Alex and Matt
by Steve McGill
This summer, two hurdlers that I coach, Alex Nunley and Matt Garrett, finished 1-2 in the youth boys 100m hurdles at the Junior Olympic National Championships in the last weekend of July. Alex set a new national age group record of 12.94, while Matt ran a very strong 13.24 behind him. Alex, who is as tall as me now (5-11), was able to run downhill over the hurdles, and his superior flat speed (he has a personal best of 10.97 in the 100 meter dash) proved too much for Matt to overcome as well. Matt is about 5-8, but a very good technician. He has good speed for a hurdler, but doesn’t have the raw speed that can carry over to top-level success in the open sprint events.
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Though I generally avoid getting in my feelings when it comes to track and field, that 1-2 finish at nationals meant a lot to me, mainly because those two boys mean a lot to me. Since I moved away from the Raleigh, NC area to the Charlotte, NC area (about three hours away) three years ago, I kind of got away from coaching. I moved because of a teaching position that opened up that allowed me room to grow and challenge myself further. (For those of you who don’t know, my full-time employment is that of a high school English teacher.) Although the move was good for me career-wise, it kind of forced me to start all over again as a coach. The school where I teach is a small private school with a very small track team, no track, and hardly any motivated track athletes. So, my first year year, I didn’t hardly do any coaching at all. Just a little bit of private coaching. I had two athletes, as I recall, and both of them had issues with staying consistent with their dedication.
It was hard leaving my former athletes behind, no longer helping to facilitate their development. One of the hardest athletes to leave behind was Alex. When I left, he had just completed his first year of hurdling in the 80 meter hurdle race for the 11-12 year old age group. I could see that, like both of his older brothers before him (whom I also had coached) he had a knack for this event, and could go very far. Back in the day, when I was coaching Booker and Malcolm (his two older brothers), Alex, who was like six years old at the time, would come to practice with his mom and dad. He never settled for just watching his older brothers. Instead, he wanted to participate. So we would set up mini hurdles for him to clear, or we’d take the top off of a regular high school hurdle and rest it against the bottom and let him clear those. His mom still has video of him running (if you want to call it that) over those hurdles years before he was old enough to enter a race.
I liked Alex too because he was very coachable, very eager to improve. Also, he was, and is, quiet by nature, yet, once you get to know him, you realize that he can be hilariously funny. One time earlier this year his dad was telling me about one of the coaches on Alex’s club team who sweats profusely, and how, at one practice, he was just dripping sweat even though he wasn’t exercising himself. “Was it bad Alex?” I asked. Alex nodded and said, “He was Shaqin’.” And I just burst out laughing. He was referring to Shaquille O’neal, the former NBA start who now works as an analyst for TNT’s broadcasts. When Shaq played, he would regularly be drenched in sweat. Even on the set of TNT, the other analysts sometimes tease him because he is sweating just sitting there. So when Alex said the coach was “Shaqin’,” that was about the funniest thing I had ever heard. And now I use that term all the time myself.
Meanwhile, my private coaching here in the Charlotte area really picked up this past year. One of the athletes who came to me a year ago was Matt Garrett, whose parents found me through my website. In our initial talk, Matt’s dad explained that Matt was in the same age group as Alex, and they had heard that I had coached Alex in my Raleigh days. Could I help train Matt? Of course I could.
This past year, Matt became the hurdler with whom I felt the closest connection. With him, I was able to go through the whole process of building a foundation through basic drills, then more advanced drills, then adding in the speed component, refining the technique so that the speed can be maximized, etc. We started together in September of last year. We did a whole lot of marching popovers and quick-steps to address his technical flaws and to develop a race rhythm.
I discovered early on that Matt possessed the same qualities that I enjoyed in Alex – an outstanding work ethic, an uncanny ability to listen to instruction and apply it, a warrior’s spirit on the track, and a quiet, humble demeanor off of it. Plus, Matt was motivated by the desire to not only close the gap between himself and Alex, but to beat Alex. You know how it goes – you know the names of the people who are ahead of you, and you’re constantly trying to figure out what you have to do to surpass them. That’s where Matt was.
Over the course of this past year, Alex and Matt were able to train together. Usually it was before big meets, like indoor nationals, and also during times when Alex (who was attending a year-round school) was on one of his three-week breaks. These sessions were invigorating for me as a coach, reminding me of the days when I had guys like Wayne Davis, Johnny Dutch, Keare Smith, and Alex’s oldest brother Booker battling it out when practicing block starts. Of course, this wasn’t on the same scale as that, but it was in the same spirit. Alex and Matt got to know each other and became friends, and those workouts helped both of them to sharpen their skills and their focus.
Prior to outdoor nationals this past July, I had a chance to work with both of them again, but unfortunately not at the same time, since the families were leaving at different times to head to Kansas for the meet. Here is video of reps from those sessions:
Here is footage from the final at outdoor nationals, where they finished 1-2.
It’s funny, because even though I worked with Matt a lot more often this year, I still consider both of them to be my guys. When I was giving Matt certain instructions about how to go about beating Alex, I’d always have to remind him, “It might not work against Alex, because I’m telling him the same things.” The most important technical mantra I preached was to keep the lead arm tight. Raise it only just high enough to get the lead leg knee higher than the bar, then punch it back down. Matt did it tremendously well, but so did Alex. The biggest thing from a mental focus point of view was, do what you do for all ten hurdles. We can do what we do for all ten; eventually, the other guy is going to make a mistake. It doesn’t have to be a big one. That’s all we need to separate ourselves. Again, that didn’t work against Alex because I was telling him the same things. Matt was very good about the fact that I was still helping the kid he was trying to beat, which I greatly appreciate. My aim has always been to help any and all hurdlers who come to me for help, regardless of the color of their uniform. The beauty of private coaching is that I don’t have to align myself with a particular team or club, which is why the dynamic worked so well – for me and for them.
In a week or so I’ll begin helping Matt and Alex to prepare for the big leap to the 39-inch hurdles that are spaced farther apart, with a longer approach to the first hurdle. Both of these young men are athletic enough, fast enough, and determined enough to make it work,so I’m looking forward to the challenge, and I’m looking forward to watching them further develop. Really, it’s what coaching is all about.
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