Latest / The Gill Athletics Track and Field Connections Podcast / #160: Gill1918 presents Track Tribe LIVE: (Part 1) "Building Hurdlers" with Kenny Anderson hosted by Kyle Jones

Transcript

#160: Gill1918 presents Track Tribe LIVE: (Part 1) "Building Hurdlers" with Kenny Anderson hosted by Kyle Jones · The Gill Athletics Track and Field Connections Podcast

• 0:00
  Welcome to the Gill 1918 Project, a podcast series by
• 0:03
  coaches, for coaches powered by Gill Athletics.
• 0:06
  Think of this as the Ted Talks of track and field coaching.
• 0:09
  Short, insightful, and packed with valuable strategies to help
• 0:12
  you grow as a coach. We'll bring in the once a year
• 0:15
  track clinic straight to your ears daily.
• 0:17
  Interested in creating your own episode?
• 0:19
  Everyone's welcome to participate.
• 0:21
  Check out the show notes below For more information.
• 0:23
  Now let's get into today's topic.
• 0:27
  Hey, welcome back. This is Trek Coach Jones.
• 0:30
  Some people just know me as coach and we are back with the
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  Trek Tribe live sessions again. I've got a super special guest
• 0:38
  with us today. I'm a super excited.
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  Most people know him, but if you don't, you better get to know
• 0:45
  this man. I am in the room with coach
• 0:49
  Kenny Anderson today, but before we rock into the coach's
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  introduction, I do want to remind you please share this
• 0:56
  live. Make sure that you get your
• 0:58
  people on this so you can hear this.
• 1:00
  You don't want to miss this information.
• 1:01
  We're going to be talking about hurdling the day y'all, and I'm
• 1:04
  telling you right now, you want to hear from this man.
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  And the one thing I can say is to make sure you take notes
• 1:14
  because you want to have this stuff because it's Evergreen
• 1:17
  stuff that happens and it's success happens over and over
• 1:19
  and over again. If you need to, you can also
• 1:22
  find us on the school app SKOOL. Look for the track tribe.
• 1:27
  And we've got a lot of live sessions that we do on a monthly
• 1:30
  basis. And so this is just one of the
• 1:33
  few that we've done so far and many more to come.
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  But with all that being said, again, I'm track Coach Jones and
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  I'm excited to be here with you. We're going to welcome our
• 1:41
  coach, Kenny Anderson. Coach, how you doing today?
• 1:44
  Man, I'm great, my guy, I'm great.
• 1:46
  Thanks for having me. I'm I'm looking forward to to
• 1:49
  talking to you. Absolutely, man.
• 1:51
  Thank you. Thank you for joining us, man.
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  We're here live here at 8:30 Eastern Standard Time right now.
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  So coach, why don't you do me a favor and do the rest of us a
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  favor as well? Wouldn't you tell us a little
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  bit about yourself? Who are you?
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  What's your coaching philosophy? What's your program like?
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  Where are you? How they find you, Right?
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  All this good stuff that I know people want to know immediately,
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  like who is this guy and why should I listen to him?
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  Got you. OK, No problem.
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  So I'm Kenny Anderson. I am the head coach at Central
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  Methodist University. We're located located in
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  Fayette, MO. That's a lot of people don't
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  know where that's at, but we're right outside of Columbia, MO
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  small town Fayette. So I've been here six years at
• 2:34
  at CMU. Before that I was an assistant
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  at Johnson C Smith University, originally from Florida,
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  graduate of Florida A&M University and my background
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  sprinting hurdles. I was a hurdler.
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  So I'm, I'm looking forward to talking, talking about hurdles,
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  but just a little bit about, you know, my philosophy as a coach,
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  you know how we operate here at CMUI, believe in three things,
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  communication, trust and family. So everything is built off of
• 3:01
  those principles. Every athlete is different.
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  So we believe in building relationships with our athletes.
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  You can't coach them all the same.
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  So what you can say to one person, you might not be able to
• 3:12
  say to the other. So you got to know who they are
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  first and not only happens by communication and then over time
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  you build the level of trust, which is the second, you know,
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  principle. So, and if I trust you, coach
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  Jones, you trust me, we trust each other, then you know, we
• 3:26
  can be successful as a unit. So like that's a big part of our
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  program. Like we got to have trust.
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  You know, we're, it's a partnership and we're working
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  together. And then the last thing is
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  family. So I, I come from a big family.
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  Family is very, very important to me.
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  Even though we're small Fayette, like we're very, very, very
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  diverse here. So we got people from all over
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  the the country, Florida, Texas, California, on you, on our, on
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  our team and our program. And we have quite a few
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  international student athletes here as well.
