Latest / The Gill Athletics Track and Field Connections Podcast / #28: Gill1918 presents Evan Gerish Part 1 "3-Step Boot Camp"

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#28: Gill1918 presents Evan Gerish Part 1 "3-Step Boot Camp" · The Gill Athletics Track and Field Connections Podcast

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Welcome to the Gill 1918 Project, a podcast series by
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Check out the show notes below For more information.
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Now let's get into today's topic.
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I never know how to start these, but I usually start with
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gratitude. Thank you very much for being a
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part of the track and field community.
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It's my favorite sport in the whole world, and without you
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high school coaches working, there's no way that we can get
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athletes up and through to the collegiate level.
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So thank you very much for doing what you do and helping to
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progress. Again, my favorite sport.
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For a long time, I've been trying to figure out how we can
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get hurdlers to go from zero to 60 as fast as possible.
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When I was starting out as a young coach, I was frustrated
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with the time that it took to get a new and developing hurdler
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from having never done hurdles before in their life to three,
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stepping competitively. And what I've tried to do, you
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know, through this presentation is explain the way that, you
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know, I've talked to lots of coaches across the country, lot
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of coaches who know more than I do.
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And I think I figured out a way that we can sort of fast track
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this development. If you're a long time coach,
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hopefully there's going to be one or two things that are going
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to reach you here today. But if you're a brand new coach,
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hopefully this will be very helpful to you, right?
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So in today's presentation, I'm going to talk about a few
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things. First, we're going to talk about
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identifying hurdlers on day one. Who were your hurdlers?
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Who should they be? We're going to talk about some
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challenges to three stepping that I have noticed hurdlers
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over the years have. We're going to talk about form
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mistakes and how to correct those mistakes.
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A couple cues that I like to use.
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We're going to go over three-step drills.
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There is a definite progression of drills that I have found that
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works. And if you're somebody who's
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interested in implementing this, I would love to hear feedback
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from you as to how that works for you.
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And then I would like to dedicate some time to
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discussion. There are probably hurdle
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coaches in here who could input. And if you have questions, I
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just sort of want to turn it into a group, a group
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conversation. So OK, so you are there on day
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one. You've got your hurdlers, you've
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got your sprinters, you've got your jumpers.
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Some have already said I want to do this.
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Some have said, you know, I'm a thrower, but they are this big.
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Some have said that I'm a hurdler, but they're this big.
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But what you want to do is you want to figure out quickly and
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early who your hurdlers are. So when you're looking over the
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sea of of the faces, there's going to be a couple ones that
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stand out. You're going to notice in the
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hallway, especially if you work in the building, there's those
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tall kids that move well, they're coordinated, right?
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They stand out, literally you can see them if somebody asks to
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hurdle. That's really exciting to me
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because usually I have to convince somebody who I go, no,
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I swear you're going to be really good at this and I have
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to convince them to hurdle. But if I have somebody who comes
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to me and goes, you know, my mom hurdled, I want to continue this
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or you know, I always thought it would be interesting.
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I say great, let's try it out, OK.
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Multi sport athletes, I've also found transition well to
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hurdling, especially gymnasts, especially volleyball players,
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receivers, obviously they're tall and fast and and wrestlers,
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wrestlers are tough. They've got lots of grit.
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They're not afraid of falling down, getting back up and and
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racing again, right. Also, we are not the islet of
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misfit toys. I've seen this before.
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I've seen coaches say, all right, hurdlers go hurdle over
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here. Maybe the coach isn't an
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experienced hurdle coach, but they want points over there and
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so they just kind of throw the Island of Misfit toys off to the
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side and don't deal with it. We cannot do that for hurlers.
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We need to identify and pick two to three strong, tall, fast
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athletes per grade. In Iowa, you got to pick
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probably 4, right? Because I want to be able to
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reload every year with, you know, the shuttle team.
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You guys do. You guys do a great job for us
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with recruiting, with having the 400 hurdles.
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We appreciate that. But yeah, anyway.
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And then never force a hurdler. If you come up to a kid and you
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say, hey, I really want you to hurdle, you'd be great at it.
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And they say, I'll tell you what, coach, it's not for me.
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I usually push it one more time. And then if they are really,
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really rebuffing me, then I'm not going to force somebody to
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hurl that doesn't want to do it. I don't want them to come to
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practice without the joy that they should have.
