Breaking up the Rhythm
Rhythm in the hurdles is a beautiful thing. More than any other aspect of the event, rhythm is the component that makes it personal, that separates one individual from another, that transforms the race into a dance, into a celebration of life.
But there’s a dark side to rhythm that must be acknowledged too. Experienced hurdlers especially can often face the danger of getting locked into a rhythm. They’ve been doing it so long with such efficiency that they’re stuck in a rhythm that prevents them from dropping time. The hurdler who can run 13.5 in his sleep but hasn’t run a personal best in two years – what does such a hurdler do? How do you get such a hurdler to break the rhythm that he has come to trust and rely upon for so long? How do you move beyond the complacency that comes with going with the tried and true? And do you not run the risk of running slower times in the attempt to establish a new rhythm?
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These are all questions worth considering.
Let me start by making a comparison to distance running. I once had a conversation with a teammate in college named Greg Whorral. Greg was a middle-distance / long-distance guy, and he was the best on our team. Greg had a unique ability to run well in big races against the toughest competition. But many of the other distance runners on our team weren’t able to do so. The pace they ran in their training, that’s the pace they ran in their races. I can remember one practice in particular in which the distance crew did 20×400 at a 72 pace with a one-minute rest between each one. And these dudes cranked out these 72-second 400’s like it was nothing. I couldn’t have imagined running that many 400’s with only a minute rest.
While Greg led most of the reps, the other guys were right there with him. In the workout, he didn’t stand out in any way. The whole group of seven or eight guys stayed together through every rep. But in races, none of the other guys competed as well as Greg. After that 400 workout, I pointed this out to him, and asked him why the other guys didn’t do as well when the gun went off in a meet. His answer was quite revealing:
“That happens a lot with distance runners,” he said. “They get locked into a certain pace, and they don’t know how to go faster than that pace. It’s like they’re afraid of what will happen if they go too fast.”
Immediately, I recognized how his words could also pertain to hurdlers. Even though I was only running in the 15’s, I had already experienced moments when I would subconsciously “back off” if I felt I was getting too close to hurdles and might be in danger of crashing.
To hurdlers, that’s exactly what “too fast” means – I might crash. That’s why elite hurdlers are the ones who are most prone to getting locked into a rhythm. They live in that danger zone where a potential crash is always imminent, and so the inclination to back off is always going to be a factor. Renaldo Nehemiah once said that that’s the reason many hurdlers with the ability to run sub-13.00 don’t run sub-13. Once they get into the heart of the danger zone, they back off, they maintain the rhythm that they know to be safe instead of busting through it and facing the possible consequences. Thing is, if they don’t face the risk, there’s no chance for reward.
And yes, this tendency to “back off” is very much a subconscious thing. It doesn’t feel like a backing off; it feels more like a maintaining of the established rhythm, which, in fact, it is.
So what can be done in training, with workouts and drills, to get the comfortable hurdler out of his or her rhythmic comfort zone, to encourage him to take chances and to learn to trust his or her body to react as necessary in the moment? Here are two ideas:
Time everything. This is something I learned while coaching Wayne Davis back in the day. Wayne had an obsession with setting personal bests in every drill, including drills that were supposed to be more focused on executing mechanics and developing technique. We’d do a drill where we’d set up seven hurdles. The first six would be set up so that the odd numbered hurdles were on the left edge of the lane, and the even numbered hurdles were on the right edge of the lane, and the last hurdle was in the middle of the lane. He’d clear the first hurdle with his trail leg, the second with his lead leg, lead, trail, lead, trail, then the last hurdle over the top. The first six were spaced for a one-step, and the last hurdle was further out for a three-step.
At first, Wayne was the only one asking to be timed. Then, because that group of guys was so competitive, everyone else was asking to be timed, and that simple drill ended up being the focal point of our workout that day. It was enjoyable, and very useful. Because the guys were trying to set personal bests and beat each other, they had to keep trying to quicken up the rhythm. If the drill were untimed, they could’ve easily done the drill properly and executed the technique efficiently and yet still remained locked into a rhythm.
So, timing drills can be a very effective way to get hurdlers to push themselves out of their rhythmic comfort zones. The quick-step drill is a drill I use a lot in which hurdlers can easily get locked into a rhythm. A good way to break the rhythm is to put the athlete on the watch, with the goal each rep being to set a new personal best.
Another way to address the rhythm issue is to have the hurdlers do drills that involve hurdling over various heights and various spacings. If you look at Terry Reese’s YouTube channel, you’ll see him doing plenty of such drills. He might have seven hurdles set up, with something like the first two being at 30 for a one-step, the next two being at 33 for a quick three, the sixth one at 39, and the last one at 42, with the spacing increasing each time. In different drills he’ll throw in a five-step rhythm, a seven-step rhythm, anything to keep the hurdler from getting comfortable.
Such drills prevent an ability to settle into a rhythm and maintain it. You’re always being forced to stay on high alert, to adapt and react rapidly, with minimal time to think. The hurdle is there and you have to deal with it. These types of drills sharpen a hurdler’s senses, and make him or her more confident in his or her abilities to adapt and react in races, thereby increasing the possibility of a breakthrough type of race.
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