Letter from the Editor, January 2014
Welcome to issue #5 of The Hurdle Magazine, the first issue of the year 2014. I hope everyone had a restful holiday season and that you are adjusting to getting back on the grind. As with the November 2013 issue, a theme sort of inadvertently developed through the process of writing the articles.
In this issue, the overriding theme has to do with overcoming fear, as that is an essential requirement for anyone who wants to run the hurdles. This topic is the center of discussion in “Getting Over the Fear” – an article in which fear of the obstacle is discussed as it applies to the beginner hurdler, the intermediate level hurdler, and the advanced hurdler.
In “When to Raise the Hurdles in Practice,” the reader will learn how getting over higher hurdles in practice can minimize fear of the hurdles at race height.
In this month’s profile, American 110 hurdler David Payne discusses how being aggressive and fearless helped him to become one of the best hurdlers in the world despite being only 5’11”.
This month’s workout, “Four-hurdle Back & Forths,” challenges the 300/400m hurdler to attack hurdles aggressively when the spacing keeps changing from rep to rep.
Then we have two articles that don’t necessarily fit the theme, but that further expand on themes established in previous issues. “The Seven-step Revolution” takes a look at how the seven-step approach to the first hurdle continues to grow in popularity, and questions whether or not this is a good thing.
Finally, I always like to write an article each issue that delves into the more abstract, philosophical dimensions of hurdling. This month’s article in that vein is “The Jazz of Hurdling,” in which I probe into the many levels on which hurdling can be compared to jazz music. That’s the lengthiest article of this issue, and in a lot of ways was the most fun to write.
As for thank you’s I’ll start with my web designer, Chris Brajer for putting together another issue of the mag, and for being so helpful on the tech side of things. I urge all of our subscribers to contact Chris directly with any technical issues you may be having with logging in, viewing the forums, etc. His email address is chrisbrajer@gmail.com. You can be sure that he will promptly get back to you regarding any issues you may be having.
A big thank you to David Payne for a wonderful interview that served as the centerpiece for the profile on him. Interviewing hurdlers for that profile article each issue is proving to be a major highlight for me, as I always find myself fascinated by the depth of knowledge and insight hurdlers have – not only about hurdling, but about how hurdling connects to life as a whole.
As always, the biggest thank you goes to you, our subscribers, for your support, faith, and trust. I’m glad to see that our subscriber base is gradually growing. I would also like to encourage our subscribers to contact me with any ideas you may have for future articles. As a subscriber, this magazine is yours too, and I have no problem with addressing topics that you feel would be worth exploring.
I’d like to apologize for the fact that the instructional video for this month’s issue has yet to be completed, as the video camera malfunctioned during filming, and I was clueless as to how to fix it. We should be able to get the video done and uploaded by the 21st.
I’d like to dedicate this issue to Nia Brown. Nia is a sophomore at the high school where I used to coach, and I currently continue to work with her as her private coach. Nia is coming back from a stress fracture in her ankle that she suffered this past fall. This past weekend, Nia hurdled for the first time in four months, and the joy I saw on her face put joy in my heart. Keep doing what you do, Nia. Stay true to the hurdles and the hurdles will stay true to you.