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Right. So where to begin?
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If you're somebody who is interested in taking notes, I
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would just take a picture of this formula right here.
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So when I have a hurdler and they are on day one and they've
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never done hurdles before and I got to get them going, they
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don't even know what lead leg they're doing.
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I do the first drill. And so with the first drill I'll
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take an athlete and I'll send them way over there and I'll put
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a hurdle down, hurdles facing this way and I'll say, all
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right, come on through, just do it.
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Just jump over it. I know we don't like to use the
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word jump, but they don't know this yet.
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So I have them run, I have them go over the hurdle.
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Now they're over there. I go, all right, I noticed that
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they use their right lead leg. So then I flipped the hurdle and
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now it's going this way and they're over there and I say,
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all right, let's go again. And they do it.
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And then they use their right lead leg.
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And now they're over there and I flipped the hurdle again and I
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go, all right, one more time. And they do it and they use
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their left lead leg. All right, go again, Flip it.
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Now they're coming this way with the right lead leg.
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OK, so I noticed that on three of those times you used your
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right leg, but one of those times you used your left.
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Are you finding that one is more comfortable for you?
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Yeah, I feel like the right leg is more comfortable.
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OK. Yeah, for sure.
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So I'm going to set it up one more time and let's try it with
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the right leg. That feels good.
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Alright, shoot, you're a right lead leg.
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Sometimes it's that easy. Sometimes it's not that easy,
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but a lot of times it is that easy.
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They will find that they gravitate toward one side or the
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other and there you go. OK, the second drill that I have
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them do right away is cannonballs.
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I'm going to talk about cannonballs on the next slide,
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but the idea is visualize doing a cannonball into a pool off the
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side of the pool. OK, Third drill I do is five
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steps at distance. I say, all right, we've done
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couple drills. Now it's time to put the hurdles
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at distance. I just want to see you run five
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steps in between through the hurdles.
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They've got a little bit of momentum they're able to run
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through. Five steps in between is not
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unmanageable. Usually for even a beginning
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athlete. If you tell them to do 5 steps,
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you say it's going to be 5 steps, they will appreciate your
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confidence and you can even count out loud as they're going
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through. 123-451-2345 After five steps of distance, we have a
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marches. So a marches I'll talk about
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just a little bit. I've got a video to show you.
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Basically we're slowing the athlete down and forcing them to
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hit proper angles. And then 5th is the three-step
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progression drill. These hurdles will get farther
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and farther apart as the athletes go through and it's
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going to force them to make that three-step pattern even if the
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hurdles are at 21 feet apart. OK, all right, so real quick, I
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have to pause and address this. Sally Pearson did not coach her,
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but Sally Pearson has a straight leg in this video, one of the
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greatest hurdlers of all time, and I hate this, this picture.
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Why do I hate this picture? I hate this picture because
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athletes, young athletes, young hurdlers will look at this
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picture and they will say my lead leg needs to be straight.
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If I can eliminate a beginning hurdler from thinking that their
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lead leg needs to be straight, I can eliminate a ton of
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developmental problems down the road.
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OK, this is Grace. This is Grace racing.
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She's got a straight lead leg, same as Sally.
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When we race, the leg straightens out.
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This is Grace drilling. When Grace drills, the knee is
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up, the heel is close to the body.
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We want vertical shins if we can, as much as we can.
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A horizontal lever will swing down like this, but if I add a
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knee element and a shin element, I can punch down more like a
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staple. Does that make sense?
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Hopefully. So that's the big thing I need
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to avoid. I need to get them to start with
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short angles, not a long lead leg.
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That's the that's the really the big thing that I think we
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figured out here. So where to begin?
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Cannonballs. Going back to this drill, you
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set a hurdle up, the athlete runs through and you have them
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visualize I'm jumping off the side of a pool into water.
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So coaches, I don't know if you have a lead leg or not, but just
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visualize what that action looks like.
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The lead leg comes up, it's tight, the heel is close to the
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body, the knee is up. The trail leg is the last to
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leave. It pushes off, joins.
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I can't do this because I'll fall.
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It joins the lead leg here. The athlete grabs both and
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plunges into the water for a cannonball.
