Dorsi-flexion: The Key to Everything

by Steve McGill

In the coaching manual that I recently published, The Art of Hurdling, I devote a section of the book to discussing sprint mechanics. One of the topics I talk about in that section is the importance of keeping the ankles dorsi-flexed. While there are many other technical factors that contribute to efficient sprinting and hurdling, if someone were to ask me what I feel to be the most important factor, I would point to dorsi-flexion. If the ankles aren’t dorsi-flexed, then nothing else that I will teach you is going to work. For a lot of beginning hurdlers, learning to dorsi-flex can be a challenge. And for hurdlers who learned to 3-step by reaching and stretching, it can be even more of a challenge. In this article, I will explain why, and I will offer advice as to how to teach athletes to dorsi-flex, and I will explain how a lack of dorsi-flexion will directly lead to inefficient hurdling mechanics. 

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First of all, for the uninitiated, what does it mean to dorsi-flex the ankles? It means to pull the toes so that they’re pointing up, whereas plantar-flexion means to drop the toes so that they’re pointing down, like ballerinas want to do. Dorsi-flexing the ankles allows the athlete to cycle the legs so that the ball of the foot always lands under the hip. Also, dorsi-flexing also ensures that the ball of the foot is the part of the foot that will make contact with the ground. When the ankle is not dorsi-flexed, the athlete will either land flat-footed or back on the heels. This type of landing increases ground-contact time, making for slower times and the need to work harder to cover less ground. Landing on the ball of the foot, meanwhile, allows for minimal ground-contact time, which allows for more efficient, fluid, effortless strides all the way down the track.

Learning to dorsi-flex can take some time for the beginner. But it’s time well-spent, because the dorsi-flex position will be essential to everything that will be taught later on in hurdling. To teach dorsi-flexion, the first step is to have the athlete stand beside a wall, one hand on the wall, and to raise one foot, flexing the ankle so that the toes are pointing up. Then have the athlete do the sprinting motion from take-off to landing with that leg, with the goal being to keep the ankle dorsi-flexed the whole time. Most beginners will tend to point the toe down when the foot is descending, which is a fairly natural thing to do for someone who has not been taught how to sprint properly. So, as the coach, that’s what I’m looking out for. At no point in the action do I want to see the toes pointing down. Sometimes I’ll even grab the athlete’s foot and do the motion for him or her, so he or she can fully understand what the action is supposed to entail. 

Once the athlete has learned to maintain dorsi-flexion while not moving, then I’ll have him or her graduate to the A-march. Then to the A-skip. Then to the high-knee drill, then to slow sprints from a standing start. Then we’ll gradually speed up the pace of the sprints. This process of progression will usually take days, if not weeks, before we can even put up a hurdle. We never move on to the next drill until we’ve mastered the one we are working on. Because hurdling mechanics are rooted in sprinting mechanics, any flaws in hurdling mechanics will be exposed, and exacerbated, over the hurdles. That’s why it’s so important to be very meticulous when it comes to teaching these drills. You’re building a foundation. If you’re a coach with a large team, paying attention to detail for all of your sprinters and hurdlers can be darn near impossible, especially if you don’t have much help. In such cases, my advice is always to invite the athletes to come back at the end of practice for more instruction. That way, you’ll find out who the athletes are who really care, and you’ll be able to ensure that they’ll get the attention and instruction that they need. 

When it comes to hurdling, here are the reasons why not dorsi-flexing the ankles is a deal-breaker:

1. Rule number one of hurdling is to lead with the knee. If the ankles aren’t dorsi-fiexed, and the last stride into the hurdle therefore lands flat-footed or heel-first instead of on the balls of the foot, the lead leg will swing from the hip, no matter how hard the athlete tries to lead with the knee. It is impossible to lead with the knee if the ankles are not dorsi-flexed.
2. I teach my athletes to push the hips forward upon take-off into each hurdle. If the ankles aren’t dorsi-flexed, the hips will rise at take off, and they will drop upon landing. It is impossible to push the hips forward if the ankles are not dorsi-flexed.
3. I also teach my athletes to lean forward deeply from the waist upon take-off, pushing the chest down over the thigh. If the ankles aren’t dorsi-flexed, the athlete will not be able to lean forward from the waist. The lean will be a duck-down lean from the upper back, which is better than no lean at all, but also creates more work for the hurdler because coming out of a duck-down lean means standing up too erect upon landing.
4. All of the above consequences of not dorsi-flexing the ankles combine to cause arguably the most important consequence of all: a lazy, flat, delayed trail leg that smacks a lot of hurdles and that plops down on the other side of each hurdle. We want a trail leg that is high and tight, with a knee-first action. We want that knee facing the next hurdle by the time the lead leg lands. If the ankles are not dorsi-flexed, there is a zero percent chance that that will happen. A lot of coaches spend a lot of time trying to fix the trail leg because it looks so obviously horrible. But if the ankles aren’t dorsi-flexed, and the athlete is not leading with the knee of the lead leg, and the athlete is not pushing the hips forward upon take-off, and the athlete is not leaning forward from the waist, trying to fix the trail leg is an exercise in futility. Address those other issues first, starting with the toes pointing down, and then come back to the trail leg if it hasn’t already fixed itself.

Hurdlers who learn how to three-step by reaching and over-striding develop bad habits that are very hard to break. To them, landing flat-footed or heel-first feels right and even gives them confidence. Such hurdlers have to be torn down and rebuilt from the ground up. Even though they are three-stepping, they aren’t going to improve very much at all by sprinting that way. Such athletes have to go back to the A-marches and A-skips to unlearn that reaching and over-striding stuff. So please, coaches, don’t encourage poor sprint mechanics in the rush to get your hurdlers three-stepping. The short-term benefit isn’t worth the long-term aggravation. 

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