Should All Hurdlers Run Both Hurdle Events?
It has been my observation over the years that most hurdlers will run both hurdling events (100/110m and 300/400m) early on in their careers, and then increasingly specialize in one or the other as they grow older and the competition becomes more intense. Some hurdlers will specialize sooner, depending on variable factors such as height, flexibility, previous athletic background, personal preference, team needs, etc. This article will discuss the benefits of being a double hurdler, as well as the benefits of specializing in one event over the other, by analyzing the issue from the perspective of the youth (age-group) hurdler, the high school hurdler, the collegiate hurdler, and the post-collegiate/professional hurdler.
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Youth Hurdlers
For those who begin hurdling in age-group track in the United States, the first year at which they can participate in the hurdles is when they are 11 years old. The only hurdle race offered for 11-12-year-old hurdlers is the 80 meter hurdles. Not very many hurdlers start out when they’re so young, but those who do are definitely at an advantage. They can learn the basics of technique and rhythm, and they can develop keen hurdling instincts that hurdlers who start later struggle to grasp. It’s like learning a language; the younger you are when you start, the easier it is.
At this stage of development, it’s important for hurdlers to learn the skills that will serve them well when they get older. Run on the balls of the feet, lead with the knee, drive the trail leg to the front, etc. This is also a very good time to learn how to alternate lead legs. It’s not easy for most 11 year olds to 3-step, especially when they’re first starting out. And they don’t really know that being able to alternate is a big deal anyway, so having them 4-step in the beginning is a very good idea, because it’s a skill that could definitely prove beneficial once they’re old enough to run the longer hurdle race.
In the next age group – the 13-14-year-old age group – the 80 meter race is extended to 100 meters over 10 hurdles (there were only 8 in the younger age group’s race). Also, the 200 meter hurdle race (which starts at the 200 start line and covers the last five hurdles of the 400 meter hurdle race) is added to the competition program. At this age, a hurdler absolutely should compete in both hurdle events. You don’t know yet which one you’re going to be better at long-term, and you don’t really know yet which one you prefer. As a male, even if you prefer the 100 meter hurdles, you may find as you get older that you lack the height to do as well once the race distance is 110 meters and the hurdles are raised from 33 inches to 39. Over the years, I have seen several athletes struggle mightily with the transition from the 13-14 age group to the 15-16 age group, where the hurdles are raised six inches overnight. But for such athletes, running the 300 hurdles in high school allows for an easier transition to the 400m distance of the summer. And keep in mind that if you choose to specialize in one or the other down the road, the foundation you build here by doing both will benefit you regardless of which race you choose to focus on.
High School Hurdlers
The high school years are when most hurdlers get introduced to the hurdles. Even athletes who may have competed in youth track may have started out as sprinters or jumpers or mid-distance runners and decide to try the hurdles in high school – either upon realizing that they’re not as good in those other events as they had hoped to be, or because they’re curious about trying out a new event, or because a coach has pushed them in that direction. I’ve had plenty a hurdler start hurdling their sophomore, junior, or even senior year and find success. One of the best hurdlers I ever coached didn’t start hurdling until his junior year, and he ended up running 14.23 by the end of that summer, and sub-39 in the 300h. Of course, that kind of success is more the exception than the rule, but being able to grasp hurdling technique and rhythm in a short period of time is more feasible than one might think.
In many cases, high school is where athletes first begin to participate in track and field altogether, not just the hurdles. So for any athlete who begins hurdling as a high school athlete, it’s very important to give it a go in both hurdling events (at least in the beginning) for the same reason it’s important for the youth hurdler to do so – you don’t know yet which one you’re going to be better at. The shorter race is where you learn technique, so you really can’t avoid at least practicing for that one. But it’s easier to be race-ready in the longer race just because there’s so much more space between the hurdles. Run fast to the first one, jump over it any way any how, run fast to the next one and do the same thing. As the season goes on, you can refine your stride pattern and your technique. If you try to compete in the shorter race too soon, the frustration can mount quickly just because there’s so little margin for error and you might not even be able to get through a whole race.
Last year I had a senior male soccer player who had never run track before and decided to come out for the team just to do a spring sport for the first time in high school. About mid-way through the outdoor season, right before spring break, he asked me if he could try the hurdles. He was a pretty good quarter miler, and we were low in numbers in the 300 hurdles due to injury, so I figured what the heck, why not? Though his hurdling technique never got to the point where I would describe it as good, he was fearless in the face of the barriers and ran very aggressively between the hurdles. Because of these qualities, he scored points for us in the conference meet and made the finals in the state meet. In the case of someone like him, there’s on way I would have thrown him in the 110’s because the technical and rhythmic demands of that race would have been too much for him to grasp in such a short period of time.
Still, as a high school coach, I like for my hurdlers to do both. I find that with the 300 meter distance at this level, the two races complement each other very well. The shorter race helps develop the speed and technique you’ll need to excel in the longer race; the longer race helps you develop the speed-endurance you’ll need to excel in the shorter race. Often, if I have a hurdler who’s having trouble with his or her 3-step stride pattern in the 100/110 hurdles, I’ll have him or her do a 300 hurdle workout to help with that problem. Since the longer race allows you to open up your stride and cover ground, doing so carries over to the shorter race. So once that muscle memory is in their body, then, the next time we do a 100/110 hurdle workout, I’ll tell the athlete to run like he or she did in the 300 hurdle workout. On the flip side of that, if, for example, I have a hurdler who does the last-step stomp and sails over hurdles in 300m hurdle races, I’ll put together a 100/110 hurdle workout to address that issue.
