Curve Hurdling Work

by Steve McGill

I think we all can agree that being able to alternate in the 300/400m hurdles is a useful skill to have, and perhaps even an essential one in some cases. And while I have discovered that teaching hurdlers to alternate lead legs is easier than I would have thought at first, I have also discovered that getting hurdlers to trust both legs equally takes a lot of work. Often, hurdlers who can alternate prefer not to; they like to ride that “good leg” as far as they can, and will do all that they can to avoid alternating. Even if they’ve done well in practice with alternating at a certain hurdle, they might over-stride or stutter in order to avoid alternating in a race.

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I learned this lesson the hard way back in 2007, when I was coaching Johnny Dutch, and we were preparing for what was then called the Nike Outdoor Championships, which is now sponsored by New Balance. Johnny had finished second in the 300m hurdles at the state championship to Spencer Adams (who now runs professionally as a 110 hurdler), and was very upset about the loss. He 13-stepped the first four hurdles and then 15-stepped the last four. He felt that if he could’ve 14-stepped two hurdles (hurdles 5 and 6), he could’ve beaten Adams. So, heading into nationals, where he would have to face Adams again, as well as several outstanding long hurdlers from other parts of the country, he felt like we needed to do more than just experiment with alternating (like we had been doing throughout the year). He felt it was time to go for it, and implement it.

And me being me, I said “of course.”

We did lots of drills to strengthen his left leg lead, with the plan being to alternate at hurdle 6, then 14-step again at hurdle 7, then 15-step the last three hurdles and ride the stronger lead leg home to the finish line.

In practice, it worked beautifully. When he switched lead legs, it was a seamless transition – so seamless that I could barely tell he had alternated. On a 300m rep over the first 8 hurdles, he clocked in at a pace that would have put him under 50.00. We were both amped up about how the race would go.

But the race proved to be a disaster. When it came time to alternate, his lead leg foot drove into the crossbar, causing a major stumble, effectively knocking him out of contention. He couldn’t recover. He hit the next hurdle, and ended up jogging the final straightaway. It was, without a doubt, my worst, moment as a coach, as I just hadn’t seen this disaster coming. It had looked so good in practice. When I asked him afterward what had happened, he simply said, “I don’t know. The leg wouldn’t come up.”

What I later realized was that unveiling the new alternating race pattern at the biggest meet of his life had not been a good idea. We should have tried it out first at a lesser meet, where there was nothing at stake. One of the developmental youth meets, or the State Games. I hadn’t factored in big-race pressure. Johnny had been such an incredibly adaptable hurdler all his life that I just assumed that this would be just another hurdling change he would easily adapt to. I was wrong.

I also realized that even though we had done a lot of drilling to develop the strength of the weaker lead leg, we hadn’t done any drilling on the curve. We had done all of our drilling on the straight, not considering the fact that the part of the race where he would actually alternate would be on the curve.

Fast forward to a few weeks ago, when I was working with Scout Hayashi – one of the athletes that I coach privately. Scout, a high school junior, runs the 300 hurdles in the 49-low range, and is looking to get down to the 48 or 47-high range by the end of the year. On this particular day, I was planning on having her do a race-indicator workout – 4×200 over the first five hurdles. But when she told me that she was experiencing some tightness in her lower back, I knew we couldn’t do anything that required a full-out effort. We’d have to slow things down a bit, but still do something productive and race-specific.

Because she too needs to alternate on the curve (she 18-steps hurdles four, five, and six), I decided to go ahead and experiment a little bit. I set up seven hurdles on the curve, all at 30”. I set them up 30 feet apart, and had her do easy-paced five-stepping reps – three reps leading with the right leg, three reps leading with the left leg. Then I had her speed things up a bit, keeping the spacing at 30 feet, but now 4-stepping and alternating. We did six reps of that. Then I moved the hurdles in to 25 feet apart, and had her 3-step – three reps leading with the right leg, three reps leading with the left leg.

This workout went wonderfully well, and I learned how beneficial this type of work could be, as Scout’s confidence in her weaker lead leg (her left leg) grew by leaps and bounds just in the course of this one session.

The five-stepping reps allowed her to ease into the workout, and to make decisions regarding the angles she wanted to use when approaching the hurdles when leading with the right leg versus when leading with the left leg. The slower pace allowed her to think and run at the same time.

The four-stepping reps helped her to develop a trust in alternating, as, because she 18-steps hurdles four through six, both legs will need to grow accustomed to leading on the curve. The four-stepping, in addition to adding in the alternating element, also increased the speed, thereby increasing the challenge.

The three-stepping reps further increased the speed and the challenge.

Afterward, when I asked Scout how she felt the workout benefitted her, she said:

• It forced her to use her arms more.
• She couldn’t zone out; she had to think more about each hurdle.
• It made the left leg (weaker leg) feel easier because it was on the inside of the curve.

Scout generally has low arm carriage, which is why the first bullet was significant. The second bullet indicates something I hadn’t thought of but is very true – when hurdling on the straight, especially for experienced hurdlers, it is easy to kind of zone out; when hurdling on the curve, you have to really look at the hurdle because you’re trying to maintain certain attack angles. The third bullet points to an important and oft-debated aspect of the long hurdlers – left-leg leads have an advantage because the left leg is on the inside when hurdling on the curve, reducing the amount of distance they have to run. Right-leg leads on the curve have to run wider in the lane to avoid hooking.

Another thing I noticed in the workout was that, when leading with the left leg on the curve, it is really important – and not all that easy, to keep the trail leg tight. The right leg trail leg wants to swing wide, and/or it wants to plop down on the other side. The lead arm, therefore, has to stay tight in order to keep the trail leg tight to ensure a good, powerful first stride off of the hurdle.

The video below contains footage of reps that I filmed during the workout. In case you’re wondering, I highly recommend this workout for long hurdlers. I think it can be useful at any time of year, depending on how you add in variations. As an off-season conditioning workout, for example, I might suggest just doing the five-step version, and piling on the reps. The point is, long hurdlers have to practice scenarios that they will face when they race. Long hurdlers, unlike sprint hurdlers, have a curve to deal with, so they must master negotiating it by getting reps in on the curve.

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