The first question is how to set up the Zone drill properly with the mens 110m hurdles. While Wilbur has grandfathered his style of training, I will share a collective approach based on what I have seen. One of the most challenging aspects is to ensure the set-up is matching the stride pattern because you must have an odd step pattern or you will having athletes take off with the lead leg. Taking out one hurdle doesn’t fit the stride pattern of anyone to fully open up but it does help those that are not tall or having problems transferring speed off the hurdle. One is going to have to push the hurdles two feet back at least in order to get the athlete to not be jammed. Two hurdles and three hurdles ( removing hurdle 5,6,7) require similar modifications.
Timing is easy. Keep the same Transmitter set-up as regular hurdle timing with the Freelap Juniors and time the last 3 or more hurdles like you would normally do. This requires anywhere from 5 to 8 transmitters. You can do two lanes by placing them in the middle of the lane. The fly time should be 10, 15, or 20 (2 x 10m) to get velocities higher than race pace. Then see the difference percentage wise of the the overspeed hurdles and compare the context of other set-ups. Most coaches will bunch or lower hurdles from 42 to 39 and move the hurdles in to program better and faster rhythms. I have placed the transmitters 5meters before and after the hurdle that was removed to get velocities. I will experiment with a 2 meters before and 8 meters after to see better and more accurate times. What we are trying to get is the fastest entry time of the athlete into the barriers.
Without timing, one can’t talk about overspeed when the velocities are not measured. One athlete was pulled with a towing device and had overspeed times of 2% slower than meets. When Dan Pfaff said 98% overspeed I had to laugh at his story of getting accurate timing and reevaluating the methods during the Level III school in Las Vegas. Timing allows us to measure what the effects of our program is on specific parts or phases of races. Now that video analysis, practical timing, and mobile 3.0 is available, hopefully we see more breakthroughs in the hurdle events.
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Carl Valle
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