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OK, that is exactly the visual I need you to think of.
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So what we're going to look at is a video in this athletes.
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This is day one for this athlete.
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This is a multi. I'm going to just set up what
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we're showing here. So this is a multi athlete.
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We're teaching her to hurdle. And So what you're seeing is
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truly a day one situation. I'm going to have her do
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cannonballs over the hurdle, slow it down a little bit, OK,
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So she's running up to it. OK.
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I don't love the way she landed on that.
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Again, it's her first. It's her first time.
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But do you see how up, knee up, land together, just like a
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cannonball? Knee up, land together one more
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time. Knee up, land together.
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All right, that is the first drill.
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If you can get them to land. Knee together.
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And another thing I want to talk about.
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Well, holy smokes, here. There we go.
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Another thing I want to talk about is the sound.
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You could do this blind. You don't have to watch.
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You can listen. I want the hurdlers to sound
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like this. But snare, OK, If they land like
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this, that means that the lead leg is waiting for its buddy,
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the trail leg, and that the athlete can touchdown and run
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off just like that. The trail leg needs to be quick.
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A lot of times if I had 30 seconds to explain to somebody
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what hurtling is, if I just had 30 seconds, I would say hurtling
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is a battle of speed between your lead leg and your trail
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leg. One of them is faster than the
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other one right now. OK, most athletes, their lead
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leg is faster than their trail leg.
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What that looks like is this over the hurdle down late.
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OK, So a lot of times they'll have the lead the trail leg
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hanging back here. And that's how you're going to
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hit the hurdle with the knee. That's how you're going to hit
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it with the top of the foot. OK, So what I need is
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cannonballs so that that lead leg can wait for its buddy, the
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trail leg, so it can get around and land like that.
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OK, Once we do the cannonballs, we go right to the five steps at
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distance. I say, wow, you did a couple
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drills here. You're ready to go.
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I set the hurdles up. I see you're going to go over
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with whatever lead leg we decided they're going to come
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through. They're going to do 5 steps.
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They're going to feel real confident that they're hurdling
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now. OK.
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So once you get them past five steps at distance, now they're
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ready. Now they're ready for big
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drills. Before we do that, let's just
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talk about some things that I have noticed are going to limit
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kids a little bit or or maybe things to challenges, challenges
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to three stepping. If the athletes not coordinated,
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it's going to be tough. If they don't have general
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coordination, it may be a better idea to develop them as a
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sprinter. I mean think about them senior
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year. It's about 3 seconds conversion
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give or take from the 100 meter dash to the hurdles.
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So if you've got an athlete that that a male athlete, let's say,
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and you don't ever see him breaking 13 in the 100 meter
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dash, it's best to probably just train him as a sprinter rather
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than a hurler because if 16 is his, you know, potential because
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of his speed, you know, depending on what you're looking
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for, that may or may not be an Ave. to go down if they're
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vertically challenged. If they're vertically
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challenged, they're going to have to have much more lift in
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their hips. And that's the one thing that we
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may want to try to avoid as hurdle coaches is the lift in
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the hips from the athlete. OK.
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I want to maintain a level hip height instead of a high
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parabola. OK, So if I'm looking at these
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two right here and the hurdle is right here, a lot of athletes
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are going to jump up and down over the hurdle.
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But if I can take off a little bit farther back and have a
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little bit of a lower parabola, I can actually be hurtling down
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onto the hurdle, which is what we want.
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Jumping. Jumping's another thing.
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Obviously if they're jumping up, they're getting a lot of hip
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lift and then they're going to be soaring through the air,
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wasting time, and then they're going to come crashing down onto
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their hips. They're going to have to do a
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full body squat to get back to race form.
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Low confidence is another thing. If the athlete is not willing to
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run with reckless abandoned through the hurdles, then
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they're probably going to be limited as far as, you know,
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their potential and their speed. You got to be running at full
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speed through these hurdles in order to be successful.
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If there's any kind of hesitation or trepidation,
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you're not going to be successful.
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All this really leads into, and it's all really related, but not
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enough speed into or off of the hurdle is obviously going to
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limit you as well. Some things to consider.
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So you've got some athletes, some are maybe vertically
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challenged, some are athletically challenged, but
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you've got your hurdlers and now you're going to try to mitigate
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those issues. So some things to consider.
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I was talking to coach a little bit before we started.
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I get questions all the time. Do they have to three-step?
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No. What if you've got a what if
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you've got a girl who's 46? Am I going to teach her to
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three-step? Is that going to be realistic?
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Probably not. Probably not.
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What you can do is you can get a little bit creative though.
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If you've got a short athlete that is probably going to be
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more successful with the four steps, you can try to sneak a
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three-step in there every once in a while.
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OK, let's see you go out. You take that first hurdle with
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your lead leg. That's hurdle one.
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Now hurdle two, you go 234. You're back on your off leg, but
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then you do another pair of 41234 land 1234.
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So now you're back on your original lead leg that you like.
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Maybe there you're close enough that you want to try to throw a
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three-step, Maybe you want to do 2 more.
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But eventually probably the athletes going to get close
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enough to the hurdle that they're going to feel confident
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enough to throw that three-step. OK, so if you've got an athlete
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and they're feeling limited with their four stepping, their four
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stepping the whole way, maybe it's 8 or 9 to the first hurdle
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and they're 4 stepping the whole way and they're just getting
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kind of frustrated. That's the thing that I would
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try to add in is after a couple 4 steps, are you feeling good?
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Where can you try to throw a three-step in there?
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OK, because then you could always go back to four stepping,
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just an option. So if they are too slow or too
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high, it kind of goes back to my last slide.
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It's either a combination of lack of confidence.
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The take off distance might be too close to the hurdle.
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If they're too close to the hurdle, I'm going to want to go
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up rather than go through, right?
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Because I feel like I'm too close.
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I'm not able to get my feet up and out of the way.
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And then the front foot flick. This is one thing that I hate
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the front flick flick. Tell me if you recognize this.
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I go to the hurdle, I go up, I attack well, and then I go
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right. Do you see that lift that I just
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did? My entire body goes up when I do
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that front foot flick. OK, so we don't want to lead
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again. This goes back to the straight
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lead leg. This is no good.
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This is no good because I'm bringing this whole trunk up.
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I want a high knee, a close heel and a lot of right angles here.
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That's ideal for hurling. That's exactly where I want to
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be. So we got two options.
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We got hurdles. They're at a distance and
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they're at a height. So you have two things you can
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do. If the athlete thinks that the
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height is too much, put it down, tape on the ground.
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If the athlete thinks that it's too far, move it closer.
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Baby steps. That's all you can do.
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I mean, really, you're limited in hurtling by either putting it
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closer or putting it farther down, right?
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So you can get creative with how you want to do that.
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But those are really your two options.
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If it's too far away, you move them in.
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If they're scared of the height, you put them down until they're
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confident enough to do it. A lot of times I'll notice that
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my prep hurdlers are doing things like twisting.
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If they go into the hurdle and the elbow crosses the midline,
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now they're here and now they've got to fight to get back to the
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other side. Now they're here, way exposed.
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Why am I even facing this way? I should be going down the
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track. OK, so twisting is a big thing.
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Again, you cross the midline, you're over correcting and now
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you're back here. You've got to fight back driving
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with the lead leg. I love this metaphor.
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If you have anybody have kids, anybody have, you know, athletes
18:39
that drive things like that, a lot of first time drivers,
18:43
student drivers think that them the driver should be in the
18:47
middle of the lane. And so if then the drivers in
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the middle of the lane, are we going to coach?
18:56
OK, right there. Got it.
19:00
If that, if they, the driver are in the middle of the lane and
19:03
they're on the left side of the car, where's the car hugging the
19:07
curb? Right.
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It's the same thing with hurdles.
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OK, A lot of hurdlers like to drive with their lead leg.
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They're thinking this lead leg needs to be in the middle of the
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hurdle, or where does that put them?
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Their midline is over now on the trail side, and now they're
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hitting this person in the lane next to them.
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OK, so fun fact, those two black boxes on the hurdles, those are
19:32
for your feet. Those are for your feet.
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So if you put your midline right, dead center, you've got
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those two black boxes. Just line up right with those
19:41
black boxes. You can tell your athletes that,
19:43
OK. Hey gang, Mike Cunningham here.
19:47
Hey, I hope you enjoyed this episode of the Guild 1918
19:50
Project series. It's really my mission, my
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