Baby Steps Drills Workout
by Steve McGill

When teaching beginning hurdlers, gradual progress is key. Try to go too fast too soon and you’re inviting trouble. But building a foundation slowly and meticulously can lead to rapid progress further on down the road. Last year, a sophomore girl named Grace Galloway stepped forward about three meets into the spring season when I asked if anyone was willing to try the hurdles. Grace was a 400/800 runner who was running unspectacular times in those events. I hadn’t planned on having anyone hurdle last year, as we didn’t have a track to train on and no one really stood out to me in regards to natural speed. But once I realized how weak our conference was in the hurdles — we had a meet where only one girl even competed in the hurdles — I said to myself, I’ve got to get somebody over ten hurdles and through a finish line before this year is over. 

So I was able to make a lot of progress with Grace’s sprint mechanics, but the improvements weren’t carrying over to the hurdles. She ran dorsiflexed when sprinting, but reverted to pointing the toes down and dropping the hips when going over hurdles. I was able to get her to a track about twice, which enabled her to learn how to four-step and alternate legs, but the detail-oriented technique stuff would have to wait, because there was no way she would have enough muscle memory to ingrain it in time for the next race. “In the fall,” I told her over and over again, “we’re gonna get you right.” 

Our first off-season workout took place on the first weekend in August. It marked the beginning of me teaching her all the things I didn’t have time to teach her in the fall. We spent two hours on the track, starting with basic drills over very low obstacles and concluding with basic drills over very low obstacles, trying to ingrain proper mechanics. Because these drills involved no actual running, it wasn’t hard to get in plenty of reps before fatigue became a factor. I can’t really put a number on how many reps we did, but for the purpose of sharing information with my subscribers, I’d suggest numbers like the following:

• 10 reps of side walk-overs trail leg over five 24-inch hurdles spaced 10 feet apart
• 10 reps of sidle walk-overs lead leg over five 24-inch hurdles spaced 10 feet apart
• 10 reps of walk-overs down the middle over five 24-inch hurdles spaced 10 feet apart
• 5 reps of marching popovers over five mini-cones spaced 11 feet apart
• 10 reps of marching popovers over five 24-inch hurdles spaced 11 feet apart

In this first off-season session with Grace, I spent a lot of time between reps teaching her things. Sometimes I had her just go over one hurdle or two hurdles before going over all five. Meanwhile, on the other hand, sometimes I let technical mistakes slide so that she could focus more on rhythm. I find that if I over-emphasize technique, the hurdler never develops the rhythm, which is equally important, so there’s a constant juggling act going on there. So, when having your athlete do this workout, don’t feel an obligation to hit the rep amounts listed above. Quality is always more important than quantity. And quantity is only beneficial if it’s high-quality. 

Below is a video I put together of the reps I recorded during the session. (There were plenty that I didn’t record). In these reps you will not see excellent execution of the movements. My plan is to document her progress throughout the fall, winter, and spring, so that you can follow her development. Right now, we are very much a work in progress.