14th ASEAN University Games 110m Hurdles Finals

14th ASEAN University Games 110m Hurdles Finals

Please enjoy the video :)

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Hakeem breaks 42-year-old national record at the 14th Asean University Games!

The 14th Asean University Games 2008 was held at Kuala Lumpur, Bukit Jalil Stadium, Malaysia.
Singapore sent a contingent of athletes from 20 over different sports to compete in this season's last competition.

Athletics events started from 15th to 18th December.
Results from the competition were up to expectation and Singapore AUG contingent morale was aroused by the smashing of the longest track record held in Singapore Athletics!

The 110m Hurdles national record was formally set by Osman Merican at the 1966 Asian Games in Bangkok with the timing of 14.76s, 42 years ago.

Abdul Hakeem erased the record book with his new national record of 14.45s, slashing the previous record by 0.31s!

Here are the results:
1st ROBANI HASSAN Malaysia 14.07s HR
2nd ABDUL HAKEEM ABDUL HALIM Singapore 14.45s
3rd SURIYA JUDASRI Thailand 14.55s
4th MOHD. ROHAIZAD JAMIL Malaysia 14.70s
5th MICHAEL VAUGHN F. MENDOZA Philippines 15.11s
6th CAHYO APIP DWI Indonesia 15.21s
7th ROBIN DARWIN TULIAO Philippines 15.37s

Congratulations to Hakeem and hope he will smash his record again very soon!

Apart from Hakeem, our training group has another representative that went to the Games to participate in 4 x 100m, 4 x 400m and the 200m.

Melanie has been training since her secondary school days and competed in the national schools competition. Only when she was in Millennia Institute did she start to train seriously, and she trained 5 days a week before she entered University.

She showed vast improvement in her sprint work and strength, and for that she earned herself a place to compete during the IVP where she won the 200m race.
She was then selected for the AUG - and this being her 1st overseas meet representing the country and her university, she was eager and ready to perform well.
Although she did not manage to break her PB for this trip, it is always a great experience to race with athletes at different levels.
I believe she will learn a lot and this will not be her last overseas competition, there is still a long way to go.

I hope this will encourage more athletes to believe in themselve and miracles do happen!

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Hurdles drills

Hurdling is considered as a sprints event and it is also one of the most technical event. It requires high coordination and flexibility to execute the movement. Breaking the motion up into lead leg training and trail leg training. The video shown below is to focus on the trail leg. To maximise forward movement, the trail leg should be crossing the hurdles as close as possible to minimise flight time. This will allow more speed over hurdles (sprinting) and not jumping over hurdles. The medial side of your legs should be facing the ground when crossing the hurdle, and driving the knees towards the chest.

As mentioned above, Hurdling is a sprints event. In between hurdles should be as quick as possible. It is a rhythmic run, with 2 fast contacts before and after hurdles. Hurdlers should be trained to have proper hurdling technique and not neglecting the nature of the event; Speed. In between hurdles should be approximately 1.00s to 1.02s for a 14.5 - 14.7s 110m hurdler. Speed training, power, plyometrics training is very essential for Hurdlers. Plyometrics especially, for the fast eccentric phase. Hakeem, stopped hurdling for close to a year, Just got back for hurdling training for 2 months, did close to his PB. His technique has been very nice and he is well coordinated. We did nothing but speed and strength. Pls enjoy the training video.

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Acceleration

The following pictures are from Dartfish analysis. The pictures are in sequence. The lines are to serve as a guide as to see whether he fully extending his segments. Extending his hip area and legs to gain maximum distance. Very often athletes focusing too much of frequency in the acceleration phase, causing fatique and not covering distance to the optimum.

This pictures shows the fully extended leg on the ground before off ground contact. Although not perfect, this is good enough for the acceleration phase. The 2 lines shows the angle difference of the body from the 1st 3 to 4 steps to the rest of the contacts. However, please take a look at the next picture. This is something i cannot explain...

It could be the tightness of the hipflexor, that he is unable to extend his hip area. From physiotherapist point of view, it is due to the weakness of the core muscle that he is unable to activate his core as much and therefore activated his hipflexor instead. Or, it could just be that he was too eager to go for the next step.

