Moving Past the Fear of Falling
by Steve McGill
Once a hurdler falls, the fear of falling again can take a long time to go away. It’s like anything else in life. Once you’ve been rear-ended while driving, you’re always looking in your rearview mirror because you know it could happen again. Once you’ve lost a loved one, you’re afraid of losing more loved ones because you now know death is real. In the hurdles, the first time falling can be a traumatizing experience, even if it wasn’t a major crash and burn, and even if the injuries incurred were not severe. It’s just the feeling of totally losing control of your body, suddenly, in an instant, that can be so terrifying. Hurdlers who have fallen in the past will do everything they can to avoid that feeling again. If you’re the coach of a hurdler who has fallen before, then you have to be on the lookout for warning signs that the athlete is still inhibited by the fear of it happening again, and you need to be ready to be firm but empathetic in helping the athlete move past the fear.
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There are several Potential Warning Signs that you are coaching a hurdler who is afraid of falling. However, you have to be very observant and you must communicate with the athlete very effectively, as the warning signs can also simply indicate flaws in technique or the block start, etc. The thing is, they will always appear to be technical flaws, but if they keep lingering despite your efforts to correct them, then there might be an underlying psychological problem causing the flaw, and that underlying problem could be fear of the obstacle. Let’s take a look at the warning signs:
Athlete is always high over the hurdles
This, I would argue, is the most common warning sign. If the athlete has fallen as a result of hitting a hurdle, then that athlete will do everything within his or her power to avoid hitting a hurdle again. Better to float than to face-plant, is the logic. If the athlete has always been high over hurdles, then yes, you have some technical issues to address. But if it’s a new problem that you had thought the athlete had already loved past, and you’re just noticing it again after a fall, then fear could be the cause.
Puddle-hopping between the hurdles
“Puddle-hopping” is a term I use to describe hurdlers who run hurdle to hurdle instead of sprinting through each hurdle. They look like they’re hopping over puddles on the sidewalk. This usually due to a lack of sufficient sprint speed, or to a lack of trust Olin one’s sprint speed. Athletes who first learn how to three-step by puddle-hopping can often get stuck in this rut. But yes, this can also be a symptom of fear for a hurdler who has suffered a fall. The athlete is low-key trying to measure the distance between the hurdles, trying to make sure he or she can cover the ground. If they’d just sprint, they’d cover the ground easily. But the confidence isn’t there.
Speed between the hurdles is nowhere near the athlete’s flat speed
Hurdlers often have this issue whether they’ve fallen before or not. In some cases, their whole body posture changes from forward and aggressive to upright and passive. This was the symptom that showed up most obviously with a girl I’m coaching who fell a couple times last year when she was first learning how to hurdle. Trail leg toe dipped and caught the bar in some drilling. During a recent workout, after she did three warm-up sprints of 50 meters, looking fast and aggressive, I told her to take that same speed into the lane with the hurdles in it. Of course, she didn’t. When I mentioned, after three or four reps, that she may still have some residual fear of falling, she laughed and nodded, as if I had exposed a hidden truth. With the tension released, she went on to address the real issue—fear—and went on to have an excellent workout.
Athlete pumps the brakes upon touchdown off of hurdles
You know it when you see it. The athlete lands after clearing a hurdle, and then, instead of continuing to sprint, he or she hesitates for a split second, and then re-accelerates. That split second of hesitation could be the result of something technical—a twist in the hips, a trail leg that is still trailing behind, etc.—but it could also indicate fear. The athlete is relieved to have cleared the hurdle without incident, and is now gearing up to face the next one. If there are no noticeable technical flaws causing the hesitation, then fear is probably the cause.
Athlete’s eyes are fixated on the hurdles, especially the first hurdle
Again, a lot of times, this is another issue that should be first addressed by addressing the technical aspects. In this case, those would be the placement of the pedals, the body angles in mark position and set position, etc. If the athlete is popping up too soon out of the blocks and looking at the hurdle too soon, then some adjustments might need to be made to the start. But you’ll be able to tell if fear is the reason for popping up if the athlete is fixated on the hurdle from step one. When it’s fear, the eyes will get real big and there will be no forward drive at all. Even after hurdle one, the eyes stay big and you can tell that the athlete is fixated on the hurdles that he or she is forgetting to actually sprint between them. Especially if this habit wasn’t evident prior to the athlete falling, then, most likely, the fall is the root source of it.
Upper body posture is too erect
Again, if this wasn’t happening before, but it’s happening now, the fall might be why. Hurdlers who run too erect between the hurdles sometimes are doing so not due to poor sprint mechanics, but because, again, they are low-key measuring the distance to the next hurdle. They’re tentative, they’re unsure of themselves, because they’ve fallen before and they’re afraid of falling again.
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Keep in mind, the athlete probably won’t admit to being afraid, but if you’re like me and you know your athletes and their habits, then, as the coach, you have to point it out if you see it. Don’t do so in an accusatory way, obviously; don’t challenge the athlete’s manhood or womanhood. Come from a place of compassion so that the athlete feels comfortable enough with you to be honest with you.
In terms of helping the athlete to move past the fear and to get his or her mojo back, you’ll want to facilitate a gradual, safe return to full speed attack mode. Start by lowering the hurdles and spacing them closer together than usual so that the athlete can focus on being fast and aggressive instead of focusing on the hurdles themselves. Eventually, the athlete will get the cadence back, she’s the fear, and regain his or her confidence. The process could take a few reps or it could take a few weeks. But you can’t rush it, and you can’t get frustrated, because any frustration you express will be passed on to the athlete.
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