Cycling the Arms
One of the athletes I worked with back in his high school days, Keare Smith, is someone I’ve been coaching from afar over the past couple years, as he plans a return to competition after an unsuccessful career at Virginia Tech. In the last two years, Smith has been preparing his body to compete at the elite level, and he plans to start competing again this year.
Shortly after he graduated from high school – back in 2008 – I started to develop a style of hurdling that I referred to as “cycle arms,” with the idea being that the arms, instead of pumping up and down, will cycle the same as the legs cycle. This way, I realized, both arms can be in constant motion throughout the hurdling action, as opposed to the trail arm sitting on the back pocket before punching back up.
[am4show not_have=’g5;’]
[/am4show][am4guest]
[/am4guest][am4show have=’g5;’]
It took me a while to put all the pieces of the style together in my mind, but it made sense to me and I had some success with it when teaching it to a handful of non-hurdlers who said that it helped them to run taller on the balls of their feet and to maintain forward momentum. They also used words like “natural” and “rhythmic” and “fluid” when referring to the running style.
But it was different and it was weird, so I basically put it on the backburner and half-way forgot about it until Keare and I reconnected. When I explained the concept to him, I expected him to question it or dismiss it like many others had, but instead, he immediately gravitated toward it, and wanted to try it out himself.
In the summer of 2014, he came back home to stay with his family for a while, and we were able to spend a good two months developing the style. Unfortunately for us, he had to move back to New York, where he is now. This past fall, after spending a year focusing on his diet, getting himself grounded financially, and strengthening the muscles he knew he would need to get back to competitive hurdling, he started training specifically for the hurdles again. As we have interacted through email, text messages, and social media, he has made it clear that he is continuing to master the cycle arms style on his own, and that he is starting to take it even further than my imagination had originally conceived.
I know that no one will really care one way or the other about this unique style of hurdling unless it translates into fast times on the stopwatch, but I am feeling more and more confident that that will happen. Which is why I’m writing this article. The future is now.
The above video shows Keare in the summer of 2014 learning the basic fundamentals of the cycle arm action. He is learning to cycle the arms in the same manner that he cycles the legs. In this sense, the legs teach the arms what to do – the arms follow the lead of the legs. By walking it, even though walking means pausing, he learns how to synchronize arms with legs, so that the left leg and right arm are doing the exact same thing, and the right leg and left arm are doing the exact same thing.
At the end of the above video, he does two reps of the cycle arms “jump” action, which mimics, without a hurdle, what we want to do when clearing the hurdle.
In the above video, Keare is taking the next step, which is to learn to cycle the arms with the legs will clearing obstacles. This way, he can begin to visualize hurdling with both arms cycling, and he can get a sense for the timing aspect of the hurdling motion.
In the above video, Keare takes the next step, which is to practice the cycle arms action over low hurdles (30’s) at a slow place that allows him to think and move at the same time. For much of the time we spent together for the rest of that summer, we focused on this drill on hurdle days, gradually increasing the spacing and the height, but keeping the speed manageable.
After Keare moved back to New York, I was wondering if life and all of its struggles would get in the way of our plans. But that didn’t happen. He continued to prepare and train, and he has recently sent me videos to critique of his progression with the cycle arms style.
In the above video, from this past November, it is evident that Keare is getting the hang of the style, but is still having some trouble with the timing. We talked about it and I gave him some suggestions to correct the timing issues.
In the above video, Keare is clearing 42’s for the first time. Here, the timing is the best it’s ever been, and he is starting to reap the benefits that come with hurdling in this style. He essentially has two lead arms instead of one, as the trail arms punches down right behind the lead arm. The cycle motion of the trail arm helps to keep the lead arm tight. You may also notice a wobble in the shoulders, but that’s actually a good thing, because the shoulders serve the same purpose for the arms that the hips serve for the legs – they are the rotators. With this arm, because both arms are cycling, you actually want to see the shoulders wobble. If you don’t see it, that means only one arm is cycling, and that the trail arm is old school.
With this style, there is a very heavy emphasis on the back leg doing the lion’s share of the work. The back leg propels you into position so that you are coming down on the hurdle as opposed to kicking out the lead leg with a horizontal clearance. Once the heel of the lead leg has crossed the bar, the arms cycling serves to provide a surge of speed and power, as you are descending off the hurdle sooner than you would if clearing the hurdle at a more horizontal angle.
In the above video, which is quite lengthy, I provide a detailed account of how the whole cycle arms idea germinated, and how it got to where it is now. Hopefully, if Keare makes the kind of noise we think he will, this style will be here to stay.
[/am4show]
