Coach Deem presented on the long and high hurdles training and teaching technique. She placed a strong emphasis on having student-athletes learn the technique. She has found that you can look at a high hurdler with a lot of speed, but when they are running over lower hurdles their technique dwindles, and therefore, it is critically important to work on technique in preparation phases and the macrocycle, not the end (definitely not).
As a side note, I was surprised to know that she has worked with Bahamian Debbie Ferguson and US sprinter Lauryn Williams, but I am not surprised that she has the ability and knowledge base to help them excel. She's worked with wonderful people and I think that that makes the difference, because Williams and Ferguson also have genuine character and are honest workers of their craft, as I believe Coach Deem intended for herself to be as a coach.
My notes followed her talk about hurdles training in general, as she tried to serve the lecture needs of both high and low hurdles coaches. It would be interesting to ask her if there would be a reemergence of half-lap hurdling into the sport of track and field, because I think it would greatly serve the training preparation needs of the low hurdlers around the world and perhaps at the amateur level, but not high school or in specially exclusive meets. And, here are my notes:
- Establish race rhythm in the long hurdle race
- A sprint hurdler sprints; there is a speed component integral to their training that should be implemented from day one
- Critical elements of training coupled with technique training are acceleration and the mechanics of speed
- First hurdle in every race helps to establish the rhythm, outcome of the hurdler's race
- Hurdling is a rhythmic event
In the preparatory phase, Deem focuses on circuit training as her main introduction to strength training. In fact, when I asked her about hurdle mobility functions and how she shows student-athletes to exercise the hurdling ranges of motion with the trail and lead legs, she replied that she does not take them to the weight room. I believe that she goes with the same school of thought as Willie Banks, another presenter at the MTCCCA clinic, that speed and strength training should primarily take place on the track so that student-athletes can transfer their work directly to the event and their competitive ideals of performance. Deem makes sure that the circuit training focuses for a greater portion of the general and specific preparatory phase on the core (abdominal and back). She coaches athletes through hurdle walks, and instead of hurdle drills, Deem has the hurdlers sprint over hurdles and at lower heights if she believes that this is the way to go when they are starting to learn.
All sprinters and hurdlers do hurdle walks for mobility and conditioning to help them gain more flexibility. I like the idea of getting away from most hurdle drills because it would detach the athlete from the driving off of the ground. I can still be just as creative in planning workouts.
Active recovery stimulates speed endurance for the athletes during workouts if the coach can have them go through an exercise or circuit with short rest periods, in a range of 30-90 seconds, even 120 seconds. When they are able to do this, then it seems much easier for them to building their "work capacity," or endurance despite not being proficient over long distances. Getting away from the school of thought, which embraces the falsehood of long distance running as the way to building sprinter strength is so invasive. Now I feel coaches are taking anew the idea to have their athletes focus on working hard specifically to their own event.
Once the specific preparatory phase begins, hurdlers can work on their block starts, use sled pulls, focus on stride frequency in shortening of the hurdle distances. I think that there will be something to gain from buying Brett McFarlane's book.
Coach Deem pointed out that shortening the women's hurdles distances to 7.6m and the men's hurdles distances to 8.5m would help them to focus on the three-step stride pattern, and at the same building a technical regimen to put their work together for a solid competitive performance on the track. She said something interesting as I walked into her clinic: 'You need to be able to run 10 meters if you're gong to run 60 and 100.' Certainly 110 meters would be a part of that equation as well. She denied the school of thought that said that having hurdlers run on the runway would deteriorate their ability to run with the right stride frequency, basically that the student would not be able to run 3 strides between hurdles. False! Of course, though, she mentioned that each individual athlete is different and must have their ability and technical levels taken into account at the start of the season.
Deem uses dynamic stretching in her warm up to the hurdle workout sessions. These are some of the exercises: backward jog, backward cycle, leg swings, hurdle walks. Both sprinters and hurdlers should do the same warm up and cool down exercises together, because in essence they both benefit mutually like a triple jumper and a long jumper, even though dissimilar share similar functions of motion and competitive rhythms.
In the competitive phase, or strength phase, Deem emphasizes quick movements and fine-tuning the learned skills which hopefully at the end of season have been mastered or the student-athletes gained measured proficiency. She emphasized in getting the race pace that you want in practice, for competition.
A muscle group that matters most to the hurdlers in their legs, and more specifically their ankles, joints and shins especially because their is a slight trajectory of the c.g. over the hurdlers and a reacceleration resulting in a need for strength in this lower leg area. She advised to do this, the coach can have the athletes:
- do barefoot running
- running uphill on the chapel, or downhill on bare feet
- playing ultimate frisbee barefoot
Floridian coach Mike Holloway, as Coach Deem mentioned whom I have little contact with over email, has his athletes do barefoot running and probably sprinting as well. And, at the end of her session (sidenote), she said that the Bahamian practice their hurdling on a grass track and they can certainly do this barefoot which would help to build the strength of joints and muscles specifically where there would need to be targeted strength. So, more running barefoot on soft surfaces!
Coach Deem also understands that some student-athletes have a strong backside mechanics, and this can be eliminated gradually over time by:
- running stadium steps
- over indoor steps
The action of driving the knees up and the foot up, not back and up will increase stride frequency and remove the tendency to float, which would affect their rhythm and cause their speed to mimick more of a beginning sprinter mechanics.
I enjoyed her comments about the fact of developing more strength in the hurdler because then s/he will exude the confidence to demonstrate the necessary functions of a seasoned hurdler, and be able to practice difficult ranges of motion because they feel up to the task and will not talk themselves out of demonstrating skills critical to good performances. Building greater strength through med ball circuit training and some hurdle mobility work will go hand-in-hand.
As part of her conclusion, she focused a sample week workout for the specific prepatory phase of the hurdles training. On Friday, the pre-meet day she pointed out that athletes will put on their spikes and go over a few hurdles a couple of times to "get the muscles fired up." And, this can be a time to get to know the students better and how they work in a coach-athlete relationship, whether they like a hands-on or hands-off approach to their training. When there is downtime, this would be the time and place for one-on-one conversations. And, a day to have one-on-one meetings with students and if they wanted to talk about their lives outside of the track and the field.
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