Hurdling in the Fall
by Steve McGill
A question I often receive from hurdlers and coaches and parents of hurdlers is how early in the off-season should they start hurdling. I’m always a bit surprised by this question, because I don’t believe there is a period during training when a hurdler shouldn’t be hurdling. Sure, you shouldn’t be hurdling full speed out of the blocks at race height and full spacing when your first race of the season is still months away, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be hurdling at all.
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Generally speaking, unless you’re talking about professionals, the typical season will end in May or June for high school and collegiate athletes, and many athletes will go on to compete throughout June and July in various summer meets, which for many of my athletes includes USATF and/or AAU youth meets. A typical season for my athletes ends the last weekend in July, and we will usually start up fall training in September.
A lot of coaches would say that it’s important to build a base first prior to introducing hurdling to fall training, but I’ve never understood the point of that. To me, hurdlers need to hurdle just like jump shooters need to shoot jump shots, just like quarterbacks need to throw passes, etc. It’s a skill, and a technical skill at that. So if you don’t keep your skills sharp, your skills could erode.
How often should hurdlers hurdle in the fall? Now that’s a different question, and a better one. To me, once a week is enough. To put it more specifically, one “hurdle day” per week, in which the workout consists of nothing but hurdling, is enough. Hurdle drills like the fence drill can be done every day as part of a warm-up or at home to strengthen the hurdling muscles and to ingrain muscle memory. And while I’m not a big fan of side walk-overs and similar drills that always keep one foot on the ground, they can be done more than once per week to remind the body of angles and positioning.
As I mention in this month’s workout, the biggest reason it’s important for hurdlers to hurdle in the fall is because it’s the only time of year when they have time to build hurdle endurance. And hurdle endurance is a real thing. You can be in shape physically (from a P.E. class perspective), you can be in great cardiovascular shape, you can be strong in the weight room, and you can have good speed-endurance, and still not have what you need to clear ten hurdles in a race without fatiguing late in the race. Once the indoor season starts, and the focus is on preparing for the shorter 55m/60m race and the all-important start, there isn’t as much opportunity to build the hurdle endurance you’ll need for the outdoor race. So if it’s not in there from the fall training, it might never get in there.
To me, the only way for hurdlers to gain hurdle endurance is by hurdling. And that goes for long hurdlers too, although not to as extreme a degree. For short hurdlers especially, you have to get your body accustomed to pushing off, pushing forward, and cycling back to the ground. The motion of clearing a hurdle is strenuous, and it’s not something that any other athletes in track and field have to deal with, so there are no non-hurdle workouts that can mimic the effort required. Only by hurdling can you learn to clear hurdles efficiently, with minimal effort. All of the hurdling I have my hurdlers do is at discounted spacing, and much of it is at discounted heights. Although we’re building a race model and ingraining a race rhythm, we’re not going at race speed. That way, we can get in a lot of volume without risking injury.
Another reason to get in one good hurdling workout per week during the fall is to address technical issues. During the season, when there are meets in the way at least once a week, there isn’t much time to thoroughly address technical issues, because meet preparation has to be priority number one. And because many hurdlers also run sprints, relays, and participate in jumping events, that leaves even less time for hurdling. That is why many hurdlers just “go with what they got” and count on improving their start as a way of compensating for the technical flaws which are certain to be exposed during races. Workouts like this month’s “quick-step workout” are an excellent way to gradually eliminate technical flaws, as repetition creates new habits. Keep in mind that the coach must be present during these hurdle workouts to ensure that bad habits aren’t being ingrained. During the fall, you can be meticulous and detailed because you don’t have the pressure of an upcoming meet.
Along the same lines as above, the fall is a time to ingrain rhythm. Hurdlers don’t learn rhythm by going full speed all the time. They learn rhythm by drilling with the spacing discounted. Through drilling, the body often teaches itself how each of the three steps between the hurdles is supposed to feel. I find that I rarely need to use the term “cut step,” for example, because they naturally learn to shorten the last stride before each hurdle without needing an explanation as to why they should. Hurdlers who don’t hurdle often enough never develop this instinctual ability to adapt and to dial in. When their speed increases later in the year, they have trouble adapting their speed between the hurdles.
Finally, and perhaps most importantly, the fall is a time to experiment. You absolutely cannot experiment once the meets start up and there are races to prepare for. Do you have an 8-stepper who wants to try 7-stepping to the first hurdle? The fall is the time to see if it will work. Do you have an athlete who wants to try a different lead-arm style from what he or she has been using in the past? The fall is the time to try it out. Do you have a 4-stepper who is determined to become a 3-stepper? The fall is the time to put in the work to make it happen. Right now, in my own coaching, I have a girl I’m teaching a new arm style in which both arms cycle, one behind the other. Instead of pausing on the hip and then punching up, the trail arm cycles to the front in a downward motion, the same as the lead arm does. This is something I could not have tried during the spring or summer this past year, when she was racing every weekend. Now is the time to find out if it will work and if it will make her faster. By experimenting with it now, we will have enough time to master it and fully implement it prior to her first indoor race.
For me, the fall is the most enjoyable time of year because of the freedom to experiment, and also because it allows me the most time to be a teacher, which is what I do best and it is also what I find most gratifying.
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