Working under Time Constraints
by Steve McGill
Even under non-pandemic conditions, many hurdle coaches struggle with figuring out the best approach to coaching hurdlers who are new to the event and don’t come out for track until the spring. With only a short window of time, there’s a lot to get done, and there’s no way to get it all in. With the pandemic having cancelled seasons and significantly limited practice time, the challenge to develop inexperienced hurdlers is greater than it ever has been. And the challenge isn’t limited to new hurdlers. Even experienced hurdlers may have flaws that need to be corrected if they are to compete successfully against the toughest competition, and so the question becomes one of, What are the non-negotiables? What do we have to do to prepare for races? Then there’s, What do we want to do but don’t have time for? In other words, what do we prioritize?
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For female hurdlers, the answer is simple: you have to prioritize speed. Speed is paramount in the women’s race because it’s much more of a sprint race than the men’s race. So if I’m working with a new girl who comes out for track at the beginning of the outdoor season and wants to be a hurdler, and the first meet is, let’s say, two weeks away, I have to prioritize speed and aggression. I’ll spend a lot of time working on sprint mechanics — keeping the ankles dorsi-flexed, running on the balls of the feet, pushing the chest forward, maintaining a cheek-to-cheek motion with the arms. I’ll also have the athlete do a lot of short sprints consisting of distances of 30-60 meters. Learning how to use starting blocks would be paramount, because I can’t have an athlete starting a race standing up. Some of these things can be done in the same workout. Begin, for example, by working on the block start for 30-45 minutes, then conclude the session with something like two sets of a 30-40-50 ladder, which can be done from a block start or a three-point start.
The logic is, speed can compensate at least somewhat for technical flaws, whereas good technique cannot compensate for a lack of speed and aggression.
Fear of the obstacles can often be a very real problem for beginners, so getting them in the habit of attacking hurdles is more important than teaching technique when you’re working in a compressed time frame. Like I often tell my hurdlers: When in doubt, be fast. The way to teach aggression and to encourage an aggressive mindset is to start with the hurdles at least one click below race height, or even lower, and to move them in two or three feet in from race distance, with the first hurdle on the race mark. Teach the 8-step approach to the first hurdle; explain to the athletes which foot should be in front at the start line, and instruct them as fast as they can, technique be damned. All you’re looking for here is if they will attack the hurdles or back off. If they attack, you can begin to teach the basics of technique. If they back off, they have to keep trying until they don’t. Be patient, but be firm. You don’t have time to hold their hand.
Once the beginner girl has shown a willingness to attack the hurdles fearlessly, you can take the next step, which is to teach her the basics of hurdling technique. The fence drill is good for teaching the basics of lead leg mechanics and trail leg mechanics. Side walk-overs would be the next step, to a three-step marching rhythm. You want to teach athletes to lead with the knee and to open the groin of the trail leg. Those are the two non-negotiables when it comes to technique. If they don’t lead with the knee, they will be prone to smashing into hurdles with the heel or toe of the lead leg foot. If they don’t open the groin of the trail leg, but instead bring it directly under them, they will be prone to catching the crossbar with the trail leg toe, which will cause a face-first fall that can be disastrous. So, if they’re leading with the knee of the lead leg and opening the groin of the trail leg, you can feel confident that nothing catastrophic will happen.
From there, it’s just a matter of how quickly they progress. Raise the hurdles higher and spread them farther apart (although never all the way to race spacing) as their confidence increases. If they are able to maintain a good rhythm, and they’re not reaching or lunging to maintain their three-step, you can gradually add more technical cues. If they are having trouble maintaining the three-step, then you’ll need to have them do more sprint workouts. In either case, don’t put them in a race until they’re ready to race. They can compete in other events for the first meet or two while they’re still learning how to hurdle effectively. Putting a hurdler in a race prematurely can cause major damage to the athlete’s psyche. Even if the hurdler is capable of getting through a race and scoring the team a few points, it’s not worth it, as the negatives outweigh the positives. For me, once a hurdler is able to clear five hurdles in practice, from a block start, with the hurdles at race height, moved in just one foot from race spacing, that hurdler is ready to race.
For beginner male hurdlers, all the rules described above apply as well, but there needs to be more emphasis on technical development. With girls, I would be more okay with skipping the drill progression that I usually prefer — marching popovers, cycle drill, and quicksteps. But with males I’ll want to spend some time on these simply because the risk of hitting hurdles and crashing is greater, and the consequences could be worse. But still, even with males, speed and aggression can partly compensate for technical mistakes. So it’s always best to rely on speed and aggression. Technique can always be developed as the season goes on. As long as the athlete is leading with the knee and opening the groin of the trail leg, and running on the balls of the feet, he or she has the foundation for solid technique.
The danger in focusing too much on speed and aggression is that technical flaws that are ignored can become permanent bad habits. That’s why it’s important to establish the basics of solid technique before moving along too far. Then, adding in technical elements won’t be too difficult and won’t be too risky.
In the case of a beginner who cannot three-step, and you only have the spring season to work with him or her, you’re best move would be to allow that athlete to compete in the long hurdles (300 or 400mh), and to keep working on the 100/110m hurdles in practice until he or she is ready for the shorter race. I’m okay with putting an athlete in the longer race, as long as his or her conditioning level is adequate, because the longer race allows more margin for error and more opportunity to recover from mistakes.
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