What: Team Steve Speed & Hurdle Camp II
Where: JDL Fast Track in Winston Salem, NC
When: March 31 – April 1, 2017, 9am-4pm both days
Who: Coaches Steve McGill, Hector Cotto, Jenna Pepe
For Whom: Sprinters and Hurdlers of all ages
Cost: $250

What to Bring:
–Training shoes
–Spiked racing shoes (spikes should be no longer than a quarter inch)
–Clothes to train in, warmup clothes to warm up in
–Healthy snacks, water bottle, energy bars, Gatorade (Lunch will be provided both days)

What We Do:

The Team Steve Speed & Hurdle Camp is all about teaching. We teach sprinters and hurdlers efficient mechanics and technique, whether you’re talking about sprinting, hurdling, or the block start. Our ability to teach and explain and to provide individualized attention as needed is what sets us apart. At our inaugural camp this past November we had 47 campers, and although about half were from North Carolina, we had athletes come from states like Oregon, Ohio, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Florida, Texas, and Illinois. Our aim at the camp is to fill our campers’ heads with knowledge that they can bring back home with them and apply to their training and racing.

Who We Are:

Steve McGill Bio:

Steve McGill has been coaching hurdlers for his entire adult life, since 1994. Located in Raleigh, NC for most of those years, McGill has coached some of the best hurdlers to ever come out of the state, including current 100m hurdles world record holder Keni Harrison. He also coached Johnny Dutch and Wayne Davis II, both of whom went on to win NCAA championships – Dutch in the 400 hurdles and Davis in the 110 hurdles – and both of whom have gone on to compete very successfully at the international level. McGill also coached Booker Nunley, who, like Dutch and Davis, was the top-ranked male 110 hurdler in his senior year of high school. Throughout his career, McGill has coached at the youth level, the high school level, and privately for athletes of all ages, including post-collegians and masters hurdlers. One of the professional athletes he has coached – Hector Cotto – will be joining him in conducting the Team Steve Speed & Hurdle Camp. McGill currently lives in Mooresville, NC, just north of Charlotte, where he has a stable of hurdlers that he coaches privately.

Hector Cotto Bio: 

Hector Cotto has been competing professionally in the 110 meter hurdles for the past decade. In that time, the East Carolina University school record holder (13.66) has raced in two Olympic Games (2008 and 2012) and three World Championships (2007, 2009, and 2011) for his native country of Puerto Rico. While training with Coach McGill in 2009, he dropped his personal best down to 13.54, before getting it down to 13.49 a year later. Currently 32 years old, Cotto, after taking a year off from competing in order to focus on coaching, has returned to training in hopes of qualifying for the 2017 World Championships in London. In addition to pursuing his own dreams, he is guiding young hurdlers to pursue theirs. As a youth coach, private coach, and high school coach in the Raleigh, NC area, he is passing on his knowledge and passion for the hurdles onto the next generation of hurdlers. In addition, he is the webmaster of www.sprinthurdles.com – a reservoir of knowledge for hurdlers and hurdle coaches for ways to improve in all aspects of hurdling, from the block start to technique to weight training to dieting to supplement usage. It’s all there at www.sprinthurdles.com. Cotto’s enthusiasm for track and field, and for the hurdles in particular, is quite infectious, and he is also a very patient instructor who knows how to mold his lessons to the needs of each individual athlete.

Jenna Pepe Bio:

Jenna Pepe, the sprint specialist of the camp, recently finished her second year as an assistant coach at Meredith College in Raleigh, NC. This past year, in addition to coaching the sprinters and horizontal jumpers, she also serves as the strength & conditioning coach for all of the school’s sports programs. Prior to taking on her coaching duties at Meredith, Pepe worked as a nationally certified personal trainer, generating and applying customized training programs for athletes in a variety of sports, as well as for general fitness clients. Prior to that, she coached the sprinters and horizontal jumpers at her alma mater, Ravenscroft School in Raleigh, NC, where, as an athlete, she won an independent school state championship in the 100 meter dash. Like McGill and Cotto, Pepe is an outstanding teacher of the sport, both in one-on-one settings and group settings.

Other Coaches:

At the November camp, we had three additional coaches helping to provide campers with individualized attention, and we’re expecting to have two of them back, including Kevin Howell, a long-time high school and youth sprint coach in the Raleigh, NC area who has produced many champions, including his daughter, Jackie Howell, who is now a senior at the University of Kentucky, and whom Coach McGill also helped to coach in her last three years of high school.

 

About JDL Fast Track:

Located in Winston Salem, NC, the JDL Fast Track is one of the best indoor track & field facilities on the east coast of the United States. It features a 200 meter oval with a mondo surface, and a 100 meter warm-up area that is also mondo. Since its inception in 2012, JDL has hosted many important meets at the youth, high school, collegiate, professional, and masters levels, including several national indoor championship events. For more about the facility, and for hotel information, click on this link: JDL Fast Track

What to Expect:

As with the camp we did in November, The Team Steve Speed & Hurdle Camp II will be, first and foremost, a teaching camp. Sprinters and hurdlers will learn the fundamentals of proper sprinting mechanics and the fundamentals of a powerful, explosive block start. Cotto, who has used both an 8-step approach and a 7-step approach to the first hurdle at various points in his competitive career, can teach the how-to’s of both styles and can explain the benefits of both styles. Pepe and Howell are also experts at teaching block start mechanics and ideal sprint mechanics. Hurdlers will learn the style of hurdling that Coach McGill and Coach Cotto teach to their hurdlers – the cycle hurdling style, which emphasizes fluidity of motion, minimal wasted effort, and minimal pauses in the hurdling action.

In the November camp, Day One of the camp was heavy with drills, while Day Two focused on incorporating an emphasis on speed and the block start. For this camp, since we are now in the heart of the outdoor season, the emphasis will be more on speed both days, and technical flaws will be pointed out and addressed on an individual basis. In the November camp, we didn’t get over more than three hurdles out of the blocks. For this camp, we plan to have the athletes get over 5-6 hurdles out of the blocks.

Also, the November camp did not include any drills or work that was specific to the longer hurdle races. This one will. We will have athletes do drills that teach them how to negotiate the curve, and how to alternate lead legs.

Below is a tentative schedule for each day:

Saturday March 31:

8-8:45: arrive, check-in
9: introduction, welcome
9:30 dynamic warm-up
10: sprint drills and hurdle drills
10:30: morning session
12: lunch
1: dynamic warmup
1:30: sprint drills and hurdle drills
2: afternoon session
3:30: cool-down, static stretch, partner/band stretch, foam roll
4: Adjourn

Sunday April 1:

9: dynamic warm-up
9:30: sprint drills and hurdle drills
10: morning session
12: lunch
1: dynamic warmup
1:30: sprint drills and hurdle drills
2: afternoon session
3:30: cool-down, static stretch, partner/band stretch, foam roll
4: Adjourn

Though the majority of our campers are youth and high school athletes, we HIGHLY ENCOURAGE masters athletes to come. One came to our November camp, and she learned a lot and had a great time.