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  So very diverse, very family oriented.
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  And so we're all moving in the same direction, trying to
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  accomplish our goals, both individually as well as a unit.
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  And, and you know, that's, that's how we move.
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  So that's, that's my philosophy, that's how we get down.
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  And yeah, I. Love it.
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  Communication, trust family. You know what?
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  You know what my favorite part about all that is that you've
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  rattled that off so fast. It wasn't an ad, right?
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  I don't know. Did anybody hear that?
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  Like it was like communications trust family.
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  Like I could tell that that's ingrained in the way that you do
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  things because of how fast you came up with it, right?
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  And it's just like it wasn't something that you had to think
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  about. It was, this is who we are,
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  right? And so my favorite part of that
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  of those 3, it's family, right? I'm a huge Family Guy.
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  That's one of my core values, right?
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  And so I, I believe in heavily living that core value.
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  Matter of fact, I've had some opportunities that come up and
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  they go and they take me away from my family.
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  I'll immediately say no, right? They're governed and guided by
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  our core values, right? And so the way that you said
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  that, it really struck, it resonated with me, it struck A
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  chord with me because that, you know, we can tell when
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  somebody's authentic and when somebody's playing around.
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  And this is just, oh, this is who we are, quote UN quote or
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  air quotes. So with that being said, coach,
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  you know family is a big deal for you.
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  What's it like for an athlete? First of all, let me let me
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  start there and then I want to dive into the hurdle stuff.
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  I know that's what people are really interested.
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  What's it like for you and for the athlete if they were to
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  decide to be part of your particular family or trap
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  family? It's, it's, it's literally that,
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  that family. So my job as a coach is to guide
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  you both on the track, off the track and life.
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  My, my job is to help you to accomplish your goal.
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  So, you know, sometimes it's tough love, sometimes it's
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  coddling, You know, whatever the case may be, like I'm here to
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  help you. So I, I'll give you an example.
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  A lot of our students are, are international here.
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  So over Thanksgiving, they really can't go home.
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  So I stay here and Thanksgiving and we do Thanksgiving together
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  as a family. So I, that's just like one small
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  example, but it's more so OK, Like what do you need?
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  How can I be a resource? How can I put you in position to
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  be successful? Who can I contact that you might
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  need for, for your job, your business, your career?
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  It's just networking. So and I'm just here to serve.
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  I feel like coaching is, is a calling and a purpose for me.
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  So I love what I do every day. And so as, as as much as I can
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  help. That's, that's what I'm here
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  for, not just on the track, but that's.
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  The mark of a great leader. That's the mark of a great
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  leader. You're saying some things and I
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  want to call it out here. I'm here to serve, right?
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  And if we're going to be leaders, we have to serve 1st.
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  And ma'am, I'll tell you, almost got me teary eyes right now.
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  The kids who don't don't have family, they can't go home.
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  I stay back with them. And we, we, we get together.
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  That speaks volumes, man. And I don't, I don't know that
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  we have enough of that going around the country, OK.
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  And, you know, just just just to piggyback on it, I think that
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  that's how we've been able to build and be successful here
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  because it's more than just, you know, what we do on the track.
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  You hear a lot of coaches talk about, you know, being
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  transactional versus transformational.
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  So don't get me wrong, like I, I want to win.
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  Like I'm very competitive. Like I want to win.
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  I want to be successful, but I also like, want to have a large
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  impact on, you know, 5-10 years down the line, they're going to
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  remember the experience. Like Coach Kenny was on my butt.
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  But, you know, I know why Coach Kenny was the way he is or, you
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  know, I don't understand now why he does stuff because I'm, I'm a
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  little crazy, just a little bit. But like 5-10 years.
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  OK, that makes sense. And so just guiding them,
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  helping them to to become, you know, successful human beings.
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  You know, I think that's that's a big part of what we do here at
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  Central Methodist. Man, that's outstanding.
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  But that's, that's what we do, right?
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  That's that's the servitude part.
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  You got to be a little bit crazy to be a track coach in the 1st
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  place. I think that's the first
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  qualification that they don't, they don't tell you it's on a
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  resume. It's just.
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  Invisible. Ink right.
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  OK, so let's dive into the me because I know we got some
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  people that are here and and those of you who are out there
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  listening to us live, feel free to drop some questions in the
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  chat if you have them. We'll make sure we try to get to
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  those as as soon as we can. As we dive to this things, we're
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  going to get into some a little bit of technical information,
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  but mostly some of the fundamentals and the principles
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  of this thing called hurdling, right?