So, for me, even if you don’t like both equally, it helps to do both, because each race can serve as a reference point for the other. I remember several years ago, when planning race strategy with one of my hurdlers who was preparing for a 300m hurdle race, telling him to go into “110 mode” in the last third of the race. And he knew exactly what that meant without me needing to explain it. It meant that he should transition into a quicker rhythm with lower knee lift once he was no longer able to maintain his stride pattern between the hurdles. If he didn’t have the 110’s as a reference point, he would’ve haphazardly chopped his steps late in the race and been at a much greater risk of breaking down.
At the high school level, you will come upon those hurdlers who are obviously better suited to one race than the other. So I do find myself at times going against my own principles by allowing a hurdler to focus on just one hurdling event. Sometimes it can be because the hurdler came to hurdling very late, as with the soccer player I mentioned above. In some cases, height might be the issue. A 5-8 guy or a 5-2 girl who is very athletic with good foot speed should be given the chance to thrive in the longer event without having to deal with the frustrations that height issues can cause in the shorter event if he or she so prefers.
In some cases, the athlete’s mentality is just better suited to one race over the other. Some hurdlers have a sprinter mentality and think of the 300 hurdles as a “distance” event. Depending on the athlete, that may or not be a battle worth fighting for me as a coach. I’ve had good 110 hurdlers in the past who, instead of running the 300’s, have competed in some combination of the 100, 200, 4×100, 4×200, and long jump. On the other end of the spectrum, I’ve had hurdlers who didn’t have the foot speed to be competitive in the 100/110 hurdles and therefore simply felt intimidated by the demands of the event. Such a hurdler is better off adding other long sprint events to their repertoire, such as the 200, 400, a leg of the 4×200, 4×400, or even 4×800 in some cases.
So, while I have my own ideas about what works and what doesn’t, I won’t force my will upon an athlete whose mindset and/or body type is more readily suited to one event than the other.
Other variables that will come into play during the high school years are injuries, team needs, and scholarship potential. Regarding injuries, athletes who are prone to ankle sprains, major shin splints, and hamstring strains might find that the 100/110 hurdles put more strain on their bodies than their bodies are able to endure. Regarding team needs, if, for example, the team lacks depth in the 400 but has good in the 300m hurdles, then one of those hurdlers might be asked to run the 400 instead of the hurdles. That’s a rarity, I know, but it can happen. Regarding scholarship potential, this can be an issue for juniors or seniors who are being recruited, and have been told by college coaches that if they get their time down in one event or the other, they could receive some scholarship money. Obviously, with free or reduced college tuition as motivation, the athlete should be allowed the opportunity to pursue that dream.
Collegiate Hurdlers
At the collegiate level, team needs can be even more of a factor than at the high school level. Whether you run DIII, DII, DI, NAIA, or JUCO, the talent level is much higher than it was in high school. Pretty much anyone who does a varsity sport at the collegiate level, especially when you’re talking about specialty events like the hurdles, is going to have significant talent. Therefore, doubling in both hurdle events becomes a much more difficult task, and in some cases, an infeasible task.
On the other hand, your team might not recruit hurdlers heavily, so if you have the ability to hurdle, you’ll have no choice but to do both. The general rule though is, the higher the level of competition, the higher the level of specialization. In last month’s issue of this magazine, for example, Antwon Hicks talked about how he eventually dropped high jump in college although he had been a 7-1 high jumper in high school. He found that in the SEC the high jumpers were too good and the hurdlers were too good for him to excel in both.
My observation has been that there are very few collegiate hurdlers who excel in both, at least at the DI level. They’re not obsolete, but they’re few and far between. There are a good number though, who do both for a portion of the outdoor season before specializing in one or the other for the major championship meets at the end of the year.
To compete in both at the college level, you have to be very durable, very adaptable, and you have to love to run. The 400 hurdles require a lot of running, almost as much as a middle-distance runner. And most 100/110m hurdlers just aren’t willing to do that much running at the collegiate level. Meanwhile, training for the 100/110m race puts a tremendous amount of pounding on your legs, comparable to that of a triple jumper. Especially the men’s race over the 42-inch barriers. So again, getting back to the point about injuries, for some athletes to be able to hurdle at all in college, they have to drop the shorter race and focus on the longer one.
Post-collegian/Professional Hurdlers
Again, the higher the level of competition, the higher the level of specialization. For a professional athlete, the training demands and quality of competition basically compel hurdlers to specialize in one hurdling event. Not to mention contractual obligations for those who have been signed to a shoe deal.
The last double hurdler I can recall who competed at an elite level in both events was Andre Phillips, who won the 1988 Olympics with a 47.19 in the 400 hurdles, and finished fourth in the Olympic Trials that year in the 110’s with a 13.25.
Still, I wouldn’t rule out the possibility of someone being able to run both hurdle events at the elite level, even in this day and age. It would take an athlete who has had extensive success in both events at the collegiate level, who has excellent technique and exceptional stamina, whose body can handle the physical demands of training for both events, who has the emotional stability to handle the mental demands of both events, who has the necessary financial backing, and whose coach is willing to take on the challenge. If all those factors were to fall into place, it could happen. We’ll see.
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