Quickness from the Lower Legs
by Steve McGill
You may have noticed if you’ve followed my blog and have been subscribed to this magazine for a while that I’m a big fan of NBA basketball. That love goes back to my early childhood years, when my dad used to take my brothers and me to go watch the Philadelphia 76ers play at the old Spectrum in South Philly. My athletic heroes growing up, besides Renaldo Nehemiah, were the 76ers star players Julius “Dr. J” Erving, Moses Malone, Andrew Toney, Maurice Cheeks, and Bobby Jones. A couple years after that team won the NBA championship in 1983 (and we haven’t won one since), they drafted a pudgy rookie from the University of Auburn named Charles Barkley. He came into the league with the simultaneously complimentary and insulting nickname, “round mound of rebound.” But as he learned how to be a professional and take care of his body, he was no longer a round mound, but remained a beast of a rebounder. In watching Barkley night in and night out, I was able to see the many qualities he possessed that made him an outstanding rebounder. The one that stood out most to me was that he was quick off his feet. And that’s the quality i want to talk about as it relates to hurdling.
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A little more on Barkley first, just to continue the thoughts from above: whereas a lot of rebounders needed to bend their knees deeply before springing into action. While the opponents were busting gathering in preparation to leap, Barkley was leaping. He didn’t need to bend his knees, yet he was able to jump very high and grab the ball. How? The conclusion I came to was that he was very strong in his lower legs—in his calves, ankles and achilles. Other great rebounders, like Dennis Rodman in his days with the Detroit Pistons, San Antonio Spurs, and Chicago Bulls, was another one who was exceptionally strong in his lower legs and could beat other guys to the ball with his quickness. The other night I was watching a game in which the Sixers were playing the Miami Heat. The Heat had a young dude playing center because their starting center was out due to covid protocols. Our star center Joel Embiid dominated this kid, but, there were a couple plays when the young kid jumped up and grabbed two or three offensive rebounds while Embiid just stood there. It wasn’t that Embiid wasn’t trying, or that he wasn’t bigger or stronger, but that the other dude was quicker. It’s all about the lower legs.
So, applying that principle to hurdling, hurdlers must be quick in a manner similar to how rebounders in basketball must be quick. That’s especially true when it comes to faster hurdlers who have difficulty fitting in their three steps without getting too close to the barriers. Then it really becomes relevant when talking about elite hurdlers who are going sub-13.5 (males) or sub-13.0 (females). These athletes are the tap dancers of hurdling, who have no room to sprint, so extraordinary quickness is absolutely essential for them.
In making the comparison to NBA rebounders, let’s focus on male hurdlers in particular. At the collegiate level and professional level, the hurdlers are 42 inches. So, elite hurdlers are taught to “shuffle” between the hurdles. Which means very low hands, very low feet, and then explode into hurdling position. This ability to explode into position is a function of the lower legs—the calves and ankles—because, just like with the elite NBA rebounders, there isn’t time to gather before exploding. An elite hurdler who raises his knees too high in an attempt to apply more force will cover too much ground and end up on the ground.
The same is true for female hurdlers at the elite level in terms of negotiating the space, but the explosiveness isn’t as exaggerated simply because the hurdles are so low.
In my years of coaching, I can say that all of the athletes I’ve coached who have really stood out as being exceptionally gifted, all of them were strong in the lower legs and all of them could explode into position in a remarkable way. Wayne Davis, who was smaller (5-10), stands out the most to me in this regard. Even at the collegiate level over the 42’s his quickness when it came to getting into hurdling position was something to see.
When you think about it, the muscles we associate as being essential to sprinting—the quadriceps, hamstrings, and glutes—are not the muscles that are essential to the quick explosiveness that high-level hurdlers need. Hurdlers who overemphasize upper-leg strength can actually worsen the problem of getting too crowded between hurdles. Even in the weight room, hurdlers can’t afford to lift the exact same way as sprinters do.
With my more advanced hurdlers, I have them do drills specifically designed to help them improve their quickness and their explosiveness. Two that you are probably familiar with if you follow my YouTube channel are the lane-line drill and the marching popover drill. With the lane-line drill, the emphasis is on quick feet. With the marching popovers, the emphasis is on pushing off the back leg. The push-off is supposed to be a quick, short, instantaneous action. As your speed increases during a rep, your quickness has to increase and your explosiveness has to increase.
Starting at the :15 mark of the above video, you’ll see four reps of the lane-line drill.
As we progress into faster drills—the cycle drill and the quickstep drill, the same principles apply: quick feet between the hurdles, and explode into position. Again, if you try to be powerful the way a sprinter needs to be powerful, you’ll end up rolling on the ground.
The video above features the marching popover drill.
Off the track, jumping rope is a very effective way to develop the lower leg strength that leads to the type of explosiveness I’ve been talking about. Jumping rope forces you onto the balls of your feet, where the calves and ankles are doing the work. Single-leg jump-roping is especially beneficial, as it requires a more forceful push-off.
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