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  One of the more technical things, more technical events on
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  the track in the 1st place, right?
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  OK, so OK, coach, I'm going to hit you with a little bit of a
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  dynamic question, right? So if, if, if a high school
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  coach has 8 to maybe 12 weeks to try to get a hurdler together,
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  right, what are what are like maybe the three non negotiables
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  that you would instill in that particular coach that he needs
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  to transfer over to that athlete.
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  So what are the three non negotiable things that you would
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  say, Hey, these are the three things you need to do as a coach
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  to make sure that your athlete gets to the best, best level
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  that recent highest potential if they can?
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  Great question. SO2 parts one, if it's a short
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  hurdler, they need to know how to accelerate.
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  They need to know how to bound and the hurdle technique, all
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  right. So if it's a long hurdler or a
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  combo hurdler, they still need to learn how to accelerate, They
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  still need to learn how to bound.
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  You just add a little tempo on that.
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  So those are my three non negotiables.
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  But hurdling, you got to be fast.
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  You know, a lot of I see you know, and this is not a shot
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  shot a shot at any coach, but I I see a lot of coaches.
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  All you do is hurdle. You don't Sprint like, and
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  that's that's a that's a big no, no.
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  Like you got it. You got to be fast, you got to
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  be able to run. If you can't run, how are you
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  going to hurdle fast? Like it's it's a it's an
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  oxymoron. So speaking on that, you know, I
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  see a lot of coaches and I'm, and I'm, I'm going off on a
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  tangent because this this kind of grinds me just a little bit.
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  So as, as a coach, when I'm, you know, looking at athletes,
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  potential student athletes as far as recruiting and everything
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  like that, and you see hurdlers, all they do is hurdle.
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  Then I'm wondering what is what else can they do?
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  I feel like hurdlers are the most athletic people in track
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  and field. Like if you can hurdle, you can
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  do a lot of things. Either you can hurdle and
• 11:00
  Sprint, you can hurdle and jump, whatever.
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  Like you, you can do more than just hurdle.
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  But a lot of coaches get caught up in, OK, you're a hurdler.
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  Every time you go to attract me, you have to hurdle.
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  You're doing your student athletes A disservice.
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  You don't have to hurdle every weekend.
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  You don't have to hurdle every meet you look at, you know,
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  college programs, their hurdlers are sprinting or their hurdlers
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  are running the 200 or they're running 400.
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  So they're, they're on the relays, they're they're jumping,
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  they're doing something else. So I guess a non negotiable
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  another one is make sure your your your hurdlers are doing
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  more than just hurdling at meats.
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  So we got acceleration, we got bounding and then whether you're
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  a short or long Hurd or that that changed one of your non
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  negotiables, which would have been technique for the short
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  ones, right hurdle. You got to learn how to hurdle.
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  First of all, you can kind of get away with sprinting in
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  between that the longer hurdles, right, if you'd be terribly
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  technically, but you have to be sound on the short hurdles.
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  But then the other non negotiable if you're a longer
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  hurdle was learning how to run at tempo, right, learning how to
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  find your rhythm and your pacing.
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  So in addition from what I'm hearing you saying is the the
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  non negotiable bonus with that is hey find some other events to
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  get into outside of hurtling because the Sprint mechanics are
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  what's going to carry you beyond where you are just with your
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  technical ability. Absolutely, absolutely, right
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  on. All right, I hope I broke that
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  down so I'll charge y'all later for that breakdown.
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  That was a good breakdown. That was a good breakdown.
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  As a former teacher, man, so I, I promise I'll try to try to do
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  the make the simple stuff or technical stuff simple, right?
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  And so I, I 100% agree with you. And, and you know, I've, I've
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  had times in the past and I'm like, I have like jumpers,
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  right? And I have to go, OK, you're not
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  jumping today. Let's just run, right?
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  And I've had parents go and why isn't my kid jumping?
• 13:02
  First of all, because I said so, right.
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  Then the second thing is the person actually learn how to
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  run, right? So you got a high school coach
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  that comes in here and we're telling them right now, stop
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  just putting your kids in the hurdles.
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  They need to be able to do more events, kid that the the college
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  coaches need to be able to see more, right?
• 13:23
  They need to see more than we can do.
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  Like Christian Taylor for example, Big big jumper and he
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  ran, I know he ran the open four and the 4x4 a lot.
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  Right. In Florida, so that that aligns
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  with some of these high profile athletes.
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  OK, so transition a little bit because you talked to just a
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  little bit about it earlier when you discussed technique versus
• 13:44
  your rhythm, what about rhythm versus power?
