Letter from the Editor December 2017

Welcome readers, to the December 2017 issue of The Hurdle Magazine. Got plenty of thought-provoking articles for you this month, so put your outside-the-box thinking hats on.

In “Ice Baths? Pass on the Ice and Go Natural Instead: Your Muscles Will Thank You!”, freelance writer Melinda Burris Willms debunks the myth that ice baths are an effective way to help muscles recovery from strenuous training. I’ve never been a fan of ice baths personally, and this article goes far in explaining why.

In “Dealing with a Loss when you run a Disappointing Race,” freelance writer takes a look at the mental side of competition, giving sound advice on finding the balance between allowing oneself to feel the emotional letdown that comes with a poor performance while also allowing oneself to bounce back and improve one’s training.

In “Visions of the Future,” I discuss two of my theories regarding how to move the hurdles into a whole new dimension in terms of how fast a race can be run – the cycle arms theory and the two-step theory. If you can see it you can be it, as I always say, and if you don’t you won’t.

In “A Successful Hurdle Camp,” I take a close look back at the Team Steve Speed & Hurdle Camp that took place last month at the JDL Fast Track indoor facility in Winston Salem, NC. The article discusses the motivation behind conducting the camp, and what the other coaches and myself taught the athletes who came.

This month’s workout, “Coming off the Curve Workout,” is for long hurdlers trying to master the fine art of negotiating the last barrier on the curve – hurdle five for 300m hurdlers, and hurdle 8 for 400m hurdlers. Because it’s a workout that emphasizes angles and positioning more than speed, it’s one that can be done in cold weather.

“Body Positioning into and off the Hurdle” is an article I wrote centered around a series of screenshots from footage I took of one of my hurdlers during a training session. In the article I break down where all body parts want to be throughout hurdle clearance, based on the style of hurdling that I teach. I plan to do more articles like this one in the future.

Thanks for hanging in there with me, subscribers. Best of luck to you competing indoors.

Steve McGill