High School Hurdle Training Videos (and Masters, too)

Coaching the hurdles is easy, right?

Track and Field, or Athletics to the rest of the world, is a relatively easy sport to coach and to participate. It’s meant to showcase the individual athleticism in Track or Field events.

The rules and specifications are calculated for a reason, and that includes hurdle heights and hurdle spacing.

But I’ve been to enough track meets of all ages over the past 39 years, and I can tell you I’ve seen some funky hurdlers out there, especially in Youth and Masters meets.

In short, not everyone three steps between the high hurdles.

I’ve seen 5 steps, or even (*gasp*) alternating 4 step patterns. And I’ve seen hurdlers literally slamming on the breaks between hurdles. (The last time I checked, braking slows you down)

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The hurdle spacings are set so you CAN 3 step between hurdles. College and Elite athletes generally don’t have this problem, but it’s the Youth and Masters that have the most difficulty.

The 400m hurdles is a different story, because the speeds are slower, and you have enough room to modify the race pattern to your stride pattern, including alternating step patterns.

If you followed my Blog for a while, there’s a common theme to all my articles, and that is always going back to fundamentals. I learned this back in Montreal from the Expos Baseball coach Philippe Alou when he had the lowest payroll in Baseball and still had a team in playoff contention.

I own several hurdles DVD (and yes, VHS cassettes) on hurdle drills, but they only address how to hurdle. They don’t address the underlying problems with hurdling, and that includes stride pattern, block setup, and getting to the first hurdle.

Who the heck is Tony Veny?

The name should sound familiar to you as he has coached for over 20 years at UCLA and Cal State Northridge including producing several athletes with All-American status. He’s currently the director of the Men’s and Women’s Track and Field and Cross Country at North Carolina A&T.

He has produced a series of online videos, totaling over 4 hours worth, everything from hurdle mechanics, and training design. It also includes drill and analysis and how to spot and fix the common mistakes.

>> Check out Tony’s excellent videos:

Of course, he shows correct technique between the hurdles.

Remember, doing drills are simply “cues” for racing and there is a difference between coaching and cueing men’s hurdles vs women’s hurdles.

Some people prefer physical DVDs, but the best thing about the online videos is it’s presented in a membership style Blog format where YOU can enter your comments below each of the 6 different videos online… 4 hours worth of instructional training. You can also download the video file for your computer, laptop, iPad or iPhone.

And yes, Tony does pop in once in a while to answer the Blog comments.

I’m a big believer in the “Kaizen” principle, also known as the constant and never-ending improvement in coaching.

>> Check out Tony’s collection of videos: