes it look like the athlete is leaning, but they aren’t. If you’re already forward, then be more forward, exaggerate the forward posture to the degree that the height of the hurdle compels you to. Then, coming off the hurdle, “stay forward.” Don’t snap down, because that will cause the erect posture we want to avoid. Cycle the lead leg naturally. Cycle the trail leg naturally. With both legs cycling naturally, you can maintain forward posture coming off the hurdle without the need to remind yourself to do so. The whole point is to take thinking out of the equation as much as possible so that the athlete is better equipped to react to the shrinking space between the hurdles and to their own increasing speed in the early-middle parts of the race.
“Hold the lean” is a phrase that means the exact same thing as “stay forward.” Word choice and phrasing are everything when communicating concepts to hurdlers, so if “stay forward” doesn’t make sense to the athlete for whatever reason, I’ll switch to “hold the lean”off the hurdle since “lean” might be a word and concept with which they are already familiar.
So what does holding the lean, or staying forward, do? First and foremost, it makes you faster off the hurdle, and thereby makes you faster between the hurdles. When you do it right — when both legs cycle one behind the other, with both feet landing under the hip, and forward posture is maintained through hurdle clearance, you’ll feel, upon landing, like you’re being catapulted toward the next hurdle. Your biggest problem then will be controlling your speed, which is exactly the problem you want to have as a hurdler every time you race.
Ironically though, controlling your speed will be much easier if you hold the lean as long as your lean comes from the waist, as long as your chest is pushing forward, as long as your eyes stay looking forward, and as long as your chin doesn’t drop down. Balance issues are what cause wrecks on the track, not speed issues. As long as your hips are facing the front with no twisting, you will find that learning to lower and quicken your hands between the hurdles, and learning to lower and quicken your feet between the hurdles, is actually not all that hard. Because you’re on balance, and because your core is stable, reacting to the hurdles and adapting to your speed will come almost naturally. Yes, there are drills you can do that will help with this issue, and those drills are worth doing (they all involve super-bunched spacing, although hurdle heights can vary), but if the things I’ve mentioned above are on point, and the trail leg is coming through high and tight, the possibility of crashing is minimized and almost eliminated altogether. That’s why I always tell my athletes, “Get close, get too close” — because I know they’ll be able to react and adjust based on what I’m seeing in regard to their body positioning.
Even in drills, the focus on staying forward is something I emphasize. Actually, that’s where it starts — in the foundational drills like A-marches and A-skips. And let’s be clear about how lower body posture and upper body posture are interrelated. It’s impossible to stay forward and hold the lean off the hurdle if you’re not running on the balls of your feet with the ankles dorsiflexed. If you sprint in a manner that allows for back-kick, your chin will drop and your eyes will look down, which means your chest is sinking in instead of pushing forward. A-marches are the first drill to master if you want to run in a manner that is efficient and that allows for the type of upper body posture that will make you faster when you land off the hurdle. Athletes who don’t take A-marches and A-skips seriously and/or are allowed by the coach to do them inefficiently will always struggle to maintain balance when hurdling, and they won’t be able to implement the type of posture I’ve been discussing in this article.
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