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  So when, when do you when do you chase each of those when it
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  comes to hurdles, rhythm versus power?
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  I think it's simultaneous. I think, you know, our training
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  style or my training style is more ends to the middle.
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  And what I mean by that is instead of just focus, focusing
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  on one thing at a time, we're trying to hit everything at the
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  same time and bring it together. So 2 ends of the spectrum.
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  So you have to have power and you have to have rhythm.
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  And so we're not going to just go all power, power, power,
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  power and forget the rhythm. And we can't just go all rhythm
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  and forget the power. So we work both ends of the
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  spectrum. And then as we get closer to
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  championship season, you start bringing them together.
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  So you, so your power, you know, your acceleration days, you
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  know, your mid ball throws, your bounding your, your plyos,
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  that's your power days and your rhythm, let's say for a short,
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  short hurdler, you know, that's your technique work over, you
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  know, early in the year, 7 to 9 hurdles, you know, late in the
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  year, 10 to 12 hurdles, you know, just drilling and, and,
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  and establishing rhythm, lower heights, discounted rates, you
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  know, for the hurdles. And then as you get into
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  competition, you start putting those together.
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  So that's, that's how we train here.
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  It's, it's not just power at the beginning of the season and then
• 15:18
  rhythm at the end of the season. We're working both of those, you
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  know, from Week 1 and and bringing them together as we get
• 15:27
  closer to when the lights come on and we need to run fast.
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  I'll stand. So you generated some questions
• 15:33
  for me and I'm going to try to remember all of them because I'm
• 15:36
  like, I'm soaking this all up to y'all to get to sit here and
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  learn from one of the best in the business.
• 15:43
  The the approach that you're taking as a combined approach,
• 15:46
  right? We know we got to develop
• 15:47
  rhythm. We know we got to develop power.
• 15:49
  One of the first questions I have is, you know, obviously you
• 15:52
  can have theory all day long and you can you can have plans all
• 15:56
  day long, but at the end of the day, we have to coach with our
• 15:59
  eyes. So how is it, you know, that you
• 16:02
  know when it's time for a kid to speed it up without losing a
• 16:07
  pattern, for example, right, or losing certain things that
• 16:10
  you're trying to teach them? How do you know when it's time
• 16:12
  for them to move up to that next level and speed things up?
• 16:17
  Great question. So really and, and rhythm, we
• 16:20
  start low heights, discounted and touchdown times.
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  Like I'm going to use the short hurdles, you know, for example,
• 16:28
  when the touchdown times are, you know, faster than, you know
• 16:32
  what race pace really is for them, then it's time to, to move
• 16:38
  them to the next stage because they've mastered or, or have
• 16:42
  gotten really comfortable with this exercise, this drill.
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  So for example, let's say you have a young lady and you're
• 16:50
  doing 7 hurdles and a 2 foot discount for the hurdles and the
• 16:57
  hurdles are at, you know, 27 inches and she's running, you
• 17:01
  know, .910 touchdown times when she's doing that.
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  OK, now we have to change the stimulus because like that's
• 17:10
  that's fast for her. So either we move the hurdles
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  out one foot discount or we go from 27 to 30, but we have to
• 17:20
  change the stimulus and then we establish, OK, it might take her
• 17:24
  a few weeks to hit those touchdown times again.
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  And then when she hits those touchdown times again, then we
• 17:29
  change the stimulus again. So that's when when they're
• 17:32
  running whatever your goal pace and they're starting to hit
• 17:36
  that, that goal pace and and practice smaller hurdles, this
• 17:40
  kind of hurdlers, this kind of hurdles.
• 17:43
  Now we want to change the stimulus to get it as close to
• 17:46
  race pace or race distance or race height as possible.
• 17:50
  But we always start off and I don't know if this is answering
• 17:53
  your question because I'm all over the place, but we, we, we
• 17:57
  always start off for example, like I want, I want them to feel
• 18:03
  what one O feels like touchdown times in between the hurdles.
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  So whatever spacing, whatever height I can use to achieve
• 18:13
  that, that's where I start. And then as we get better and
• 18:17
  get comfortable, then we progress from there.
• 18:20
  Did that answer your question? It did right?
• 18:23
  Because what essentially I keep hearing right and if people
• 18:25
  don't know, hey, when do I progress an athlete and when do
• 18:29
  I add more speed to it? And from what I'm hearing is the
• 18:33
  reason you would progress an athlete is if they've mastered a
• 18:38
  specific stimulus that you have in front of them, right here is
• 18:42
  the block. And we don't move on to this,
• 18:45
  move on from this block until I know you've mastered this or got
• 18:48
  a close to mastery as possible, right?
