Hurdlers Learning from Each Other
by Steve McGill
Over the years, the best coaching environments I’ve been in, and that have sped up my growth as a hurdles coach, have been the ones where I’ve had multiple hurdlers in the training group, all of whom are students of the game and enjoy learning from each other as much as they enjoy learning from me. It doesn’t happen very often, but when it does, it’s magical, and it’s an atmosphere I always try to foster whenever possible, although I’m fully aware that it’s something that can’t be forced.
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Rule number one for every hurdler who wants to get better is to be a student of the game. Not many athletes are. There are plenty of athletes who will do what is asked of them, who will always complete workouts the way they are designed, and who are willing to run through fatigue. But I find that when it comes to the hurdles, many athletes want to grasp all the concepts quickly, or even instantly. Eager to please and to prove themselves worthy, they rush through drills, execute the motions inefficiently, yet seek positive feedback. Many hurdlers never reach their potential because they’re unwilling to think the event. In the hurdles, correcting one mistake can often create a new problem; getting faster can throw off the rhythm; a speedier lead leg can cause a lag in the trail leg; leaning forward correctly can suddenly make the next hurdle feel too close. Being a student of the game means being willing to embrace the multi-faceted process of putting all these puzzle pieces together.
One facet of this process can often involve learning from the hurdlers one trains with. In my career, I can point to two training groups in which every individual helped every other individual to improve — not just through the obvious way of competing against each other in practice, but also through watching each other and picking each other’s brains. The first one was my school team in 2004, when I had five male hurdlers, all except one of whom competed in both the 110’s and the 300’s. In the 110’s, almost all of them ran in the 14-high, 15-low range, and in the 300’s almost all of them ran in the 38-40 range. Every workout, they encouraged each other, pushed each other, talked trash to each other, and created an overall invigorating training environment.
The best group I ever had was the club team I coached in 2007, led by Johnny Dutch, who was the oldest of a group that included Wayne Davis and Booker Nunley, all of whom went on to do big things at the next level. In addition, there was Keare Smith, who was as talented as the rest but wasn’t as motivated. Keare, too, went on to run DI collegiately, although he didn’t have as much success at that level as the other guys. Coaching that group was the best experience I’ve ever had as a coach. Every day, we were trying something new, experimenting with new ideas. I’d be explaining something technical to Johnny and next thing I know there’s Booker standing behind me listening in, trying to soak in the knowledge. Wayne was constantly asking me to time every little drill, turning everything into a competition. All of those guys were constantly watching YouTube videos of hurdling greats. Back then the big names were Dayron Robles, Liu Xiang, Terrence Trammell, Ladji Doucoure. My guys would watch a race and come to practice the next day with a bunch of questions and a bunch of ideas. I always had to stay on top of my game because these guys were so eager to learn and get better.
Johnny’s lead leg stayed slightly bent throughout hurdle clearance, whereas Booker’s would lock at the knee, causing his trail leg to flatten out. When explaining what I wanted Booker to do with his lead leg, I could tell him to just watch Johnny. Wayne, who was smaller, had a very deep lean from the waist that would catapult him toward the next hurdle. Again, when teaching the forward lean to the other guys, I could tell them to just watch Wayne. So the guys were constantly borrowing from each other, and there was never any selfishness in the competition. Block start days were electrifying. I don’t know if I’ve told this story before, but there was one session that summer where I had Johnny, Wayne, and Booker clear the first five hurdles from a block start, with me giving commands. Meanwhile, our football team was playing a 7-on-7 scrimmage against another school in the infield. After the first two reps or so, the football players would pause the game and watch my hurdlers race each other. It was the craziest thing. Usually, footballers don’t give track guys any respect. But the fact that they were so awestruck that they paused the game to watch my guys race each other spoke volumes to how much my guys were making each other better.
So why have I been thinking about all of this? Because I caught a glimpse of that same type of magic in a couple of recent sessions with three hurdlers I’m coaching now — 11th grader Ayden Thompson, 12th grader Lukas Valley, and post-collegian Jeremy Prichard. Ayden and Lukas just started with me this past summer — Ayden as a 110 guy and Lukas as a 300h guy, but now Lukas is trying to get better in the 110’s as well. Jeremy started with me a few months ago, and we’re experimenting with switching to the 110’s after he had an outstanding collegiate career in the 400h. The speed is there (he accidentally 7-stepped on day one, not knowing what he was doing), but the instincts are not.
Anyway, In the first session in which all three of them trained together, we started with the marching popover drill. In watching Jeremy do the drill a little later (Jeremy arrived to practice that day about 30 minutes later than the others), Ayden looked on in wide-eyed fascination at how quickly Jeremy was getting his lead leg back to the ground. “How does he do that?” he asked. “I need to do that!” Up to this point, Ayden’s best time in the 110’s was 15.94, which represented a huge improvement from his 17.04 at the end of last year. I had been telling him that if we can get down under 15.50 before his state meet, we could shoot for breaking 15.00 by the end of the season. Well, after seeing Jeremy’s lead leg and working on his own in our next session, it was quite evident to me that he looked a lot quicker in the popover drills and in the quickstep drill. I told him, “If you can look like that out of the blocks, you’ll be able to go under 15.50 in your next meet.” Well, he ran 14.89 in his next meet. While we’re not sure what the wind reading was (he says there was a strong crosswind), even if it was wind-illegal, we know that he ‘s still probably at least somewhere in the 15.2 range on a wind-legal day. And I give credit directly to Jeremy for serving as a role model, and to Ayden for being a student of the game by watching Jeremy closely and mimicking what he saw (in addition to picking Jeremy’s brain afterward).
In our most recent session last weekend, it was Lukas who benefitted the most from the other two. As a long hurdler, he’s used to getting away with technical flaws that he would not get away with in the 110’s. So, in doing the quickstep drill, he was having all kinds of trouble negotiating the space, mainly because his lead arm tends to pause and to swing away from his body before punching down. He was more focused on his lead leg being too straight, but I kept telling him that his lead arm was the root problem, not the lead leg. I took to the iPhone and showed him one of his reps, then showed him one of Jeremy’s, and then one of Ayden’s. “Look at their lead arms,” I said, “and look at yours.” A light bulb went off. “Ohhh,” he said. And in his next reps his lead arm was a lot quicker, causing the lead leg to cycle down more quickly, causing the trail leg to stay high and tight, all of which gave him more control and more speed.
These are the kinds of training sessions that I find so inspiring and fulfilling. Video of the latest training session, when all three gentlemen trained together, is below.
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