May 8, 2014

For today’s blog I’m inserting an excerpt from an article that will appear in the May issue of The Hurdle Magazine, which will come out on Wednesday May 14th. The article is entitled “A Different Kind of Warrior.” Here’s a snippet:

Hurdling is all about individual expression. More than any other event in track and field, hurdling is about styles. There are as many styles as there are hurdlers. You see hurdlers like Aries Merritt, David Oliver, Liu Xiang, Jason Richardson, Dayron Robles, all having extreme levels of success, yet all with contrasting hurdling styles. While there are similarities that can be pointed out from hurdler to hurdler, you can tell who is who just by how they look over the hurdles.

One of my funniest memories occurred several years ago when one of my athletes, messing around toward the end of practice, imitated the styles of several hurdlers. “Let me do Dominique Arnold,” he said. And he looked just like Arnold over the hurdle. Then he said “let me do Trammell,” and he looked just like Terrence Trammell. He did two or three other hurdlers and it was hilarious. All the other hurdlers, as well as myself, nearly fell on the ground laughing. But a very important point was being made: you can identify a hurdler by his or her style. Your style is your thumbprint. It is your identity. read more

May 2, 2014

Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling

My take on the whole Donald Sterling thing is a little bit different from most. I think that any time we are reminded of the racism that exists in our society, we must take the opportunity to be introspective and to be honest with ourselves regarding our own latent prejudices. I’m sure that if you were to ask Sterling if he is a racist, his answer would be no. As he said in the phone conversation that ignited the whole scandal, he does pay his players handsomely, so what’s the problem?

As an African-American who attended predominantly white schools throughout most of my educational career and who taught at one for almost two full decades, I never considered myself to be someone who held any prejudices against whites. But a couple years ago I wrote an article decrying the fact that American hurdlers were losing races to slower hurdlers from other countries because those foreign hurdlers were better technically. I mentioned that Sally Pearson couldn’t beat any of the American female hurdlers in an open 100 meter dash, yet she was beating them consistently over the hurdles. read more

April 24, 2014

With the annual Penn Relays Carnival taking place this weekend in Philadelphia, I figured this would be a good time to share one of my Penn Relays memories. Having grown up in the Philly suburbs, I attended the meet fairly frequently, although I never competed there.

The year that stands out the most to me is 1991. I was in my last year as a hurdler at nearby Cheyney State University. Four of my teammates would be competing in the 4×4 against other DII schools. So I hopped into my Chevette, picked up my girlfriend and my hurdling partner and drove into the city to support my teammates.

Three things stand out to me about that meet, and I’ll list them in no particular order:

The biggest shock came when Carl Lewis and his 4×1 teammates on the Santa Monica Track Club walked onto the track in skin-tight, skin-colored uniforms that created the illusion that they were about to run the race butt naked. Now that they had everyone’s attention, they went out and blasted the competition in a dominant performance. read more

April 20, 2014

David Oliver’s hurdling style has often been compared to that of two-time Olympic champion Roger Kingdom, and in the two photos above you can see why. In a previous post I discussed Oliver’s “shoulder lean” style based on the above photo (on the left), and you can see that Kingdom (on the right) had a similar shoulder lean, putting his upper body weight over his lead leg, pushing that leg back to the ground, thereby reducing hurdle clearance time.

In these two photos, Oliver and Kingdom are almost at the exact same point of clearance. I would say though that Oliver is a slightly improved version of Kingdom. D.O.’s trail arm is tighter, with the elbow rising straight up for a quick punch back up instead of flaring out for balance. His lead leg is descending whereas Kingdom’s is straighter. Oliver’s lean over the thigh is deeper. And although the trail legs are almost identical, D.O.’s ankle is flexed so that his toe is pointing up. read more

April 17, 2014

“You can’t make a living running track.” That’s what one of my friends said to me one fall night in my sophomore year of college. He was laughing. I had just gotten back to the dorm after doing a set of 10×150 on the track by the light of the moon. We were a small DIII school; official practice wouldn’t start until after first semester exams. So in the fall I did much of my training on my own. That time of year I preferred to run at night because I could pretty much have the track all to myself. I was the only fool who liked to train in the dark.

That night I had a particularly exhilarating workout. I had been able to hit my target time for all ten reps without adding  a longer recovery period in the last few reps. I felt like I was really rounding into shape and that I was on pace to reach my goals.

So I walked into the dorm on a runner’s high, feeling like I could run another ten 150’s. But as soon as I hit the door, my friend – a pre-med student – grimaced when he saw my sweaty frame. And I’m sure I didn’t smell all that great either. read more

April 14, 2014

I was listening to the song “Shoulder Lean” by Young Dro last night as I was putting together the finishing touches of the latest issue of The Hurdle Magazine. As the hook settled into my consciousness – “let your shoulder lean, shoulder lean” – I found myself unconsciously relating the message to hurdling. Let your shoulder lean.

I found myself thinking back to my college days, when I was adjusting to running over 42’s. To avoid hitting hurdles while still maintaining momentum, I learned to shift my weight slightly to my lead leg side as I took off. So, as a right-leg lead, the right hip was slightly in front of my left hip, and my right shoulder was slightly in front of my left shoulder.

Both hips and both shoulders were still facing the front. I wasn’t twisting my hips or shoulders. But by shifting my weight to the lead leg side, I felt like I had more power and speed going into the hurdle. And as long as my trail leg didn’t delay in driving to the front, I never had any issues with balance. read more

April 9, 2014

In my senior year of high school, my coach would have the hurdlers – all three of us – run one 400 at the end of every workout as a way of improving our late-race endurance. One day, for like the third time in two weeks, only two of us lined up to run the rep. When our coach asked us where the third kid went, we answered that we didn’t know, but “I think he went to the bathroom,” my teammate said.

Coach hesitated for a second, scowling at the fact that this kid was ducking the hardest part of the workout yet again. But then Coach’s face lightened as he shrugged and said, “that’s par for the course.” He had the two of us line up and we ran the rep.

Our coach could have had sent someone to the locker room to bring the delinquent hurdler back to the track and demand that he either complete the rep or face a harsh punishment. That’s exactly what a lot of coaches would have done, and many would argue that it’s what he should’ve done in order to maintain his authority. read more

March 28, 2014

Just when you think you’ve seen it all, you see something new. This past Tuesday I had written an article that will appear in the April issue of The Hurdle Magazine. In the article I mention that hurdlers who want to take 15 steps between the hurdles in the 300/400 hurdles need to take 22-23 steps to the first hurdle in order to establish the stride length and stride frequency necessary to make that transition.

Later that very same day one of my athletes took 25 steps to the first hurdle and the 15-stepped hurdles two and three. On the first rep, he took 25 to the first hurdle and then 16-stepped hurdles two and three, alternating lead legs. I thought I mis-counted, that he must’ve taken 23 steps to the first hurdle. So I told him for the next rep to open up his stride off of hurdle one for the 15-step to hurdle two.

This time I made sure I counted closely, listening for the foot-strikes and watching the feet move. This time I was certain he took 25 steps to the first hurdle. He went on to 15-step hurdles two and three. I was like, he’s not supposed to be able to do that. So I had him switch his feet at the start (we were using a 3-point start) so he could 24-step the first hurdle, then continue on with the 15. read more