Posted In: Video Review
Hey everyone, I’m looking for a critique on my hurdling form. Mostly I’m concentrating on fixing my rotation off the hurdle this season. Although it encompasses a lot of problems concerning my form (lead leg coming over too far in the lane; too much torso rotation; shoulders twisting; etc), I was wondering which I should choose to fix? ie. what is the root of the problem?
Here are a couple videos I uploaded of my hurdling:
A couple of things I noticed from the first video. Going into first hurdle you are very low and don’t get completely tall. Looks like you can get away with it a little bit but I’d like to see you be upright 3-4 steps into the start or at least close. Your posture in second video is way better. Also your trail arm is very long in first video but seems to be a lot tighter and closer to body in second which is what you want. My coaches have always told me, if there is something wrong with the arms usually its because of something in the lower half, so maybe the fact that you mention your lead leg coming across could cause that twist in torso and then with the arms. You look like a pretty good hurdler though so keep up the good work.
Cool thanks for the tips! I’m working with my former college coach right now, he suggested that I evert my toe more and keep my trail leg more under my butt, because it’s coming out too wide over the hurdle right now. I haven’t thought about getting tall before the first hurdle, I’ll try that out when I hurdle next. The reason for the difference in form between the two videos is because the latter is from this past fall, and the former is from a year ago. I agree with your coach’s notion to coach the lower body rather than the arms.
Thanks for the well wishes I hope to go under 14 this season 🙂
Evert the toe? Could you elaborate on that? That biomechanics wise may happen but cueing something that happens in .001 is hard!
Simply put your lead arm needs to pass better and your posture between the hurdles needs to be taller. This will fix the get away stride.
Also your 60m and 60m hurdle times should be posted to get an idea of things…..you have good general form but focus on lead arm with warm-up speed 5 step hurdling so you have time to reset and it’s slow enough that you can drill in technique. I like 11 yard gaps instead of 10 for 5 step patterns unless you can shuffle like crazy.
30 days video and then 60 days video again.
Toe eversion is from Wilbur Ross cuing – just to attempt to point the trail leg toe upwards to stop the trail leg from going so wide and keep it close to the butt.
I don’t have 60m or 60mH hurdle times since in college I competed in Southern California, where there aren’t any indoor track around. I’m going to AZ tomorrow to and indoor meet though so I’ll let you know.
How exactly should my lead arm be passing to correct it?
What happens visually may not be a good suggestion cue wise. I have met Wilbur before his passing multiple times and talked to him about the trail leg one the phone multiple times. Much of the trail leg is set because of the lateral movement of the hip and initiated ironically with the lead leg.
As for lead arm I am a fan of the work by hurdlesfirst.com coach Steve McGill as he has produced champions and Xiang seems to get it done nicely.
The hurdlers bible is a great resource, but I know athletes personally he trained and not everything on paper is what he did. What one believes in and what is historical is another things.
What are your 110m and 200m times?
Ok thanks! I actually just started reading some of the hurdlesfirst articles and Steve McGill definitely seems to know what he’s talking about. i also use a lot of Gary Winkler teachings to further my knowledge on the subject of hurdling.
I’m happy to hear about the trail leg movement being caused by the lead leg, especially since as you said, toe eversion is a difficult thing to work on.
Yesterday I ran 7.07 in the 60m and 8.10 in the 60mH; I ran 14.32 in the 110HH last season and I believe 22.37 in the 200m
I’ll have some more recent videos up once I get the new camera I bought in the mail sometime next week (hopefully). I ran 14.24 this weekend, which is promising, and a much better opening than I’ve ever had. I’m just glad that what I’ve been doing in practice is actually working haha
Right arm needs to pass wider and lower. Think hand to foot.
Left arm needs to calm and stay tight. I teach it as though your arm is in a sling.
I would suggest putting the hurdlers close together for a few sessions. Work on staying tall and relaxing with a faster rhythm approaching the hurdle. I like how you are coming off the hurdle, looks aggressive.
Thanks for the suggestions Chad. I actually do progressively move the hurdles from 8.84m to 9.14m in 5cm increments as I move deeper into the season.
I have also been told that I “rush my position off the hurdle” before, but I’m not entirely sure what that means.
Here are some more recent videos taken during my practice today. Unfortunately I didn’t have anyone out there to film me, so this was just taken on a tripod. I added some slow-mo versions for easier analysis. The workout consisted of timed starts to 5 hurdles spaced 8.89m apart that are 39″ tall. Since the workout was timed, I wasn’t thinking much about technique, and was just thinking about going fast, which is what I would do in a meet. The marks to the first hurdle are based upon pre-determined steps to the first hurdle from Shelia Burrell’s hurdle presentation found here: https://www.powershow.com/view/1d4aa-Y2Y1N/Hurdles_flash_ppt_presentation . Also sorry for having to suffer through my butt in your face.
Get a copy of the Nehemiah video mentioned on hurdlesfirst. It goes right back to basics but should cover everything you need to sort out the rotations eg if you rotate the lead hand in a chuck Norris thumbs up style before you pull the arm back through it prevents the arm rotating behind your back. You will need to drum any changes in with walkovers etc before it will transfer to racing.
For the lead leg you could move the hurdles across lane 5 and 6 and aim to keep your lead leg landing on the left side of the line – 5 striding or pull them in and 3 stride on half spacing.
For the trail leg, one step drills down the side of low hurdles (2’9 or 3) give you nowhere to hide and should force you to keep it tight. Also try the wall drill sliding your foot along the top of a hurdle angled with one side at 3 and one at 3’3 – it should help to prevent your trail leg taking a wide path.
Suggestion.
You will have better success making a change first, then trying to run fast. Rather than making a change and trying to run fast at the same time.
Work on your left arm, it goes wide, it goes back, it is all over. Get it so it does nothing over the hurdle. Keep it fixed and tight, arm in sling. Make that change by working on easier hurdles for a while.
Thanks for the tips everybody! I got down to 14.06 this past week, and I’ve found that using the “thumbs up” cue from Steve McGill has helped my left arm get in better position over the hurdle, but I haven’t quite been able to nail it down completely yet. I think I’m going to start a training journal thread, as that’s kind of what this one is turning into, and there’s a lack of hurdler training journals on this site, it seems.