The Space Between
In any hurdle race, negotiating the space between the hurdles matters as much as the action of clearing each hurdle itself. Many hurdlers and hurdle coaches tend to overemphasize the hurdling part of hurdling, if you get what I mean. In the short hurdles, rhythm issues can cause crashes, balance issues, and poor hurdling mechanics. In the long hurdles, rhythm issues can also cause balance issues, as well as fatigue issues. A lot of long hurdlers always struggle late in races due to rhythm issues that started much earlier in races.
So, how do we deal with the space between? How do we optimize that space so that we’re able to bring out the best in our technique without sacrificing speed?
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There’s not one answer. There are several. I’ll try to address them all here.
Firstly, understand that the greatest danger that beginning hurdlers or slower hurdlers face when looking to elite hurdlers as models is that the issues they face are much different than the issues the elite hurdlers face. In coaching my 100/110m hurdlers, I don’t address the problem of getting crowded between the hurdles until it becomes an issue. First, I teach them to sprint, to not hold back, to be in attack mode from step one. I want my beginners to get to a point where crowding becomes an issue. But until it does, keep your hands high, keep your knees high, apply force to the track, and keep your heel recovery high. Once a beginner learns proper sprint mechanics, and is able to employ it in the space between the hurdles, it will not be very difficult at all to just lower everything – the hands, the knees, the heels – in order to quicken their strides without compromising aggression.
For the elite hurdler, the danger of crashing is ever-present, just for the simple fact that the faster you are, the less time you have to negotiate the space. You have to learn to be reactive, to heighten your senses, to have lightning-quick reflexes. As David Oliver once said, being a 110 hurdler is like being a race car driver. You can’t take your foot off the gas but you can’t do anything stupid that will cause an accident. Elite hurdlers have to do a lot of drills with the hurdles close in, they have to crowd themselves in practice so that the crowding in races doesn’t really feel “crowded.” That’s why, if a beginner is trying to learn from watching an elite hurdler, you’re going to learn all the things that you actually do not want to do. A beginner wants a big powerful first stride off the hurdle that covers ground, whereas an elite hurdler wants to get that trail leg on the ground as soon as possible. If an elite hurdler’s first stride off the hurdle is too long, he’s going to crash into the next one. If a beginner’s first stride off the hurdle is too short, he won’t reach the next hurdle in three steps. You see what I’m saying? Different problems. So they must be addressed differently.
For the beginner and the elite hurdler, the second step between the hurdle is the all-important one. This is where the beginner will tend to “puddle hop,” or over-extend the stride in order to “make sure” he reaches the hurdle in three strides. Beginners need time to learn to trust their speed. Because puddle-hopping does ensure a “safe” three-step, beginners tend to rely on this crutch instead of just going all-out. I usually will move the hurdles in an extra foot or two in practice to eliminate the perceived need to puddle-hop that second stride. Once the habit has been eliminated with the hurdles moved in, then I’ll move them back out. The puddle-hop actually creates a decrease in speed and makes it more difficult to maintain the three-step rhythm for the whole race. For the elite hurdler, the second step is the only one that can even remotely be called a “sprint” stride, even though it is a modified one. Elite hurdlers who are able to pull away from their opponents on the ground have a very explosive second stride – one that makes them feel like they’re about to crash and burn before they add in the third step – the cut step, which really isn’t a stride at all, but more of a take-off preparation step that propels them toward the barrier.
The cut step of a beginner won’t be nearly as pronounced, although, yes there will be one in the sense that it will be the shortest of their three strides between the hurdles.
For the long hurdler, negotiating the space between the hurdles is a matter of fatigue management. In this race, beginners can more freely learn from watching video of elite athletes, although they should certainly not try to emulate their stride patterns. I think a lot of 400 hurdlers don’t do enough rhythm work in their training. They put in the conditioning work, the speed-endurance work, but not so much the rhythm and technique work. I’m not a “whatever leg comes up” kind of guy. I believe in practicing a stride pattern, on developing it, of experimenting with race strategies in the spirit of finding the optimal stride pattern for that individual athlete. And I believe in teaching hurdlers to alternate lead legs so they can choose which leg to lead with to keep the rhythm fluid.
When I look at 400 meter hurdling today, it seems to me that the cause of many hurdlers’ inconsistency lies with rhythm issues. Times of individual hurdlers seem to fluctuate a great deal these days, more so than in past eras. I’m talking about male hurdlers in particular. Guys go from 48-low to 49-high from one week to the next. In one race their rhythm is fluid then in the next one they’re stuttering all over the place. That’s why it’s become a very difficult event to predict. When you take a look at the success that Dallilah Muhammad had this year, you can see that her stride pattern is the same every race. Because she knows her rhythm, she can focus on being an athlete, on being a sprinter. The hurdles are there, but they don’t disrupt the rhythm. That’s how an efficient 400m hurdler feels. When you look at someone like Edwin Moses back in the day, his excellence was largely based on the fact that he never questioned his stride pattern; he never varied from it. That’s the case with all long hurdlers who perform at a high level consistency throughout the year, each year.
To me, the key for 400 hurdlers is to master the first five. Know your stride pattern to the first hurdle, and know what you want it to be through hurdle five. If any stuttering or over-reaching occurs in the first half of the race, that spells doom for the second half of the race. I have coached hurdlers who were excellent athletes in excellent condition who would chop their steps at hurdle two or hurdle three and I couldn’t hardly bear to watch the rest of the race.
Overall, the point of emphasis here in regards to both hurdle races is to utilize the space between the hurdles to your advantage. Races are won (and lost) on the ground more than they’re lost over the obstacles. Without a rhythm that is customized to fit the individual
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