Elitetrack: Sport Training & Conditioning

What are some good drills to get a hurdler closer to the hurdle so he/she isnt “floating” over it?
What are some good drills to get speed between hurdles instead of keeping a constant speed the whole race?

Thanks again for the answers. I fiigured I would help out and start 2 topics for people to get interested in. Once agin, Thanks for all your advice.

-David

For your first question, if you are trying to get a hurdler to stop “floating” over the hurdle at hurdle clearance the last thing you want to do is get them closer to the hurdle. On the contrary, you actually want them to takeoff further away from the hurdle because this will flatten out their flight parabola. If you flatten out a hurdler’s flight parabola their hurdle clearance (the amount by which they clear the hurdle) will be lower so they won’t be “skying” over the hurdle.  “Skying” over the hurdle when combined with a takeoff point that is too close to the hurdle is what typically gives the impression of “floating” because it is caused by a sudden decrease in horizontal velocity and a sudden increase in vertical velocity at takeoff. As a result, it looks like the athlete isn’t really moving forward (because of the aforementioned decrease in horizontal velocity) and they are just floating in the air. I think the best remedy for this is to run hurdles at closer-than-competition spacing during practice and gradually increase the spacing to the point they are near normal spacing. This will help with the rhythm of the event. Also, it might help to put something out in front of each hurdle at the point where you should be taking off at.....somewhere in the neighborhood of 2.8-3.1m for a high hurdler.

Acceleration development work away from the hurdles (20-40m sprints) is good for developing the ability to reaccelerate after hurdle clearance. Also, running sprint-float-sprint type runs will help because you have an initial acceleration, then relax, and then have to reaccelerate again (similar to hurdling). Also, try running competition spacing but take out every other hurdle which will emphasize the speed aspect of the event more.

I like lowering the hurdles so the athlete knows they don’t have “jump” over the hurdle.  Once the athlete is stepping over the hurdle and snapping their lead leg down, they know where they should be taking of from in relation to the hurdle.

Good point. I think that hurdle spacing and height should almost always be less / lower than competition spacing and height. We don’t expect athletes to be able to run competition speeds in practice so why should we expect them to run with competition hurdle parameters. Hurdle clearance is largely dictated by the velocity of the athlete is approaching the hurdle at, as such it would be foolish to expect them to run competition heights and spacings without having competition speed. In reality, adjusting the heights and spacings should ultimately make the practice MORE like how they would run in a meet rather than less.

what about the trail leg? any drills for that? Also is the trail leg speed a direct relation to the strength of the hip? I also have a terrible problem with holding form once comming off the hurdle to run, my hips drop and my upper body twist.

try half hurdling w/ the trail leg, it helped me a lot

I would think trail leg speed is less correlated to hip strength as it is to the degree of stretch reflex stimulus that results from the dynamic stretch of leaving the trail leg behind. This action should occur naturally if the takeoff point is sufficiently behind the hurdle which would necessitate a long horizontal push which would result in the trail leg getting left behind and causing a dynamic stretch.

The upper body twisting problem sounds like you are not using your arms correctly and as a result are not able to counter the rotational moment of the legs in flight. Any one else?