Cycle Arms, Injuries, and the Covid Blues
by Steve McGill
This article will serve as an update on the progress my athlete Brandon Johnson has made in mastering the cycle-arms style I’ve been teaching, and I will also be discussing some of the obstacles that we’ve been encountering along the way. In last month’s issue of The Hurdle Magazine, I discussed how Brandon competed in his first meet, and how, although he won and ran a good time, he didn’t execute the technique as we wanted him to. With the competitive juices flowing, he ended up reverting back to his old style, as we hadn’t practiced competitive starts in any of our training sessions up to that point. He had another meet two weeks ago, and was looking much more like he had been looking in practice, but hurt a quadricep muscle between hurdles three and four, slowed considerably to avoid worsening the damage, and now will need to take some time off to allow the injury to heal. In addition to the injury, another setback has come upon us as the pandemic conditions become more and more threatening, leading me to seriously consider shutting down coaching totally until flu season is over.
[am4show not_have=’g5;’]
[/am4show][am4guest]
[/am4guest][am4show have=’g5;’]
After his first meet, we were able to set up a practice session that included some competitive starts against another fine hurdler I work with, Malik Mixon, who comes up from Georgia to train with us as time allows. Malik is a big, strong kid who is very powerful between the hurdles, even though his technique still needs to be refined. So we got lucky with the weather and caught an unseasonably warm day, and with Malik coming up for a session, the timing was right to put the blocks down and allow both athletes to get in some competitive reps. So, we started out with each athlete getting in some individual reps on their own before they went at it side by side, with me giving them commands.
The session went well and served its purpose. Both Brandon and Malik looked fast and sharp, and, specifically for Brandon, he got in the type of work that he needed to prepare for races and to ingrain the cycle-arm action while there was another hurdler next to him fast enough to beat him. The one thing I had forgotten about, from the Malik perspective, was how competitive Malik can get, even in practice. Brandon was beating him by a little bit on just about every rep, and Malik was getting frustrated. I kept reminding him that we’re out here to work on things, and that if we get too caught up in winning and losing we won’t be focused on addressing what we need to correct. I’d been working with Brandon since May (and for three previous years overall), whereas Malik had just come up maybe three times since last spring’s lockdown had ended, so of course Brandon was further along than he was.
Nevertheless, I was very pleased with the session for both athletes. For Brandon, I felt he now got in the work he needed to be race-sharp and to execute the cycle-arm action under the pressure of race conditions. The video above provides footage from the practice session. In the competitive starts, you can see the visual difference between the traditional arm action that Malik employs and the cycle arm action that Brandon has transitioned to. You can also see how the cycle arm action enables a fast get-away off the hurdle, creating an acceleration boost toward the next hurdle. So, you always feel like you’re accelerating, and you never have to worry about being too erect between the hurdles. Brandon is still in the process of personalizing how high and how quick the hands should be between the hurdles.
Like I said, in his next race, Brandon was executing the style very well but then hurt his quad halfway through the race. Injuries have been an issue with Brandon throughout my time with him, and I find myself feeling concerned that we’re running out of time to do all that we need to do to show the full glory of his talent. Of course, he’ll be competing at the next level, so he’ll still have plenty of time to put it all together over the 42’s.
Meanwhile, the real progress killer has been the coronavirus. It basically obliterated his junior year, and is already doing serious damage to his senior year. And, honestly, it’s doing serious damage to my own motivation. I have a 35-year-old stepson at home who has a laundry list of physical ailments and has a very compromised immune system. If I were to come home with the virus and pass it on to him, that would almost certainly mean the end of his life. Not to mention the fact that my wife has asthma. So I’m probably one of the more cautious people when it comes to going out and doing things these days. At the school where I teach, we were doing in-person learning throughout most of the first semester, but had to go virtual for the last week of the semester because of some positive tests. The county in which I live is a red zone, and the county in which I teach is an orange zone that is probably a couple of positive tests away from being in the red. People say don’t live your life in fear and don’t let the virus control you, but reality is reality. People are getting sick and people are dying. I’m not trying to front. I know that everybody’s gotta go at some point but I’m trying to stick around as long as I can.
I’m hoping, like the rest of the world is hoping, that the vaccines that are currently available will save the day. I heard one report that the vaccines will be available to everyday people by March or April, which, if it’s the case, would mean the outdoor season could be salvaged and that the summer season could be a full go. This pandemic has brought out the worst and the best in mankind, and has left many of us, including myself, feeling battle-fatigued. Every day I go to work I’m putting myself and my family at risk. That’s not a good feeling, even though I feel safe at work because everybody follows the protocols. But even with everyone doing the right thing, we’ve still had cases. So I’m not comfortable adding to the risk factor by going out to coach on the weekends. The recent spike in cases post-Thanksgiving has led to some serious introspection on my part in relation to this disease.
So, that’s where I am right now. I hope we end up having enough time to make Brandon into a champion. At the very least, I want to put everything in place that needs to be in place so that he can transition smoothly to the collegiate hurdles. I know that all of you have your own stories and are dealing with all the difficulties in your own way, and I respect and appreciate you for that. These are rough times, and rough times make us stronger as long as we don’t give in to despair.
[/am4show]
