Solo Starts and Competitive Starts Workout
by Steve McGill
One of the things I like to do in practice as often as possible is have my hurdlers race each other out of the starting blocks over a certain amount of hurdles that usually won’t exceed seven in the outdoor season, and will rarely exceed four in the indoor season. With indoor track competition seemingly beginning sooner and sooner every year (here in North Carolina the first indoor meet took place mid-November), working block starts into the training routine very early in the fall is becoming more and more important. While I’m not a fan of this trend, I have to adapt to it. Whenever I’m coaching high school seniors who have yet to commit to a college, they need to run as fast as possible as early as possible if they’re going to impress potential schools who might be interested in recruiting them. So, my preference for training methodically and developing gradually and making sure we’re ready to rock and roll before we race isn’t always practical in this environment where high school seniors are competing with transferring collegians for spots on collegiate rosters.
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Still, too many block starts in cold winter weather can do more harm than good, so it’s important to be careful by picking the warmest day of the week whenever possible, make sure the athletes warm up thoroughly, and emphasize quality over quantity when it comes to the number of reps to be done.
This past weekend, my former athlete Janie Coble, who now attends UNC-Asheville, was back in town for her winter break, so, because the temperatures had reached the 50s for the first time all week, I had Janie and Raelle both work on block starts.
After they both completed their warmup, but before the actual “workout” began, I had each of them do a few practice starts with no hurdles, over one hurdle at 30 inches, and then over one hurdle at 33 inches. All of these were with spikes on, but with no commands.
From there, we moved on to solo starts, with commands, which is where the “workout” portion of the workout began.
I don’t remember our exact number of reps, but the numbers don’t have to be exact. I go by feel in the sense that if I’m getting high-quality reps, I can limit the number of reps. If I’m not getting high-quality reps, then I might need to spend more time over just one hurdle, just over two hurdles, and never get to three hurdles even if I had planned to. But Raelle and Janie are both experienced and they both lock in very well, so the amount of reps we did was pretty low. I believe it followed this pattern:
- Two solo reps over one hurdle
- Two solo reps over two hurdles
- Two sole reps over three hurdles
- Two competitive reps over three hurdles
So, that’s eight reps total, with the last two being competitive. That means, the first six reps focused on reaction, body angles, driving and accelerating, pushing through the first hurdle, addressing technical corrections (in the drive and over the hurdles).
Prior to the last two reps, I instructed Janie and Raelle to just focus on beating each other. Let the technique be what it is; be fast and win. It was funny how they both looked at each other with fear in their eyes when I announced that the last two reps would be done together. The very idea of competition created the same nervousness they would feel before a race. And I told them, “that’s why we’re doing it.”
Even two competitive reps is enough to remind the athletes that the mindset has to shift into beastmode on race day. I was glad Janie came to train that day and I was glad we had that chance to do block work. But I would add, if the athlete isn’t ready because they do have major technique flaws to address, those flaws must be addressed first before rushing into a race. The last thing we want to do as coaches is damage our athletes’ confidence by setting them up for failure.
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