Putting Myself First, Part II
by Steve McGill
Another thing I did in my most recent session was experiment with the cycle arms style that I came up with about 15 years ago. To this day I have yet to have an athlete execute the style in a race, although I’ve come close a couple times.I teach all of my hurdlers now to cycle the lead arm, but cycling both arms means that they must both be cycling in the strides before the first hurdle and between the hurdles. I’ve discussed the details in previous articles. The idea for it was conceived by a dream I had in which Liu Xiang—the best 110 hurdler in the world at the time—was standing in front of me, jumping up and down while flailing his arms in a wild yet controlled manner. Replaying the dream in my mind, and my experiments with removing all pauses in the hurdling action, led to my discovery of the cycle-arms style. So instead of chasing after the goal of competing in a masters race, I plan to use my newfound health and hurdling capacities to explore mastery of the cycle arms hurdling style. That way, I can keep the hurdles right where they are — 24” high, 5.3 meters apart, with a 6-step approach. I can increase the height/spacing only if/when that becomes the natural next step in development. Yeah, this makes sense.
[am4show not_have=’g5;’]
[/am4show][am4guest]
[/am4guest][am4show have=’g5;’]
To be totally honest, I’m obsessed with the cycle arms. I feel like it’s the one thing I want to be able to say I brought into the world when my coaching career is over, and when my life comes to an end. I’m obsessed with the desire to see what this style will look like when mastered by an elite athlete. In the reps last week when I was doing it right, I could feel the style itself pulling me forward, keeping me tall on the balls of my feet, pushing my torso forward. I always tell my hurdlers, “stay forward!” With the cycle arms, you can’t help but stay forward, so you don’t have to remind yourself to do so. Even Raelle noticed it while filming me. And if it’s helping my old ass to stay forward, imagine how much faster it’ll make someone who is really moving.
The cycle arms represents the peak discovery that resulted from decades of experimenting with ways to create a hurdling style that is completely fluid, that is powerful without trying to be powerful. It is the last and the most important component of the downhill hurdling style—the style that led me to come up with the marching popover drill, to eliminate a lot of routine hurdle drills that involve pauses followed by power moves. Making this style a reality in high-stakes competition matters to me not because it would make me famous or put me in some kind of Mt. Rushmore of hurdle coaches, but because it would be so breathtaking to watch.
I feel like it’s essential to be selfish. Putting others first is how I fell so far out of shape, into a health decline that led to a health crisis. Being a teacher and coach means always putting others first. Settling into the routine of giving my life away in service of others feels noble and altruistic, but it’s really not. Putting myself first is how I lost so much weight so fast. It’s how I regained a work/life balance It’s how I got back into reading books for the simple joy of reading books. It’s how I learned to relax and do no work at least one day out of the weekend without feeling guilty about it. At practice sessions with Raelle, when I get my hurdling reps in, She not only doesn’t mind, but she films my rep the same as I film hers. She coaches me just like I coach her. She gives me feedback the same as I give her feedback. Putting myself first isn’t taking away from my ability to give to her; it’s adding to it.
And that’s the life lesson I take away from all of this; that’s the life lesson I’ve learned from my health scare and from the road to a full recovery that I’m still in the process of traveling. Putting myself first not only creates balance in my own life, but it actually makes me more available to others. Or to put it more specifically, I’m able to present a better version of myself to others. I’ve been making it a point to be hyper-aware of how I’m feeling—not just physically, but emotionally. Prior to this past Thanksgiving break, I was feeling very cranky and irritable at school. On the last day of classes prior to break, I got really annoyed with one of my classes that didn’t want to do any work. “It’s the last day before break,” they complained. And one of them added, “Why did you pick today to actually have us do stuff,” which really set me off. We do stuff every day, dammit, so what are you talking about? I didn’t say it out loud. I just ended class and said, “Fine, do whatever you want,” and sat at my desk. Later that afternoon, the Head of School came by to wish me a happy holiday, and I vented to him about student apathy. He talked me off the ledge, assuring me that it was just a holiday mood and that things would be better after break, which did prove to be true. But the point I want to make is that the reason I was so irritable that day, the reason I let those kids get to me, was because I hadn’t been feeding my own needs. I’d been doing tons of grading without taking any time to read on my own for my own pleasure. I had been walking less often, and had skipped a week of hurdling because I had cancelled practice with Raelle due to cold weather. Back in the day when I was running seven miles every morning, I didn’t realize how much that kept me balanced, to the point where nothing that occurred through the course of a day could upset my equilibrium. I could give and give and give to me students and athletes without feeling the least bit resentful and only the slightest bit drained.
So, I’m returning to cycle arms—my own little pleasure palace, my own little happy place. There I will continue to explore, experiment, and find joy. I think back to the Liu Xiang dream that inspired this cycle-arms journey—how his arms were flailing, but in a controlled, precise manner. That’s a metaphor for life when lived at its highest level. It’s a controlled chaos, that once understood, isn’t chaotic at all.
View this post on Instagram
From two weeks ago, adding in the cycle-arms action.
[/am4show]
