Hurdle Training for High School and Middle School Athletes
If you are coaching high school or middle school athletes how to hurdle, this video series is for you. In this first video, I’m going to teach you a step by step process to identify which athletes on your team should be your hurdlers while at the same time, teaching them from the beginning the most fundamental skills they need to be great.
Hi, I’m Mike Caton from AMC. I’ve noticed that there are lots of videos for hurdling, but few of them address the needs of the coach. So, I decided to create a series just for you.
The first step in building an elite hurdle squad is to introduce the athletes to the event and identify who is able and interested. I’m going to throw a lot at you, but don’t worry, at the end of the video, I’m going to show you how you can get a detailed description of what I cover in this video.
What you are looking for: Speed, athleticism, confidence, aggression, excitement
Hurdle Introduction day-this is detailed out in my hurdle training plan
The strategy is to gradually increase the length and then height of the hurdles so the athletes grasp the need to run fast and leap through the hurdles rather than slowing and jumping over hurdles.Here’s the strategy I recommend:
Equipment needed
- 4 lanes
- 16 small hurdles
- 16 medium hurdles
- 16 hurdles
Phase 1
Track Layout
- Lane 1: (4) mini hurdles (30cm/12” height). 1st hurdle on the girls mark and remaining 3 hurdles spread 22’ (7m) apart. (Note: These conversions aren’t exact, but rather, rounded to the nearest foot or meter for ease of measurement.)
- Lane 2: (4) mini hurdles. Same, but hurdles 2-4 are spread 24’ (7.5) apart
- Lane 3: (4) mini hurdles. Same, but hurdles 2-4 are spread 26’ (8m) apart
- Lane 4: (4) mini hurdles. Same, but hurdles 2-4 are spread 28’ (8.5m) apart
Procedures:
- Use a standing start with no blocks
- All athletes start in the first lane and run fast over the hurdles with three steps between each hurdle. Once they master lane 1, they graduate to lane 2 and so on.
- Avoid letting them do too many repetitions as fatigue will set in and you won’t get good results.
- Once everyone has advanced as far as they can, it’s time to pause to reassess.
- Assess
- Eliminate any athlete that isn’t interested or not suited.
- Proceed to phase 2 with remaining athletes.
Phase 2
This is identical layout and procedure as phase 1, but with a slightly higher hurdle, ideally, 45cm (18”) mini hurdles or adjustable hurdles
Assess
- Eliminate any athlete that isn’t interested or not suited.
- Proceed to phase 3 with remaining athletes.
Phase 3
This is identical to the layout and procedure as phase 1, but with 30” hurdles.
Note: without having any formal training, they will likely not look very good going over the hurdles, that’s OK. The goal of this phase is to weed out athletes that are going to be too timid for hurdling.
Goal is:
- Girls to conquer lane 3 (40’/12.2m)
- Boys to conquer lane 4 (42’/13m)
Outcome
| Outcome | Not interested or not suited | Interested but couldn’t reach goal | Reached Goal |
| Recommendation | Suggest another event | Include in Hurdle Development group | Add to Hurdle Squad |
I hope this helps. If you want to get a detailed copy of this process, you can see a link in the notes below to an article that you can download. BTW, This is taken right out of my hurdle training plan which walks you step by step with all the workouts you’ll need for the entire season. You can also check that out in the notes.
If you want to learn more about hurdling and hurdle coaching, I have lots of links to things that can help you in the notes below and you can always check out my website at AMC.com.