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Plyometrics training using hurdles

Hurdles Jumps by Fendi

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Commonwealth Youth Games - Pune, India

It has been a super long time since i last blog about our training matters. Has been travelling quite abit and no time to sit down to blog. Just came back from India, Pune from Commonwealth Youth Games. 2 sprinters went. Balpreet and Calvin. Both manage to enter up to semi finals. Calvin missed by 0.01s to the finals.

Balpreet Heats: 12.47s, semi: 12.37s

Calvin Heats: 10.94s, semi: 10.76s

After watching the 100m finals, I realised that running technique is really important. that is why I'm very particular in running mechanics. making sure drills and interval runs are done properly. Abeypitiyage Shehan Sadaruwan from Sri Lanka confirmed my statement. With close to perfection running technique, fantastic legs frequency and cycling action, with arms pumping vigoriously and relax at the same time. He is a class above all. He is not bulky, not very tall, doesn't look like a sprinter, but he ran 10.43s in the finals.

Balpreet Kaur Purba and Abeypitiyage Shehan Sadaruwan

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Strength Training

Let me share some of my basic exercises that I would require everyone to be able to execute it. Warming up in the gym, I will make use of the swiss ball to do body stabilizer exercises to activate and "wake up" the muscles. The clips below demonstrate 2 exercises that I've included in my warm up before strength training.

There are many variation to this swiss ball exercises, e.g. rolling to the left and right diagonally. Focus of this exercise is that you have to firm up your abs and core area, keeping your body straight like a plank and control your breathing, never hold your breath!

Forward Roll

Next is the Knees Tug in, same as the Forward roll, keeping abs and core area firm, movement is only from the legs, pushing the ball outwards and bringing it back with your knees tug in.

Knees Tug In

In between the exercises, we will do our stretching, focusing more on dynamic stretching, with more swings on the upperbody and legs. And we are ready for our strength training!

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Calvin's 100m race in the Olympics. Heat 7. As usual, very good acceleration , however overwhelmed by the Blacks....

Calvin Came in 6th in his Heats and ran a 10.73s with a headwind of -1.4m/s. Came in 1st from Portugal, Francis Obikwelu (10.25s, 2nd Obinna Metu from Nigeria(10.34s) and 3rd Walter Dix from USA(10.35s). Many people asked told me that Calvin needs more strength, more speed endurance, more power, needs to bulk up and many many more. He did 16.1s for his 150m, did 21.7s for his 200m. He can half squat160kg and bench 80kg. Could it be his technique? Or could it be his race model of the 100m? We found out some problems with his last 30m during the Singapore Open which is few days before he flew to Beijing. But I don't expect him to master the technique in such a short time. He is still a Junior and many more years to come. Lets hope he will represent Singapore in the Olympics as a qualifier and not as a wild card entry.
Many big Thank You to all the coaches and friends who are so concern about Calvin and my training method, all your valuable comments is greatly appreciated. I will do my best and produce more Champions!!

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Let's wish our ONLY athletics 100m representative all the best in his race tomorrow. We all know that he will do us proud and break his personal best again.
All the way Calvin Kang!!

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After all the troubles, all the difficulties, our all time favorite Mohd Shameer is back for training. He was one of the most consistent athletes clocking whole year round 10.60s. Yet to break the barrier, but coming soon.... one of his come back session, still looking good in his Step Over drills.

Heavy resistance training and explosive, SSC (stretch-shortening-cycle), plyometrics, shock training can improve muscle recruitment under high loads and loading velocities. Fast Twitch muscles recruited in terms of size and number, therefore tendon might be loaded better, which improve on sprinting abilities. Some of the classic plyometrics exercises are bounding, single leg bounding(training unilateral component), box jumping and hurdles jumps. The video below shows how hurdles jumps is done.

Focusing on quick contact on the ground with toes pointing to the sky(dorsiflexion on ankles). You can also use your arms(using of your segments) to help coordinate the movements.

Our latest fellow training mates. Fendi and Wynner

And sometimes we have fun.....

