Are the Sprint Hurdles Really the Sprint Hurdles?
I was talking with one of my once-and-future athletes on the phone recently, and he brought up a question that had been on my time for quite some time: Why do we call the sprint hurdles the sprint hurdles if a sprint hurdler can’t really sprint? Obviously, this question is more appropriate for the elite level hurdlers, but it actually does apply to hurdlers at any level. The presence of the barriers prevents you from being able to sprint like a sprinter would. In so many ways, grouping the hurdlers with the sprinters – when it comes to workouts and training – doesn’t make sense. It’s convenient, yes, and in many cases, hurdlers do run sprint events as well, and they also help on relay teams. But if a hurdler is going to be a hurdler, if he or she is going to specialize in the hurdles and work toward mastering the hurdles, then what’s the point of all this sprinting? For the elite hurdler especially, who has no other obligations in other events, sprint workouts should be more or less obsolete.
[am4show not_have=’g5;’]
[/am4show][am4guest]
[/am4guest][am4show have=’g5;’]
My athlete was arguing that the hurdles would be better grouped along with the triple jump, since hurdling involves a series of explosive movements as opposed to a continuous, uninterrupted sprint. The only time hurdlers sprint, he said, is to the first hurdle, and off the last hurdle. Except for those two parts of the race, a hurdle race consists of quick movements (between the hurdles) followed by explosive movements (over the hurdles). So really, even triple jumpers have more room to sprint than hurdlers do, as they can sprint for their entire run-up to the take-off board.
My athlete also pointed out something that I’ve often noted in the past: in the hurdles, the fastest sprinters don’t always win. If the hurdle race were truly a sprint, then the fastest sprinters would always win. While it’s true that elite hurdlers have to have a certain amount of flat speed – you’re not going to see any 11.50 sprinters running 13.00 in the 110’s – it is equally arguable that 100 meter speed is not really a reliable indicator of 110 hurdle potential. If so, Usain Bolt could take his 9.58 100 meter speed and run 12.58 or better consistently in the hurdles. Justin Gatlin could take his 9.77 speed and run 12.80 or better consistently. Gatlin actually used to run the hurdles in college. But his decision to specialize in the 100 had to do with more than just money, I would argue. A sprinter wants to open up, and the hurdles don’t allow you to do that. That’s why sprinters and hurdlers are so different despite the fact that they are so often grouped together. Hurdlers have to dance, hurdlers have to have reflexes, hurdlers have to manage their speed, control their speed; they can never really let loose. So the mindset required to be a top-notch hurdler is totally different from the mindset required to be a top-notch sprinter. Yes, both have to be competitive warriors, but that what means for each event is in total contrast to the other.
You hear most hurdlers talk, and they’ll tell you they don’t like the sprints – they don’t like running the 100. Sure there are exceptions. But most hurdlers feel like a fish out of water when asked to run with no hurdles in their way. David Oliver has said on more than one occasion that he wouldn’t even be in the sport of track and field were it not for the hurdles. Despite the fact that he’s a world class athlete with a World Championship medal in the hurdles, he feels quite confident in saying that he couldn’t keep up with the sprinters in the sprints. For most hurdlers, that would be the case, although there are the rare exceptions – Terrence Trammell, Dwight Thomas, for example.
I think the biggest reason that a lot of hurdlers at the youth level and high school level don’t develop as hurdlers or stagnate in their growth is for the simple reason that they aren’t coached as hurdlers. Time and time again I hear stories and receive emails from hurdlers or their parents bemoaning the fact that they don’t hurdle enough in practice, that they are forced to train with the sprinters all the time and then told to “go hurdle” on their own. So their specific needs as hurdlers are never met. Then when it comes time to race, they don’t trust themselves, they don’t trust their instincts. As a consequence, they make a lot of mistakes, grow frustrated, and either settle for mediocrity or drop the hurdles altogether.
When you see the quickness drills that elite levels hurdlers do, you can see that they’re teaching themselves not to sprint, but to shuffle. You see extremely low hands, extremely low feet. Almost no knee lift at all. In the video below of Liu Xiang racing up prior to a race, he five steps with super-quick feet to start with, then, when he moves into practicing his start, he opens up his stride for the seven-step approach, but his cadence in between is quite similar to earlier in the warm-up when he was five-stepping, as the speed created from the fast start makes the hurdles feel as crowded when three-stepping as they had felt in the beginning of the warm-up when he was five-stepping.
So the elite level hurdler has to unlearn everything they learned about sprinting; he has to get rid of the sprinter muscle memory in favor of a hurdler’s muscle memory.
I’m at the point now where I’m questioning whether elite hurdlers should even do sprint workouts at all, even in the off-season. Logically, it serves no purpose. Why run in practice in a way that you won’t run in a race? Why would a big man in basketball who operates out of the low-post spend practice time working on his jump shot? Why would a wide receiver in football practice his field goal kicking? To me, it’s just as illogical for a hurdler to practice getting his knees up, applying force to the track, and covering ground, when in a race he wants to keep his knees low, be light on his feet, and minimize the amount of ground he covers in his strides between the hurdles.
I agree with my athlete that hurdlers should be doing a lot of plyometric exercises that jumpers do – box jumps, rope-jumping, single-leg bounds, hurdle hops. Hurdle-wise, in addition to hurdle workouts, they should be doing heavy doses of one-step drills, pop-overs, quick-three-step drills – drills that emphasize explosive power and that help the athlete to develop explosive power. I think that hurdlers also need to do custom-designed workouts that specifically address their personal needs in regards to rhythm development, explosiveness, and speed management.
At the end of the day, there are two things hurdlers need to do: get up, and get down. Push up, and push down. Get in the air, and get back on the ground. So they should practice pushing up, pushing down. They should practice cadence. They should practice running in a manner that tightens up their glutes and strengthens their hip flexors. If hurdlers spend the bulk of their practice time sprinting, they’re creating more problems than they’re addressing. Even at the youth and high school, sprinting should be intermixed with plyos, hurdling, and drills drills drills.
[/am4show]
