Our History

Steve McGill created hurdlesfirst.com in September of 2004, after he’d been coaching high school and youth track for ten years. As an English major and English teacher who loved to write, he felt that a website dedicated to hurdling would be the ideal format in which to combine his two passions, and also to share his hurdle knowledge with a larger audience than that of the athletes he coached. Shortly after its inception, hurdlesfirst.com quickly became a leading resource for hurdlers and hurdle coaches seeking information on training, workouts, and technique.

In addition to the deep reservoir of instructional knowledge, the website has also provided full-length feature profiles on some of the greatest hurdlers in the history of athletics, including such inspiring figures as Renaldo Nehemiah, Kevin Young, Tonie Campbell, Kim Batten, and David Oliver.

In recent years the level of production had declined as McGill struggled to find time to consistently update the site amidst all his other duties in the various aspects of his life. Then the death of a beloved former athlete in February of 2012 nearly led to the death of the website as well, as McGill lost all motivation to keep it current. But in the summer of 2013, changes in McGill’s professional life, and his desire to maintain a close relationship with the hurdles, led him to redesign the site, and to center it around a monthly online magazine that he named, simply, The Hurdle Magazine. Each issue of The Hurdle Magazine not only includes the type of writings that hurdle lovers can sink their teeth into, but also features an instructional video to help hurdlers in their pursuit of technical excellence.

The current site, new as of September 2013, has a modern look, has plenty of interactive features, offers several valuable services (such as workout plans, video analysis, private coaching), and still provides what hurdlers and hurdle coaches alike come love the most: quality content.