Reducing Ground Contact Time and Air Time
When it comes to the advanced and elite level hurdlers, there are very few things that separate the best from the pretty good. Often, a few tenths of a second separate the winner from the 8th-place finisher. Everybody takes the same amount of steps to the first hurdle (give or take one step), and everybody takes the same amount of steps between the hurdles. Therefore, two key factors become all-important when it comes to gaining an advantage against one’s opponents: reducing ground contact time and reducing air time. Ground contact time has to do with the strides between the hurdles, and air time has to do with hurdle clearance itself.
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Reducing ground contact time is important for the simple fact that, the more time your feet spend on the ground, the slower you’re moving. Reducing air time is important because, the more time you spend in the air, the less time you can spend actually running. Extended air time also causes a reduction in speed upon returning to the ground.
Here are some basic but key factors in reducing ground time:
1) If I’ve said it once I’ve said it a thousand times: run with the ankles dorsi-flexed so that each stride lands on the ball of the foot. Most advanced hurdlers have graduated beyond the point where this is an issue, but not all of them. And certainly at the lower levels this is a major issue. Proper sprint mechanics involves cycling the foot under the hip. Hurdlers need to know and master proper sprint mechanics in order to reach their potential as hurdlers, even though they will make adaptations to classic sprint mechanics due to the presence of the barriers.
When an athlete lands flat-footed, or on the heels, that increases ground contact time, because you can’t push off of a flat foot, you can’t push off of the heels. You will have to roll onto the ball of the foot before the foot can leave the ground. But if you land on the ball of the foot, your foot can leave the ground instantly.
2) Don’t let the hips drop. This goes hand in hand with number 1. If you’re landing on your heels or landing flat-footed, the hips will drop with each stride. When the hips drop, they have to rise again, causing you to work extra hard for a lesser pay-off. As I’ve always said, you want the legs going up and down, but you want the hips going forward.
3) Eliminate lateral movement. Any lateral movement – in the hips, in the shoulders, in the arm, in the head, will cause lateral movement in the lane. Moving laterally in the lane means your feet will be on the ground longer. And again, you’ll be working harder but for less of a pay-off. In sprinting as well as in hurdling, the aim is always to reduce wasted effort that doesn’t send you further forward down the track.
4) Keep hands low between the hurdles. Elite level hurdlers don’t need a rigorous arm swing. They need to emphasize quickness. High hands makes for more powerful strides, but hurdlers don’t want to be powerful between the hurdles. They want to be tap dancers. Whereas sprinters want the hand to get as high as the cheek, hurdlers generally don’t the hands to get any higher than the stomach. Higher than that makes for too much ground contact time.
5) Emphasize low heel recovery. This is between the hurdles, not when attacking the hurdle. Low heel recovery goes together with the low hands. While hurdlers still want to cycle like sprinters do, the cycling action takes place much lower, with much lower knee lift and much lower heel recovery. Again, be quick, be a tap dancer; don’t be powerful. Power will not only increase ground contact time, but it will lead to longer strides that will increase the probability of crashing into hurdles.
6) Don’t let the heel of the lead leg foot touch the ground upon touchdown off the hurdle. This is a big one. Not everybody is good at this. The natural tendency, when descending off the hurdle, is to allow the heel to make contact with the ground, even if the ball of the foot does absorb the bulk of the impact. The best hurdlers, though, stay on the ball of the foot and instantly ricochet themselves toward the next hurdle. To do this successfully requires strong Achilles and ankles, as well as very strong core muscles. This “getaway” stride can be so important when it comes to making up ground on someone who is ahead of you, or pulling away from someone who is behind you or beside you.
Here are some basic but key factors in reducing air time:
1) Push the chest down over the thigh. When attacking the barrier, the lead led knee drives upward, and the chest pushes down over it. Without such a lean, the leg will tend to extend too far horizontally. Ideally, descent off the hurdle begins as soon as the heel of the lead leg passes the cross bar. But without a proper lean, the lead leg is very susceptible to continuing its horizontal flight even though it is ready to begin pushing down to the track. David Oliver is a very good example of someone who pushes the chest down over the thigh, and so was Allen Johnson back in the day.
2) Hold the lean throughout hurdle clearance. This is something we all know to do, but it’s something we often forget to do in the heat of the battle. If you have a good dive into the hurdle, but then stand up too soon coming off the hurdle, you’ll still sail, you’ll still float, just not as much as you would if you hadn’t pushed your chest down over your thigh at take-off.
3) Begin the lead arm action prior to take-off. The lead arm should be the limb that initiates the hurdling action. The lead leg can’t attack the hurdle until it leaves the ground, but the lead arm can start before then. By doing so, it speeds up both legs, which ultimately helps to reduce overall air time.
4) Keep lead leg slightly bent so that it cycles under the hip. A straight leg lead keeps you in the air longer. Look at number 1 for the explanation as to why. The sooner you begin attacking the track, the less time you’ll spend in the air.
Finally, it is important to understand how reducing ground contact time and reducing air time interrelate. The more you can reduce ground contact time between the hurdles, the better you’ll be able to execute hurdle clearance. And the more you can reduce air time over the hurdles, the more space you’ll have to fit in your three strides between the hurdles.
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