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Thank you for all the support in my training blog, it has been a while since I last blog on my training. This post will be showing how I normally conduct a warm up, Long Warm Up. This is how I call it.
Easy jogging to rise body temperature, followed by a series of Body Stability work. Points to take note: to firm up core area and also firm up your gluts by squeezing it, by doing this, you automatically shift your pelvis anterior. Also not to let your lower back collapse.

Front plane
Front plane
Side plane
Side plane

Once this is done, we will stretch our muscle, with more dynamic stretches than static holds. Arms and legs swings are strongly recommended followed by a 50% effort build up or striding for 50 to 60m and gallop back with back leg pushing on the ground. Next we'll do our Hip Mobility Exercises as shown below. Points to take note: Always keep body in neutral spine position and dorsiflex ankle. only mobilizing hip, and to prevent whole body from moving.

Opening up to the sides

Front and Back

After these mobilizing exercises, we'll do a Adductors Split, getting into a half stance position and moving fast on knees orientating the movement.

Next we will go into a 75% effort build up or striding for 50 to 60m and doing lateral skips. As we move on with our warm up, it just gets more and more dynamic, with more dynamic movements and faster runs. Following next, is the leg swings, side swings, alternate side swings and front swings. Points to take note: always try your best to keep legs straight and dorsiflex ankles, with body relax on the ground. The video shown below might not be as perfect as I've expected. Enjoy!

Side swings

Alternate swings

Forward swings
After the swings, we will do this special movement for the same reason, to mobilize the hip, I call it the Wide Cuts. Bring your feet over your shoulder with back leg fully extended. Point to take note: try your best to keep your legs close to your shoulder and not kicking outwards.

After doing the Wide Cuts, we'll proceed to the Hip Mobilizing Drills, some call it "The Russian Dance". This is quite an interesting drills because it requires, hip mobility and also coordination.

These will be the exercises needed to be done before going for 2 times full effort runs of around 50 to 60m. Focus will be dorsiflexion of ankle and feet stepping over the knees which was shown in earlier post, called the Step Over. And you are ready for the workout for the day. Of course, there are many methods to warm up and I found this warm up very comprehensive and has been giving good results and shown that it really helps to get the athletes ready for the workout or even for competition.

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This is our CNA interview by Patwant Singh on our preparation to the Olympics. Singapore Athletics Association sponsored by Adidas. Enjoy!!

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Fantastic jump from France, Teddy Tamgho with a distance of 17.33m on his 4th attempt. He came in 1st with a 43cm lead.

Enjoy the video.

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This is one of the very fast and efficient hurdling that I've seen so far. She impressed me with such strong and quick movement and she is very reactive on the ground. Very nice rhythm and quick 2 steps before lead leg. Very close to the hurdle with quick pull back on the trail leg.
Enjoy the video.

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Warming up drills in Bydgoszcz Indoor track


I would like to share my training in my blog, explaining why and how i derived in the drills and training i do.


The clip above is an example of "step over" that I would name this drill. Some coaches would say its "knee lifts", but I'll go into details by using the term "step over". Its the most comprehensive way to create a cycling action when doing the drills, which is what we do when we run. By focus on our feet, bring your heel and smack fast to your butt and using this force created to accelerate our thighs forward, when doing this , our feet is already stepping over the knee of the other leg.

And the height of the knee is good enough for a strong claw on the track.
One important thing to take note, ankles has to be always dorsiflexed(pointing toes to the sky).
Enjoy the short clip.

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Stefan Tseng, Maurice Greene, Calvin Kang

Maurice Greene and Alfred Sim

On our way to Warsaw from Frankfurt International Airport, I was wondering if thats Maurice Greene, and I was right!

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Last day in Stuttgart, Kornwestheim. Leaving in the morning 6am to Frankfurt International Airport. World Junior is waiting for us.... Singapore is also waiting for us.. to set new records.

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Kornwestheim Stadium, doing acceleration training, working on blocks push off.

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Training Merchandise

2009 Collection

For more information about Reactiv training merchandise, please email sales.reactiv@gmail.com

2007 Collection

For more information on Reactiv training merchandise,
please email sales.reactiv@gmail.com

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