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

June 5, 2014

For today’s blog post, back by popular demand, we have another round of “You Know You’re a Hurdler If …” Got ten more here in Part 2:

You know you’re a hurdler if…

10.            You’ve been guilty of driving while hurdling – taking your hands off the steering wheel and doing the hurdle motion with your arms while driving over a pothole or speed bump.

9.            You have bumped elbows and forearms with a hurdler in an adjacent lane.

8.            You have lumps or a numb spot on your trail leg knee from hitting hurdles in the exact same spot over and over again.

7.            You have broken a crossbar in half with the force of your lead leg foot slamming the hurdle.

6.            You have asked your coach before practice, “Hey Coach, we’re hurdlin’ today, right?”

5.            You have noticed a superior athlete in another event or sport and thought to yourself, I could beat him/her in the hurdles. read more

May 28, 2014

For today’s blog post I’m going Letterman on you by providing a list of things that make hurdlers hurdlers. I came up with twelve, and listed them in descending order, Letterman-style, although I’m aware that the order doesn’t really matter.

You know you’re a hurdler if:

12.            You have had dreams in which you are hurdling.

11.            You have yelled at people for walking in your lane, sitting in your lane, standing in your lane, and/or placing gear in your lane.

10.            You have run over somebody who was standing in or walking through your lane.

9.            You have attempted to educate non-hurdling teammates on how difficult and physically demanding hurdling is, only to realize they’re never going to understand.

8.            When running with no hurdles in your way, you feel a bit unsure as to what you’re supposed to do.

7.            You have tripped over something while walking and played it off like you were practicing your hurdling technique. read more

May 21, 2014

So at our state meet last weekend the girl I coach won the 100m hurdles in a new personal best of 13.52, and it would’ve been a state meet record except the wind was over the allowable legal limit. It was a great race in which she looked very fast between the hurdles and very fast over them. The only glaring flaw in the whole race was that she popped up at the start.

So all the other coaches were congratulating me later on and remarking on how wonderfully she ran. But my mind was still on the boys’ 110 prelims, where my guy was on his way to finishing in the top two and automatically qualifying for the final before the speed of the race finally caught up to him and he clobbered the ninth hurdle with the foot of his lead leg, falling back to fifth or sixth place and out of a spot in the finals.

All I could think about – as soon as it happened and for the rest of the day – was, I should have jammed him. I should’ve jammed him in practice. This state championship meet was his first race on a mondo surface after running on slower rubber surfaces all season long. I knew the faster surface would cause crowding issues. When practicing block starts, I should’ve moved the hurdles in three feet to mimic the crowded feeling he’d have in the race. But I’d only moved them in the usual one foot, which wasn’t enough to prepare him for those hurdles rushing up at him. read more