July 31, 2018

Trusting the Athlete

For coaches, the temptation to be too hands-on on race day is very real. It’s a temptation I’ve learned to avoid over the years. At USATF Junior Olympic Nationals this past weekend in Greensboro, NC, a younger coach asked me if, after all these years, I still get nervous when my athletes compete. I laughed and answered “I sure do. The day I no longer get nervous prior to an athlete’s big race is the day I need to stop coaching.” But at the same time, I don’t want to pass on any nervous energy to my athlete. I want my athlete to know that I care, that I’m in it to win it as much as he or she is, but I don’t want him or her feeling that I doubt his or her abilities to come through on the big stage. I want to exude confidence, and I want that confidence to be real.

At this year’s nationals, I had four hurdlers competing – all of whom I coach privately. And because so much of coaching is about relationship building, a coach’s emotional investment in an athlete’s success can be very intense. The more we get to know these athletes as people, and the more we find ourselves growing as individuals as a result of our relationships with our athletes, the more we care about them, and the more we want to see them succeed. read more

July 20, 2018

Hello hurdle coaches everywhere!

Coach Hector Cotto and I are pleased to announce that we will be conductiong our first-ever Team Steve Hurdle Coaches’ Clinic this coming fall.

It will take place at the same place as our first two camps for athletes – the JDL Fast Track in Winston Salem, NC, on Saturday October 13, from 9am – 4pm. At the coaches’ clinic, I will be giving hurdle coaches the opportunity to learn the methods I’ve used in coaching some of the best hurdlers to come out of the state of North Carolina over the past 20 years or so, including current 100h world record Keni Harrison. For more details and to register for the clinic, follow this link at Coach Cotto’s sprinthurdles website: https://go.sprinthurdles.com/team-steve-speed-hurdle-camp.

My goal for this clinic is for coaches to be able to coach these methods to their athletes – methods that I am convinced will lead to consistent success and significant improvement regardless of the athlete’s talent level. The concept is simple: the less effort you can put into getting over the hurdles, the more effort you can put into getting down the track. At the clinic, I will be breaking down the ways I use to make hurdling easy and efficient for the athlete. read more

July 19, 2018

Time for an Update!

It’s been a while since I’ve written a blog post, so it’s time for an update. Since my last post, I’ve done a third Team Steve Speed & Hurdle Camp. This one – the third one – took place on the weekend of June 9-10 at Woodlawn School in Mooresville, NC. While we didn’t have as many athletes as we did at the first two camps, the quality of the work was at an all-time high. Despite the 90-degree temperatures, we were able to pack a lot of drilling, block work, and long-hurdle work into those days. Thanks to coaches Hector Cotto, Kevin  Howell, and Garrison Rountree for their invaluable assistance and instruction. There are plenty of photos from the camp, which can be found here on the hurdlesfirst facebook page.

Meanwhile, I’ve been coaching all summer long, and have four hurdlers who will be competing at the USAT Junior Olympic Nationals, which will take place less than two hours from where I live, at NC A&T University in Greensboro, NC. If you’ll be there, I’ll see you there. read more

April 2, 2018

Team Steve Hurdle Camp II Was a Huge Success

Back in November my coaching team and I conducted our first Team Steve Speed & Hurdle Camp at the JDL Fast Track in Winston Salem, NC. This past weekend, we did our second one, at the same venue. Though we didn’t have as many athletes this time around, mainly due to it being Easter Weekend and also due to meets being held this past weekend, the 32 athletes who did come were an absolute joy to work with, and they came away from the camp having learned a lot by facing every challenge that we presented to them.

Of the 32 campers, we had athletes come from eleven states, including North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, Tennessee, South Carolina, Alabama, Michigan, New Jersey, West Virginia, Georgia, and Texas. Oh yeah bruh, they come from far and wide to train with Team Steve! In the two days, we packed in a lot of training. We worked on block starts with no hurdles, block starts with hurdles, technical drills, strength Exercises, rhythm development drills, alternating lead leg drills, curve hurdling drills, sprint mechanics drills, and I’m probably forgetting one or two drills. read more

November 19, 2017

Well it’s been a week since the inaugural Team Steve Speed & Hurdle Camp concluded, and because of a busy work week and overall exhaustion, I am finally getting around to putting together some thoughts as I look back on the camp.

First off, the camp was a huge success, and I would go so far as to say that it was one of the most fulfilling, gratifying experiences of my life. With a total of 47 campers converging on the JDL Fast Track in Winston Salem NC, we had plenty of campers from in-state and from nearby South Carolina, but we also had campers come from far-away states like Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Ohio, Illinois, and Colorado. What I most enjoyed was watching the campers interact with each other, learn from each other, grow together, and bond with each other. Despite the fact that the campers might have known no one, or just a few people, prior to coming to the camp, they left having made many friends and feeling like part of a family.

Campers receive final instructions before preparing to get to work.

