Letter from the Editor, September 2018
Hello readers, and welcome to the September 2018 edition of The Hurdle Magazine! This month’s issue features five articles from myself, and one from freelance writer Melinda Burris Willms. I guess you could call this issue the “Fall Training” issue, since that is what many of the articles focus on.
In this issue, Willms’ focuses on the age-old hurdler nemesis, shins splints. The article is entitled, “Shin Splints: Causes, Prevention, and Recovery.” In this article, Willms provides detailed information and advice on all three of those dimensions.
The first of the five articles I wrote is entitled “Hurdling in the Fall.” Here, I discuss the importance of maintaining at least one day per week devoted to hurdling during the fall season, as the fall is a time to build hurdle endurance, address technical flaws, and establish rhythm.
In “Cross Country in the Fall,” I talk about whether or not hurdlers should run cross country in the fall, detailing the pros and the cons, concluding that cross country may be beneficial for long hurdlers, but provides very little benefit for sprint hurdlers.
In “Sprint over the Hurdles,” I discuss how hurdlers must make hurdling as efficient as possible by aligning their hurdling mechanics with their sprint mechanics. Hurdlers and hurdle coaches often focus too much on hurdling mechanics without recognizing how almost all hurdling flaws are rooted in flaws in sprint mechanics. As I say in the article, once you know how to sprint properly, you know how to hurdle properly. It’s just a matter of applying it.
This month’s workout, “Quick-Step Workout,” is a staple workout of mine that I use in the off-season as a conditioning workout to build hurdle endurance. Of all the workouts that I’ve shared in The Hurdle Magazine over the years, this is probably the one that I use the most often. It is not only useful for hurdle endurance, but also for rhythm development, technical improvement, and body positioning.
Finally, for this month’s “Great Race,” I take a look back at Kevin Young’s 1992 Olympic victory in Barcelona, where he broke Edwin Moses’ world record and became the first 400m hurdler to run under 47 seconds – a feat that has been accomplished only one time since – by Abderrahaman Samba of Qatar this past summer. Meanwhile, Young’s world record, now 26 years old, still stands.
Enjoy the articles, and thank you for your support. I hope everyone’s fall training goes well.
Steve McGill
