One Long Scream
by Steve McGill
One tendency I’ve noticed among beginning hurdlers, and even some experienced hurdlers, is that of slowing down in front of the first hurdle. Fear of the obstacle can manifest itself in a variety of ways, and this is one of them. When I teach the block start, I place an emphasis, as all coaches do, on instructing the athletes to push forward out of the blocks, to stay pushing forward, and to rise gradually as they approach the first hurdle.
[am4show not_have=’g5;’]
[/am4show][am4guest]
[/am4guest][am4show have=’g5;’]
Some hurdlers pop up instantly because they want to get their eyes on the crossbar as soon as possible. They’re not thinking about driving or accelerating; they’re thinking about getting over that hurdle. They don’t realize that by fixating on the hurdle they’re actually slowing themselves down. Then there are those hurdlers who drive powerfully for the first two or three strides, and then pop up around the fourth stride, killing all the momentum they had gathered in the first few strides. And then there are those hurdlers who look great for the first five or six strides, but then suddenly stand erect and rock back on their heels in the last one or two strides into the hurdle. These are the hurdlers I want to focus on in this article. As a coach, it’s easy to get faked out by these hurdlers, because they seem to have overcome their fear-related issues, but they really haven’t. They’re still in the mindset of running to the hurdle, not through the hurdle. And that won’t get it done.
The challenge, really, is to attack the hurdle with no fear. Zero fear is a lot harder than hardly any fear. Zero fear means that regardless of what might happen when I get there, I’m going to continue to drive and push, I’m going to continue to stay forward with my upper body posture. Because that’s the give-away. If you want to know if a hurdler is afraid or not, you can tell by looking at the upper body posture. A hurdler who is too erect is trying to control his or her speed, is trying to measure the distance and make sure they don’t get too close or take off too far away. With beginners, you’ll see them rock back in an abrupt, jolting manner. With more experienced hurdlers, the issue will be a fear of not being able to control their speed, more so than a fear of the obstacle itself. So the shift in body weight will be more subtle and harder to detect.
To address the problem, there is no one single way that works for all hurdlers, but there are options to explore. One is to put tape down on the track for where each stride should land. This strategy helps to ensure that the early strides, at least, won’t be too short and choppy. That way, coach and athlete can both lock in on correcting the problem where it lies — with the last couple strides. The potential issue with this strategy, however, especially with beginners, is that they’ll reach for the tape instead of locking in on driving toward the hurdle, which can lead to the types of alterations in mechanics that we’re trying to avoid. So, as a coach, you have to watch with a close eye to make sure that’s not happening.
Another option, as with almost every other hurdle-related issue, is to lower the hurdles. In this case, the first hurdle specifically. And don’t put up a second hurdle yet. The purpose is to get the athlete to run through the hurdle, driving forward for all eight strides, and to eliminate the braking action that is occurring right in front of the hurdle. Lowering the hurdle obviously decreases the risk factor, so the athlete will feel more free to be aggressive, and to stay aggressive all the way through touchdown on the other side of the hurdle. And like I always say, meet them where they are. If you have to lower the hurdle two clicks or even three clicks below race height to start with, then do so. Once the athlete knows the feeling of driving through the hurdle, that’s a huge step forward. Like I always say, the coach teaches the athlete, and the athlete teaches the body. And it takes reps for the body to unlearn bad habits and to ingrain new ones.
With the option described above, it’s important to note that the habit of standing up too erect right in front of the first hurdle might return once you raise the hurdle up a click. So you have to be patient and very observant. If you’re working with a high school male who races over 39’s, and you have him attack the first hurdle that’s set at 30 inches, don’t raise it to 33 inches until you see no rocking back over the 30-inch hurdle. The same with graduating from 33 to 36, and 36 to 39. The other thing to be aware of is the need to take off farther away as the hurdle is raised, so the ideal take-off distance has to be slightly adjusted each time you raise the hurdle.
One message I’ve delivered to my athletes over the years is that a hurdle race is that a hurdle race is one long scream. The mindset is, you’re driving and pushing forward every step of the way. Don’t pop out of the blocks, don’t pop up at the fourth step, don’t pop up at the eighth step, don’t pop up coming off the first hurdle, don’t pop up off the last hurdle, don’t pop up when you cross the finish line. Of course, the body will rise on its own gradually. Let that happen. But don’t consciously stand up. Ever. The idea is to create the feeling that you’re accelerating from the start line all the way to the finish line.
[/am4show]
