Why Staying Dorsiflexed Can Be Harder than it Looks
by Steve McGill
From day one, whenever I’m working with a new hurdler or a hurdler I’ve never worked with before, the first thing I want to see is what their sprint mechanics look like .And the first thing I’m looking for in regards to their sprint mechanics is whether they keep their ankles dorsiflexed and run on the balls of their feet. When I conduct hurdle camps, we’ll spend all or most of the first session just working on dorsiflexion, via A-marches, A-skips, and other sprint drills. With hurdlers that I coach regularly and who I therefore can work with five-six times per week, we’ll spend the better part of most practice sessions working on sprint mechanics, especially in off-season workouts. I always tell the athletes, these aren’t just warmup drills; these drills are informing you how you want to run when you’re sprinting at full speed, and they also serve as the foundation of your hurdling mechanics. If you don’t do these right, you won’t do anything else right.
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A huge majority of kids who have attended my camps, and almost all of the hurdlers I’ve worked with in my private coaching and for my school teams, have struggled mightily with dorsiflexion at first. I’m reminded of a book I read a while ago that argued that running on the balls of the feet is natural for human beings, and that humans in ancient times ran that way without even thinking about it because they ran barefooted, and the ball of the foot is the only part of the foot that can absorb the shock of the landing. But running on the balls of the feet has become unnatural, the author argued, because of advancements in shoe wear. With the advent of advanced shoe wear, as ignited by big brands like Nike, Adidas, Puma, New Balance, etc. in the 20th century, runners grew more comfortable with flat-footed footstrikes or with allowing their heel to absorb the initial impact.
So, because track is often not the first sport that many hurdlers have participated in, and because some were never taught proper sprint mechanics when they first started sprinting and hurdling, they’ve gotten in the habit of running with their toes pointed down, or landing on their heels, so that feels normal and right.
Before I get to other sports, first I want to talk about the most common mistake I see, which is that of reaching for the track. Most athletes, when taught the action of cycling the foot like it’s on a bicycle pedal, and of pulling the heel back under the hip, understand it, and are able to execute most of the motion in drills and in slower sprints. But the part of the motion that they often struggle with is the last part — pulling the heel back under the hip. Instead, they point the toe down as the foot begins to descend toward the track. As a result, they land on the toe instead of on the ball of the foot. I refer to this action as “fool’s gold” because landing on the toe can feel like landing on the ball of the foot. But it’s not the same at all. Landing on the toe means the foot is in front of the hips, the hips will then drop as the heel touches the track, and only then can the foot leave the ground. So, ground-contact time is increased significantly, causing deceleration and forcing the athlete to work a whole lot harder to get down the track. Finally, that action of pointing the toe down leads to back-kick when the foot leaves the ground, which, for a hurdler, kills the ability to lead with the knee. So that’s something I really look for — if the toe is pointing down as the foot is on the way down.
One thing I find that helps is having athletes do their sprint drills in spikes. Because modern shoe wear makes it easier to run improperly without feeling that you’re doing anything wrong, doing drills in spikes is a viable choice because doing so makes it a lot easier to feel when you’re running on the ball of the foot vs. when you’re not. I tell my athletes, you want the back of the spike plate to bear the weight. If you’re landing on the top of the spike plate, that means your toes are pointing down. If you’re landing on your heels, your achilles will let you know, and that’s not a pleasant feeling. Obviously, doing sprint drills in spikes too often can increase the chances of lower leg injuries and knee injuries, so I won’t employ this option more often than I have to.
In regards to having a background in other sports, the only sport that encourages proper sprint mechanics (at least based on my observations) is football. Every football player I’ve coached in the sprints and hurdles either already had sound sprint mechanics, or was able to learn it very quickly. I’ve never coached football, so I don’t know how much time football coaches spend teaching dorsiflexion, etc., but they must spend a significant amount of time on it because football players always seem to have an understanding of the fundamental concepts.
But athletes with a background in dance or cheerleading or gymnastics on the girls’ side of things, teaching them dorsiflexion is a headache. Pointing the toes up and running on the balls of the feet is absolutely foreign to them, and their bodies resist doing it even as their minds and hearts are trying as hard as they can. Same goes for athletes who have participated in other track events like long jump, triple jump, or high jump. These athletes are always trying to jump up (off a flat foot) when clearing hurdles instead of pushing forward (off the balls of the feet). Basketball players have horrible running form; they just do whatever. Soccer players have back-kick like a big dog, for obvious reasons. Ingrained muscle memory takes a long time to replace. The process is long and tedious and requires persistence on the part of the athlete and the coach. I’ve learned that it’s important to ask a new hurdler what his or her athletic background consists of. It helps so much to know what other sports they’ve played or what other events they’ve done. That way, I can anticipate issues and I can instruct the athletes in a language they understand by comparing hurdling to the sport they’re already used to.
Some hurdlers progress to wear they do all their drills dorsiflexed, can sprint at full speed and remain dorsiflexed, but resort to running flat-footed or back on their heels when they’re running over hurdles. The reason is obvious — they’re focused more on the hurdle than they are on what they’re doing. Instead of just sprinting, they’re fixating on the hurdles. This kind of hurdler is easy to identify. The solution is to lower the hurdles when going full speed from the start line, and to do hurdle drills three or four times a week for a portion of workouts. Only through repetition can old habits fade and new habits become ingrained.
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