Elitetrack: Sport Training & Conditioning

anybody ever built hurdles before?  i might need my own hurdles but buying them is quite expensive.  anybody have good suggestions?

I assume you are talking about practice hurdles.  Pretty easy to do out of 3/4" PVC pipe.  Only problem is if you hit one, it will fall apart and you'll have to rebuild it.  I suppose you could glue them, but then harder to transport.

Get some PVC fittings and pipe and wood strips from local home improvement store.  3/4" PVC makes a good light weight, scissor type training hurdle.  You�??ll need something to cut the wood strips and pipe to length, a can of PVC adhesive to join the pipe and fittings and possibly something to weight the hurdle feet.  I used 12"+ lengths of  ½�?� steel rebar for the last foot ballasts I made.  The real decision here is how adjustable you want to make them.  I made scissor hurdle with complete height adjustability by forming the scissor center pivot point with stretch cable (bungee cord) and heavy duty zip ties.  The wood strips formed the top rails and were attached with bolts, washers and locknuts.  These could be collapsed, bound up with a couple of bungee cords, that double as carrying straps and put in the car pretty easily.

I've seen others made into L shape with close to standard height settings and about 1�?� PVC.  The heavier PVC formed the base L portion of legs.  Three way,  90o fittings were used at the bend and a single piece of PVC formed the lower cross piece of the base.  The upper section of uprights were made from ¾�?� (?) PVC and inserted into the lower portion of the base. Wood or PVC could be used as top rails.  A single hole was bored in bottom upright pipes and regularly spaced holes bored into the upper section of uprights.  You�??ll need to do some measuring to get your heights correct. A cotter pin thru the bored holes was used to keep them at the desired heights.

I made 5 scissor hurdles a couple of summers ago and the total cost of materials was about $25. It took about an hour and a half to cut the materials and put them together and that was using a Dremel as my only power tool.

ex400 - 30 May 2007 02:36 PM

Only problem is if you hit one, it will fall apart and you'll have to rebuild it. 

We've only had to replace a single foot from a single scissor hurdle in two years and that was after it was sent flying about 4' into the air after a solid impact with the athlete's lead leg.  The real grace of this style hurdle is that they are very light, will fall if you hit, but the athlete's don't become timid and develop aggressive hurdle clearances.

Yeah, notruthless said everything I was trying to say.  :bouncy:

thanks for the info notruthless.  ill probably need between 5 and 15 hurdles that go from 30" to 42".  ill need the 39s and 42s while the girls im coaching will need 30s and 33s.