I want to thank everyone who made this happen, as there is no way I could have done it on my own. First I want to thank Craig Longhurst and his staff at JDL Fast Track for hosting the event and accommodating all of our needs. read more

August 6, 2017

As some of you already know, I will be conducting the Team Steve Sprint & Hurdle Camp for athletes of all ages on November 11-12 of this year at the JDL Fast Track indoor facility in Winston Salem, NC.

I am very excited to be conducting this camp, as it will provide me with an opportunity to teach to a large group the style of hurdling that I have taught to individual hurdlers that I have coached over the past 23 years.

I am excited to have the camp in November because that will give athletes and coaches who attend the camp the time they need to incorporate the lessons they learn into their training sessions well ahead of the peak phase of the outdoor season.

I am excited to have the camp at the JDL Fast Track because weather will not be an issue, the track features a fast mondo surface, and we will have access to all the equipment we need (hurdles and starting blocks) for a large camp. Also, we will have enough space to spread things out and keep things moving so that athletes aren’t spending a lot of time waiting and watching other athletes. read more

July 16, 2017

Last week I spent three days working with a high school girl who ran 16.5 as a freshman, taking nine steps to the first hurdle and four steps between the rest of the way. Without much coaching, she dropped from the 19’s at the beginning of the outdoor season all the way down to the mid-16’s on sheer will, determination and athleticism. When her grandfather first drove her down from Maryland to North Carolina last month to train with me, we spent almost all of our time breaking down her form and rebuilding it.

Mainly, we worked on fixing her habit of swinging the lead leg from the hip instead of driving with the knee. We also addressed the habit of her arms crossing her body, and her foot-strikes landing on her heels instead of on the balls of her feet.

She came back for another set of sessions last week, and in our first session, we picked up where we left off before speeding things up in later sessions. The video embedded in this post comes from a few reps in that first session, in which I had her do the cycle drill. The hurdles were set at 30 inches, spaced 18 feet apart. read more

July 16, 2017

“Jazz is about being creative, and always staying creative. Jazz is about being outside of the box. Jazz is about feeling outside of the box. Jazz is about asking questions outside of the box. To express yourself, to be unique. To have a unique voice, a unique style. When you’re dealing with music you’re dealing with infinity. There’s no beginning, there’s no end. It’s an ongoing, never-ending journey. It’s an ocean you never will cross.”

The above quote was spoken by one of my all-time favorite musicians, tenor saxophonist David S. Ware, who passed away a few years ago. Ware was definitely a musician who pushed the boundaries, who didn’t even acknowledge their presence. His music is not easy to listen to, nor even pleasant to listen to. It pushes you out of your comfort zone, takes you on a sojourn to places unknown. But if you trust him, if you take the journey with him, if you keep listening, you will be rewarded. You will become a wiser, more perceptive human being. You will become more sensitive, more compassionate. And you will feel good about life. read more

June 29, 2017

When it comes to the lead arm, I’m a big proponent of keeping it as close to the natural sprinting motion as possible. It should not cross the body, but should drive straight up and straight down. Keeping the lead arm tight like this provides a tighter window for the trail leg to drive through when coming to the front. That way, the groin of the trail leg doesn’t open up excessively, but only just enough to enable a clean clearance of the obstacle. For examples of current hurdlers who employ this type of lead arm action, look at footage of Orlando Ortega, Keni Harrison, and Sally Pearson. The key is, the elbow stays below the hand when the hurdler takes off into the barrier.

In the photo above, Ortega is on the left, racing against Aries Merritt on the right. Note how Ortega’s elbow stays below the hand as he attacks the crossbar. Upon descent, the hand will punch straight down, allowing the knee of the trail leg to drive upward/forward with minimal opening of the groin. read more

May 15, 2017

Omar McLeod’s performances at the Olympic Games last year and in the early part of the outdoor season this year has got him turning heads. It’s not even June yet, and McLeod has already run sub-13.10 twice, and seems poised to go under 13.00 on a regular basis once the summer gets here. Whenever a hurdler is on a roll like McLeod has been on for the past two years or so, you have to ask, What is he doing to run so fast?

In the case of McLeod, because he is so fast with his sub 10.00 100m speed, the answer seems to be simple: his speed can carry him through mistakes, so even if he doesn’t have perfect technique, he’ll run in the 13.0 range regularly with that kind of speed.

While there may be some credence to that viewpoint, I would argue that it represents an oversimplification. McLeod is a very good hurdler. You can’t run hurdles the way he does on speed alone. In a lot of ways, what he is doing is nothing short of phenomenal. He’s only 5’10”; he’s supposed to be smacking hurdles right and left. He’s supposed to be too short for this race. He’s supposed to be breaking down in the second half of races. But he’s not. He’s also at a disadvantage because he’s eight-stepping to the first hurdle while all of his opponents are seven-stepping. But that’s proving not to matter at all. Why? How is McLeod able to run over these 42-inch barriers so quickly and efficiently? Here are a few things I’ve noticed: read more