Letter from the Editor, July 2016
Hello readers, hope you’re enjoying your summer full of track and field and hopefully some vacationing and relaxing. This month’s issue has some sadness in it, as two of my former athletes – Johnny Dutch and Keni Harrison – both fell short of their dream of qualifying for the USA Olympic team, despite being heavily favored to do so. Having known both of them personally for so long, my heart aches for them, and the disappointment I feel for them serves to remind me that there are dozens upon dozens of athletes out there who are also going through the same feelings of self-doubt and downright misery. Athletes in our sport give all of themselves in pursuit of their dreams with no guarantee that their dreams will be realized. Only three people per event make the team, and the competition is fierce, and if you don’t rise to the occasion on that particular day, then it doesn’t matter how good you are or how much you’ve accomplished in the past. That is the beautiful yet brutal thing about the US Olympic Trials.
With those thoughts in mind, the article “Heartbreak Blues” focuses on Harrison’s performance at the Trials and takes a look at what may have gone wrong to lead to such subpar races on July 8th.
The article “Off the Last Hurdle” is an instructional treatise on finishing the last hurdle efficiently both in practice reps and in races, and it also takes a look specifically at the clipped hurdle 10 that caused Dutch to fall behind after leading the men’s 400 hurdle race most of the way. The instructional part focuses on the need to stay focused late in reps and late in workouts.
In “Evolution of an Event,” I take a look at how the men’s 110 hurdles has progressed over the years in regards to style and technique, based on a YouTube video that features footage of hurdlers from the 1970’s. While times haven’t dropped significantly since those days, the way that hurdlers hurdle has evolved dramatically.
“US Olympic Trials Review” is exactly that, looking at the emergence of young hurdlers (think Sydney Mclaughlan), the misfortune of some older ones (think David Oliver), and the continued success of some older ones (think Kerron Clement).
This month’s workout, “Establishing Stride Pattern Workout” is designed for establishing stride pattern in the first half of the 400m hurdle race. The more efficient and effortless the first half of the race is, the less likely it is that late-race breakdowns will occur.
Finally, the last piece in this issue, “A Simple Trust,” is a personal ode to hurdling and all it has done for me in my life. In the Writing Club that I sponsor at the school where I teach, I had the students do an assignment over the summer in which they were to expand on a topic that had a lot of personal meaning for them. The students wanted me to write one to, and one of them gave me the assignment of writing about my relationship with the hurdles and how it has affected all aspects of my life. “A Simple Trust” is that essay.
Good luck to everyone out there still competing and/or coaching competitors. Thank you for subscribing to The Hurdle Magazine and for sharing your love of the hurdles with others. Take care!
Steve McGill
