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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