November 15, 2014

As we enter the Thanksgiving season, I felt it would be appropriate to talk some about this special holiday – perhaps the only major holiday that has yet to be tainted by commercialism and consumerism. Somehow, Thanksgiving has managed to retain its innocence and its dignity, which is why it is my favorite of all holidays. It is what it claims to be – a time to reflect, to take note of all there is to be grateful for.

For me, this time of year always brings me back to November of 1983, when I spent almost the entire month at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, receiving treatment for a rare and potentially fatal blood disease, aplastic anemia. The treatment was highly experimental at the time. My doctor, who was head of hematology, said it had only been in existence for three years.

I was fed horse serum intravenously twice a day for eight days. Somehow, the horse serum was supposed to reactivate my bone marrow, so that it would once again produce new blood cells on its own. read more

October 19, 2014

So I’ve finally posted all chapters of the biography I wrote on 1972 Olympic high hurdle champion Rodney Milburn. I’ve had several chapters of the biography buried for years in the “Stories” section of this site, but had lost a later chapter a few years ago when my computer died. Recently a friend of mine was able to retrieve a copy to send to me, allowing me to put all the chapters up here now.

I initially began the project in 2004, conducted dozens of interviews and did tons of research between 2004 and 2006, and visited Milburn’s hometown of Opelousas, LA on two separate occasions.

To read the bio, check out the menu bar above: Rodney Milburn: The Quiet Champion. All chapters are there, in order. For more info on the process I went through in completing this project, read the intro.

September 9, 2014

For today’s blog post, we’re back with another round of “You know you’re a hurdler if…” Came up with ten for this set. Got a bit of a football theme going on in honor of the beginning of the NFL season. Hope you can relate!

You know you’re a hurdler if:

July 29, 2014

Masters hurdler Francis X. Shen, who splits time between Minnesota and Boston, recently contacted me about his hurdling endeavors. Shen, who ran for the University of Chicago in the late ’90’s, has continued to train and compete into his mid-thirties. Seven years ago he wrote an article entitled “Still Hurdling after all These Years,” and he recently updated it to reflect his current status. It’s a long article about his hurdling journey, and it’s well worth the time to read the whole thing.

What you realize in reading Shen’s article is that all of us who dedicate ourselves to the hurdles share a special bond, that there are commonalities in our stories that unite us in ways that are unspoken and invisible, yet very, very real. To read the article in full, click on this link: Still Hurdling after all These Years.

Here’s a snippet from the article that really rang true for me:

This is the difference between competitive sports and “going to the gym.” In the gym, you can’t lose. The Boston Sports Club, like so many others, markets themselves by telling customers, “We want to make the experience easy for you.” They have televisions so you can forget about the running; trainers with you at every step so you don’t have to think for yourself; and guarantees that you’ll leave feeling great. Hurdling does something else entirely. It humbles you. Hurdling isn’t a way to forget about the reality of life. Hurdling brings that reality front and center. Like other serious track and field athletes, hurdlers feel anxiety as they realize that everything hinges on one, short race. Hurdlers feel disappointment and experience failure when they don’t perform up to expectations (especially their own). Hurdlers don’t always walk off the track feeling great about themselves. Sometimes they walk off the track so disgusted and deflated they don’t know why they ever started doing it to begin with. Hurdlers get knocked down. But the great lesson of hurdling, the great lesson of competitive athletics, is that you fight back. You feel the pain, but you work through it. You acknowledge defeat, but you don’t accept it. read more

July 10, 2014

Just a quick note to let everyone know that everything is up and running for the GET FAST SPRINT & HURDLE CAMP that will be taking place August 1-3 at Durham Academy in Durham, NC.

Under the “Camp” dropdown menu on the homepage of www.hurdlesfirst.com you will find links to the information page (where you can also register for the camp), a bio page of the camp instructors, and details regarding what the schedule will look like and what the sessions will consist of.

Coach Howell and I are very excited to be doing this camp and very grateful to Durham Academy for accommodating us. We see it as a great opportunity to do what we do best: teach! Coach Howell is a master teacher of sprint mechanics, block starts, and drive phase, while I pride myself on being an excellent evaluator of hurdle technique, and I also love to troubleshoot problems with hurdling mechanics.

Later today I plan to put up a YouTube video providing further details on how Coach Howell and I plan to work together in order to ensure an enjoyable, challenging learning experience for all campers. So be on the look-out for that! read more

July 2, 2014

For today’s blog post I am excited to let everyone know that I’ll be doing two sprint/hurdle camps in the near future with Kevin Howell, the sprint coach at Cary High School in Cary, NC. The first camp will be August 1-3 at Durham Academy in Durham, NC. The second will be October 11-12 at St. Christopher’s School in Richmond, VA.

The camps are for athletes 11-18 years old. Our focus will be on teaching mechanics – block start mechanics, sprinting mechanics, and all aspects of hurdling mechanics.

