Rules Don’t Apply to the Little Guys
Much of the technical advice I give to hurdlers – both in this magazine and to the kids I coach on a daily basis – makes sense for most hurdlers but doesn’t necessarily apply to smaller hurdlers. I’ve always said that smaller hurdlers often have to break the rules in order compensate for their lower hip height in relation to the crossbar. Particularly when it comes to the men’s hurdles, smaller hurdlers have to be creative and innovative if they’re going to compete effectively against hurdlers who have a height advantage. As I often say to hurdlers who are transitioning from high school to college, “them 42’s ain’t no joke.”
Omar McLeod’s success throughout 2016 has proven that there is still a place for smaller hurdlers in the 110’s. While his legit 100 meter dash speed is obviously a primary reason that he is able to run in the 12.9-13.1 range, that isn’t the only factor contributing to his success. There are things that McLeod does in his hurdling that I would not include if I were writing a hurdling technique textbook, but they are things that work for him, and they are things that all smaller hurdlers could learn from.
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The most noticeable thing McLeod does that I don’t teach, but that works for him, is that he fully extends his lead leg, locking it at the knee. I always tell my hurdlers to keep that leg slightly bent on top of the hurdle, cycle it back down, and not to extend it fully until its on its downward descent off the hurdle. But for McLeod, who does not have a deep bend at the waist in his dive into each hurdle, keeping that lead leg extended is essential. It prevents him from beginning his descent too soon and thereby catching hurdles with his hamstring or glute. And because he is so fast on the ground, locking his knee while on top of the hurdle does not really inhibit his forward momentum very much at all.
The one advantage that smaller hurdlers have is that they have more room to open up their stride between the hurdles. McLeod serves as a good example as someone who is much more of a sprinter between the hurdles than the other hurdlers. Utilizing the space between the hurdles is crucial for smaller hurdlers, as it is the only place they have the edge over taller hurdlers. Where taller hurdlers have to shuffle, smaller hurdlers can lift their knees higher and thereby generate more velocity. My advice to any young smaller hurdler would be to focus on getting faster, and focus on getting stronger so that you can be faster and maintain your speed. Because you have to work harder to get up and over each hurdle, you have to take advantage of the space between. I would also advice young smaller hurdlers to focus on mastering their sprint mechanics. Back-kick, low heel recovery, low knee lift, lateral movement at the waist and with the arms, can mean disaster for smaller hurdlers, as their margin for error is much smaller than that of taller hurdlers.
The one element I would address were I to work with McLeod would be to teach him to lean more deeply. Not just because he would no longer need to compensate by locking the knee of the lead leg, but because it would most likely eliminate the problem of sitting on hurdles. In two races prior to the Olympics, McLeod got into big trouble caused by sitting on hurdles. That problem is a result of not getting the hips up high enough, and the reason he wasn’t getting his hips up high enough was because he wasn’t leaning enough, and he was descending too soon.
Heading into the Olympics, I felt confident that McLeod would solve the sitting problem, as his earlier falls were a “blessing in disguise” because they exposed the issue and gave him time to address it in training prior to the Games. He proved me right about that, as his timing going into and coming off of hurdles was just right in every round. Still, being smaller, sitting on hurdles will always be a constant danger if the focus level isn’t very high. A slight lapse in concentration is all it takes for disaster to strike.
Here, McLeod demonstrates the need for smaller hurdlers to flatten out the trail leg.
While I teach that the hurdling action at take-off is a jump forward, not a jump up, for the smaller hurdler that is not totally true. For the smaller hurdler, there needs to be a vertical element at take-off so that the hips don’t have to rise after you’re already in the air. If the hips are rising after you’re already in the air, you will float and lose speed in hurdle clearance. So, at take-off, that back leg has to push at more of a vertical angle than it will for the taller hurdler. Where the taller hurdler is already looking down on the hurdle before the back leg even leaves the ground, the smaller hurdler relies on the back leg to create height, to make the hurdle smaller, so that the hips can push forward during hurdle clearance.
The above paragraph serves as a good explanation as to why coaches can’t teach a one-size-fits-all style of hurdling. The remedy for one hurdler’s problem can be the cause of another hurdler’s problem. Teaching a smaller hurdler to attack each barrier as horizontally as possible will cause a lot of crashes and a lot of bruises on the knees and ankles. The coach, even more so than the athlete, has to be able to adapt, and to consider the body type of the athlete when teaching technique.
Back in my first year of college, when I transitioned from the 39’s to the 42’s, I found that I had to make several alterations to my hurdling style to avoid all the contact with the barriers that was slowing me down and making my body ache. At 5-11 ½, I was just small enough that the 42’s necessitated major adjustments. In talking to my former athlete Wayne Davis, he once told me that he had to totally break down and rebuild his technique after his first year of college. At 5-10, his assets as a prep hurdler were the very things that got him into trouble over the collegiate barriers. The biggest alteration for both of us, I would say, was the push off the back leg. “You gotta get up to get down” is what I once said to him. For the smaller hurdler, that is definitely the case.
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