Letter from the Editor, July 2018
Hello readers, and welcome to the July 2018 edition of The Hurdle Magazine! This month’s issue features five articles from myself, and one from freelance writer Melinda Burris Willms.
In this issue, Willms’ continues with the second part of her two-part series, “Focus on Fascia: What the Heck is it and What is its Role in Physiology?” In this article, Willms focuses on the role that fascia plays in athletic performance, and on how to avoid injuries.
The first of the five articles I wrote is entitled “Season of Falon.” Here, I discuss the journey toward success that I have taken with Falon Spearman, a 14-year-old young lady with whom I just started working this year, and has gone on to have a fantastic season. In the article, I provide details on the training I provided her with, starting with when I first began coaching her in December, all the way through to the here and now. Most recently, Falon won the 100m hurdles, the 200m hurdles, and the high jump for her age group at the AAU Club Nationals in Orlando, FL.
In “Coaching Technique in the Peak Competitive Season,” I talk about two of my other young hurdlers – one who was hurt for much of the year and one who does multi-events. I discuss the fact that I ordinarily like to focus less and less on technique as the peak of the championship season nears, but that when coaching athletes who are a bit behind in regards to where their technique should be, coaching technique even prior to big meets can be beneficial if done with specific intentions in mind.
In “A 400H Explosion,” I discuss the emergence of male super-hurdlers Rai Benjamin and Abderrahman Samba. For part of the article I discuss what their emergence may mean for the immediate and long-term future of the event, and for the other part of the article I break down the details of their break-out races – Benjamin’s 47.02 at NCAA’s and Samba’s 46.98 in Paris.
This month’s workout, “Sprint off the hurdle Workout,” is a workout that I used to use quite often and just recently brought back out of the closet, in which the athlete will sprint the full 100/110m race distance, but will only clear the first 1-3 hurdles. It’s a workout that enhances speed and that, more importantly, enhances the ability to hold one’s speed in the last 30-40 meters of a race. This is a good workout to use during the championship season as a Monday or Tuesday workout.
Finally, I brought back the “Great Race” series with this issue, choosing to look back at Edwin Moses’ 1976 Olympic victory in Montreal. Since another article discusses the break-out races of Benjamin and Samba, I figured it made sense to take a look back at “Edwin Moses’ First Defining Moment.”
Enjoy the articles, good luck to all of you who are still competing this summer. If you are, that means you’ve made it pretty far! Thanks to all of you for your continued support.
Steve McGill