The name of the camps will be “The Get Fast Sprint & Hurdle Camp,” hosted by The Hurdle Magazine and the host school.

Registration details will be forthcoming; I will have the registration info for the August camp available on this website within the next few days. So check back here on the hurdlesfirst.com site and on our Facebook and Twitter pages.

If you have any immediate questions, contact me at smcgill@hurdlesfirst.com.

If traveling to NC or VA is an issue for you, and you’d be interested in having the Get Fast Sprint & Hurdle Camp come to your area, then contact me at smcgill@hurdlesfirst.com so we can discuss options. read more

June 25, 2014

I love my track & field, but I ain’t gonna lie. There are times when the meets last so long that taking a good snooze is the only way to make the time go by faster. Like I often say to my non-track-fan friends, if you wanna catch up on your sleep, go to a track meet. Not because the competition isn’t exciting, but because there are so many heats of so many events that meets literally last all day long.

At New Balance Outdoor High School Nationals two weekends ago, my girl was running the 100 meter hurdles. The semi-finals took place at 10:55 Saturday morning. But the finals were held eight hours later, at 6:55, the second-to-last event of the day. With so much time to kill between races, my crew and I spent most of our time chilling in the shade beneath the bleachers.

So of course, one of my athletes, Lamar (yes, the same Lamar who doubted I could clear a 36-inch hurdle), took the opportunity to catch me napping when I dozed off a little while.

We’ll call this one the “Deep Sleep” photo, as it displays the contemplative, deep-thinker’s pose. You can tell that I’m dreaming of a new workout or technical innovation that I can incorporate into the next practice session.

We’ll call this one the “Shoulder Lean” photo, as the head sliding to the right shoulder puts me in danger of a stiff neck. At this stage of sleep, I’m so far gone that I can hear the ocean waves crashing on the shore.

We’ll call this one the “Clown the Coach” photo, as Lamar clowns me, laughing in the foreground as I doze in the background. That’s some good photography bruh.

So if you find yourself taking a few extended blinks between events at a track meet, let it be known, you’re not the only one! read more

June 20, 2014

For today’s blog post, a brief talk on confidence:

One of my female hurdlers, whom I’ll call Andrea, was saying the other day that she needs to work on the mental side of her race. It was a conversation we had had before, as she puts a lot of pressure on herself. While I demand a lot of my athletes, I don’t like for my athletes to want success too much. Too much tension impedes progress, has a negative affect on performance.

I pointed out to her a teammate, whom I’ll call Jill, who had decided to switch her start in the 400 hurdles from a 24-step approach to 23 steps, which meant switching her feet in the blocks, getting out faster, and risking a greater level of late-race fatigue. Never one to err on the side of caution, I approved of this change and decided to work with her to make it work.

I pointed out to Andrea that Jill was willing to try 23 steps because she’d been feeling a bit crowded taking 24 and she wasn’t afraid of what might go wrong if she switched. She wasn’t afraid of making mistakes. read more

June 16, 2014

So one of my athletes had the nerve to doubt that I could get over a 36-inch hurdle. He promised me he’d buy me dinner, to a restaurant of my choice, if I could do it. Never one to back down from a challenge, I said, “It’s on!”

Two days later, after rigorous stretching, meditating, visualizing, groin and hip flexor exercises, and hoping for the best, I took my talents to the track to get my hurdles on. After numerous drills and reps over a 30-inch hurdle and then a 33, I raised the hurdle to 36. The results are below:

Instead of dinner I settled for a funnel cake at New Balance Nationals, ’cause you know them funnel cakes ain’t no joke!

Special thanks to my athlete and Nigerian brother Arthur Njemanze for documenting hurdling history on his iPhone. Special thanks to my athlete Lamar Brewer for presenting me with the challenge. And special thanks to friend and inspiration Terry Reese for his endless hurdling videos proving that age ain’t got nothin’ on passion! read more

June 7, 2014

For today’s blog post I’m providing a snippet from an interview I did with Jon Hendershott – long-time journalist for Track & Field News – that will appear in the June issue of The Hurdle Magazine, which comes out June 14th. Usually on the other side of interviews, Hendershott has been writing for T&FN since 1967. Over that period of time, he has covered 9 Olympic Games and 13 World Championships, dozens of USA Championships, and countless meets at all levels of the sport. He has interviewed some of the greatest track and field athletes who have ever lived, including hurdlers Rod Milburn, Renaldo Nehemiah, Kim Batten, Kevin Young, and numerous others. The interview covers a gamut of track-related topics. The passage below addresses some hurdle-specific issues:

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McGill: Do you feel that the hurdling events should constantly be evolving? I for one have argued for several years that the height of the hurdles in the women’s 100m hurdle race should be raised. What are your thoughts on that? read more