If a sprinter is deciding to hurdle when comparing 100 to 400 times what is the point at which it is better to go with 100H or 400H? say PRs 100-11.71FAT, 23.52Fat, 52.28FAT, age 19 running 1 year seriously year round. I had this situation personally and want to know if I made the best decision? also is combo hurdling doing 110H/400H not recommended my coach said no to that idea? any thoughts?
110H vs 400H
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Member
Thanks for the comments. Yeah I wanted to combo hurdle and know many guys that do both events prolly about 1/2 of 400 hurdlers do 110 and the other 1/2 do 400 for 19 and under. My original coach told me he does not let guys combo because he feels it takes away from the other event. He told me you pick your better flat event 100 or 400 and then hurdle train for that distance only. Apparently the higher level you get the harder combo is because 110 on 42 inch is lot different than 400 hurdles on 36inch. Once they reach senior 20+ almost no one does both.
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Participant
To me there are two things that definitely come into play here:
Facilities: how much true 400mH specific work can you do with the facilities you have access to YEAR AROUND (Loughborough U in England for example has a distinct advantage in that they have an indoor facility with a long enough straight that the athletes who are 400mH competitors can train using full stride patterns when there is need as opposed to when the climate allows them onto a full size 400m track)
“Cost/Return”: I have read somewhat anecdotal information that the time needed to vastly improve a 400m time has less of a return than spending that same amount of time improving hurdling skills/techniques; the thought being that X number of hours may get you another half second in a flat 400m run (conceding that if you can improve a flat 400m you should be able to improve 400mH time by nearly exactly that same amount with no other changes to hurdling techniques) that the same amount of time spent on hurdling specific work can get you .75 to 1.00 seconds improvement in the 400mH without improving your flat 400m time at all (those numbers are random but its the scale of return, 125% to 150%, that is important).
The implication is even if you do not intend to compete in 100mH/110mH it pays to train like you will as far as importance of technique goes.
Would a good example be J. Dutch?
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Member
Russ, good points my faciliites are a 200m track indoor and 400m outdoor. My current training when I was inside would incorporate extensive drills over hurdles and runs over 60m with hurdles set every 20 to work on stride pattern and then 400 flat training. Once outside april we would focus on drills again, and regular spacing reps like 2x5H, 4H, 3H with full recovery 6-8min a rep. We also do the a 100m of hurdles spaced 20m so 5 hurdles and work on technique and rythym. I was also told by many people that in a 3-4 years training 400Hurdle time=400m+3.0-4.0 so my coach told me the number 1 priority is fast 400m and then only other thing that matters is my hurdling technique. so if the flat 400m gets faster my hurdle time will drop like u said and if my technique gets better my hurdle time will drop..Apparently once you max out your 400m you can keep training and max out your technique at about 400m flat +3.0 for a well trained athlete.
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Participant
I work with a 16-year-old girl. She has done 300H for two seasons and is now working on 100H. I don’t know whether she will be able to 3-step those hurdles, but I figure all the work will help her for the 300H anyway. In other words, for her, I think the more technical hurdle work the better at this stage. But girls’ hurdles are only 30 and 33 inches, so there is no significant difference in technique, especially at her level of development. In fact, we do most of her 3-step work at 30″. I think the situation may be very different for adult men, where hurdling at 42″ may be very different technically from hurdling at 36″
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