Working Alongside Other Knowledgeable Coaches
by Steve McGill
One of the best ways to grow as a hurdles coach is to coach alongside other knowledgeable coaches – coaches who are knowledgeable in the sprints, the hurdles, or both. However, such opportunities are rare, as coaches generally only interact with each other at meets and conferences, but hardly ever work together on the practice track. In the past month, I’ve had two opportunities to work with knowledgeable coaches, the first being when my friend Kevin Howell helped me in coaching a group of hurdlers from Georgia, as I discuss in detail in another article in this issue of The Hurdle Magazine. The other occurred more recently, just a week ago.
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Last weekend I worked with two of my regular hurdlers – Sakeenah Odom on Saturday and Janie Coble on Sunday, both at Kannapolis Middle School. Both times, Coach William Bullard (aka Coach Will) came to watch me in action. Much respect to that dude. Really good dude. He’s been coaching almost as long as I have (24 years to my 30), and he’s been head coach of the Charlotte Heat youth track club for God knows how long, yet he’s humble enough to want to watch me coach so he can learn more about hurdles, and coaching hurdlers. This past summer, I helped out with the Heat hurdlers as they prepared for Junior Olympic meets, and they didn’t have a hurdles coach. Not sure why; I think the previous one had left for personal reasons. Anyway, I was able to help on a limited basis, because I didn’t start helping until they were in the peak of the competitive season, so I couldn’t really address technical flaws to any significant degree. I basically just worked on helping them get out the blocks faster, and better angles, and to reduce air time over the hurdles. But I enjoyed it, and built some good relationships. A few days prior to last weekend, Will had texted me asking if he could come to my practice sessions and learn how to coach hurdlers, so of course I welcomed him with open arms.
During both sessions, he was not only asking good questions, but he was also helping me to coach. It’s always an adjustment for me to coach when another knowledgeable coach is there, as I have to remind myself to step back and listen and learn at times instead of always taking the lead. Will and I are very like-minded, so that makes it easy. We both believe in doing only a handful of drills, and doing them over and over again so that the athletes can master them. And we both make it a point to always put the kids first and our egos second. He’s more of a talker than I am, which is cool, because if we were both talkers we’d be talking over each other, and if we were both listeners we wouldn’t communicate much at all. It’s the same dynamic I have with Kevin Howell. Anybody who puts the kids first is cool with me.
With Janie on Sunday, I had her doing full-speed reps out of the blocks over two hurdles, then three hurdles. It’s a workout I’ve had her do often of late, working on getting faster between the hurdles and cutting down her air time over the hurdles. Will, who was quietly watching the workout proceed, spoke up after a few reps, saying that he noticed that Janie was clearing the hurdles too high. Of course, I had noticed that too, but I had seen it often enough that I’d grown able to convince myself that it wasn’t really an issue. And I have to admit that I felt myself tighten up a bit, feeling defensive, because any flaw in her technique was a reflection of my coaching.
A slightly abridged version of the story would be that Will mentioned to me that Janie looked like she was being too cautious. So instead of passing on the message to Janie, I asked Will to say that to Janie himself. What followed was a very healthy conversation between Will and Janie, as he explained to her that someone as athletic as she is shouldn’t be running cautiously. He pointed out that she seemed to lack confidence. I had explained to him that Janie is a full-time gymnast, so he used that info in talking to her. He told her that she needs to gain the same confidence in the hurdles that she has in gymnastics. If you’re a beast in one sport, why can’t you be a beast in both? His talk had as much of an effect on me as it did on Janie. I found myself realizing that I had settled on the fact that hurdling was a side gig for Janie, and had therefore not been pushing her as much as I would usually push someone with her talent and potential. Janie, meanwhile, finished the workout with three or four outstanding reps after the talk from Coach Will, and that was really cool.
If Coach Will continues to come to my private coaching sessions, I’ll gradually give him more responsibility, as the only way to learn how to coach hurdlers is to coach hurdlers. Watching someone else do it can only take you so far.
During one of the sessions with the Georgia crew, I had to remind myself that it’s okay to listen, and to not always be the one steering the car. Kevin Howell and I not only have compatible personalities, but we also have compatible skill sets. His expertise in sprint mechanics and block-start mechanics complements my expertise in hurdling mechanics. But it’s equally true that we’ve been around each other long enough that I’ve developed my own ideas about sprint mechanics and block-start mechanics based on the things I’ve learned from him, and he’s developed his own ideas about hurdling mechanics based on the things he’s learned from me. In one session, I was working one-on-one with one of the Georgia crew’s female hurdlers, showing her the trail leg action, how to keep the heel close to the hamstring, how to drive the knee up high and tight, and then how to attack the track with force once the knee has finished its action and is facing the front.
Coach Kevin, who was working with the other kids, turned around, saw us, and quickly observed that the girl was dropping her trail leg on the other side of the hurdle instead of attacking downward. I had her doing a side walk-over drill, by the way. I had been focusing on the take-off, making sure there was no back-kick there. So I wasn’t even noticing yet how she looked on the other side of the hurdle. So when Coach Kevin made his observation, my first reaction was to get annoyed, and I don’t think I did a good job of hiding it. My annoyance was based on the fact that I’m the hurdle master, so get out of here with that noise, sprint master. But then I thought about it for a second, noted that the reason I asked him to come here to help me was because I trusted him, and realized that he now knew a lot more about hurdling than he did when we had first met over ten years ago. The next rep, I looked to see how her trail leg was on the other side of the hurdle, and was able to corroborate his observation. And I recognized that had he not brought it up, I might’ve not even noticed the need to look for it. “Thank you, brother!” I said, and we laughed.
Working with other coaches on the track is all about putting egos aside and complementing each other. Coaches are control freaks when it comes to their athletes, and I’m no different than anyone else in that regard. But through the help of Will and Kevin, I’ve learned that putting my ego aside and being a student even while I’m teaching can have immense benefits for all involved, including the athletes. And they’re the ones it’s all about.
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