A Look Back at the Team Steve Downhill Hurdling Academies
by Steve McGill
Over the past month, I and my “Team Steve” staff have conducted two hurdling academies at JDL Fast Track in Winston Salem, NC. The first took place on the weekend of October 16-17, and the second one took place last weekend, on November 13-14. Back in November 2017, I and Coach Hector Cotto began conducting the Team Steve Speed & Hurdle Camps, and we conducted two or three per year at JDL, and one in Pennsylvania, until the COVID-19 pandemic forced a shutdown across the globe in March of 2019. We were scheduled to conduct a camp on the weekend of March 19 that year, but had to cancel and give refunds to all the campers who had signed up. At the time, I didn’t know if we’d ever do another camp again. Speaking strictly for myself, I was kind of low-key glad for the break that the quarantine period provided, as I was feeling quite burnt out at the time. But of course, a coach has got to coach, and as my energy gradually returned, I started thinking of ways we could continue doing what we had been doing, but with some new flavor.
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Because I was always emphasizing to my athletes the need to create a downhill angle when clearing hurdles, I decided to just go ahead and call the style of hurdling I teach “downhill hurdling.” That thought came to me somewhere around the beginning of 2021. Continuing the thought, I told myself that if I were to do another camp, I wouldn’t call it a camp, but an academy. A downhill hurdling academy. Hence, the name. The word “academy,” as opposed to “camp,” emphasizes the teaching element. We don’t just put the athletes through a bunch of drills; we’re constantly teaching along the way. We’re filling the athlete’s minds with much to think about, and we’re often deconstructing their technique and then reconstructing it, as so many hurdlers still hurdle in the method of kicking out the lead leg and then snapping it down.
I also decided that we’d conduct a coaches’ workshop in conjunction with each academy. One of my frustrations in the past has been with the fact that athletes return home from our camps with no way to continue to build on what they’ve learned, since so few coaches are familiar with our style. Also, I’ve become so convinced that downhill hurdling is the most efficient and effective way to hurdle that I do want to see it taught on a more large-scale basis.
Our first academy in October was for athletes who have run 15.00 or faster, while the second one in November was for athletes who either have run slower than that or are new to the event. We only had 8 athletes sign up for the October academy, which tells me not to do that again. Faster hurdlers either aren’t looking for the help as much, or they’re busier with fall sports. We had 27 athletes sign up for the November academy; we expanded registration, as we originally planned to let in only the first 16 registrants. Higher demand, high supply, right? For both academies, we had about 8 coaches sign up for the coaches’ workshop, which we named The Art of Hurdling Coaches’ Workshop. The role of these coaches was 1) to observe and learn from myself and the members of my staff, and 2) to help us in providing one-on-one input to the athletes. To me, hands-on learning is much more effective than a typical coaching clinic where coaches are sitting around listening to people speak most of the time.
With the downhill style, the emphasis is on driving with the knee, specifically characterized by raising the knee above the crossbar before extending the foot toward the barrier. As a result, our style of hurdling puts a huge emphasis on hip flexor strength. Additionally, we emphasize a forceful push off the back leg, and in bringing the trail leg to the front in a high and tight motion, with minimal opening of the groin. Again, strong hip flexors are essential. So with our academies, we started with A-marches and spent a good 30 minutes or so on A-marches alone. The logic is, if you can’t do the A-march the way it needs to be done, you won’t be able to do any of the hurdle stuff correctly.
Starting with the A-march, we go through a progressive series, with each drill building on the next: A-skips, high-knee cycles, side walk-overs for trail leg, side walk-overs for lead leg, marching popovers, cycle drilling, then quickstep drilling. The second day consists of speed-based training — falling starts, three-point starts, four-point starts, block starts, block starts over hurdles, and competitive block starts over hurdles. What I love is how the athletes progress so rapidly in such a short period of time. At first, some of the athletes can’t even keep their ankles dorsi-flexed, and by the end of the second day they are running tall on the balls of their feet like they’ve been doing it all their lives.
Having the extra coaches there helped a lot, as it ensured that no mistakes would be missed. The athletes worked their butts off, absorbed all of our instructions, and came away much better hurdlers than when they arrived. Yes, they were very sore, but it was a good sore, as they had spent an entire weekend putting their bodies into positions they weren’t used to. I told the group at the end of the second academy that what we do works. I’m not arrogant, I told them, and I’m not rebellious or defiant. I don’t care what other coaches are doing or what other schools of thought are out there — not because I’m arrogant, but because I know that what we do works. I’ve seen it work time and time again. Reduce wasted effort, eliminate extraneous movements, focus on being fluid in your motions, and you’ll keep improving and you won’t have any late-race breakdowns. I don’t have to sell you on this style of hurdling, I told them, because once you really start to get it, it’s not me telling you, it’s your body telling you. This feels easier. This feels faster.
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