• 18:50
  Right. And then we add some different,
• 18:53
  some nuances to put you back into failure.
• 18:57
  And I use the word loosely, right?
• 19:00
  And then I told one of my athletes this last week and she
• 19:02
  fell over the hurdles. I said welcome to hurdling young
• 19:05
  lady. And she got, she got sad and she
• 19:07
  was just crying. She said I'm not even mad that I
• 19:10
  fell. It's just the way that I fell
• 19:12
  because she took the hurdle with her.
• 19:13
  I was like, it's a strong person, young lady, that's OK.
• 19:16
  I was like, you're not hurdling until you fall.
• 19:18
  But this is what I told her. It's it's OK to be upset, to
• 19:22
  feel those feelings. But listen, let me tell you
• 19:24
  something. Failure is never a bad thing.
• 19:26
  It has a bad rap and a bad connotation.
• 19:28
  But to be honest with you, the truth is growth or or or you
• 19:33
  could call it failure if you will to growth is is failure or
• 19:37
  sorry, failure is growth wrapped in pain.
• 19:40
  That's what I told her, say growth is failure wrapped in
• 19:42
  pain and you got to go through it.
• 19:44
  You can't go around, you can't go under it.
• 19:46
  You got to go through it. So that I just not, not to cut
• 19:50
  you off, but just still adamant. So I told my squad this weekend,
• 19:54
  like you, you got to take some L's to get some WS, you take
• 19:59
  2L's, you put them together. I like that.
• 20:05
  But you need some else first. You got learning opportunities.
• 20:08
  I lost this learning. You know you need them learning
• 20:11
  opportunities so you can get them wins all.
• 20:14
  Right, Coach, I'm going to borrow that if you don't mind.
• 20:16
  Go ahead. That's dope, man Listen, we got
• 20:20
  we going. We going to have a whole whole
• 20:21
  lot of signature quotes for y'all by the time we finish
• 20:24
  this. So that was the two LS right.
• 20:27
  I mean, if you obviously, if you're not watching the live on
• 20:29
  on the YouTube channel right now, he's he's throwing up the
• 20:32
  the West with the two LS connecting at the bottom points
• 20:34
  right makes AW, so the LS make WS.
• 20:37
  That's awesome. So again, kind of go back to
• 20:41
  here's the masterpiece. Sometimes you got to slow things
• 20:43
  down. Now, could you could you back up
• 20:46
  a second because we may have some people who don't understand
• 20:49
  some of the terminology you're using.
• 20:51
  I get it because I've been in the game for a while, but it may
• 20:53
  be somebody's new to this. So could you explain discounted
• 20:58
  right that the words you how you're using discounted rates or
• 21:02
  discounted distances, right or and then also some of the
• 21:06
  terminology that you use within the hurdling in itself like
• 21:10
  touchdown points, right or touchdown.
• 21:13
  Yeah, yes, Sir. So discounted.
• 21:17
  We never practice at race base. And the reason why we never
• 21:22
  practice at race base, you know, when you go to a competition,
• 21:28
  student athletes, they have adrenaline.
• 21:31
  Most of you know, they have most of the time only do it like one
• 21:34
  time. You got people next to you, the
• 21:36
  lights are on, your blood's pumping, you ready So you don't
• 21:40
  have to do it once and practice. We're doing multiple reps And so
• 21:44
  you don't have the same adrenaline as you do at at a
• 21:47
  meet. So we want to practice good
• 21:50
  habits. We want to practice where they
• 21:54
  feel the same type of rhythm that they will feel in a race.
• 21:57
  We want that at practice, so we moved the hurdles in so we can
• 22:01
  have those same type of efforts in practice, especially if
• 22:05
  you're doing 3 to 4 reps, you know the athletes going to get
• 22:08
  tired. So we want to keep that same
• 22:10
  rhythm that they're going to have in a meet in practice.
• 22:13
  So we move the hurdles in. Some people do feet, some people
• 22:16
  do meters. I do both.
• 22:19
  I've got I've done it so long to where I know like and I wear a
• 22:22
  size tending to have shoes. So like, I know where, you know,
• 22:26
  a 1 foot discount, 2 foot discount from the original
• 22:30
  hurdle mark is in in relation to meters, but we never, never
• 22:37
  practice at the at the regular marks.
• 22:39
  Everything is always discounted because I want them to feel race
• 22:45
  rhythms. I want them to feel, you know,
• 22:47
  being tight in between the hurdles, having to get their
• 22:51
  feet down and, and and attacking and and being small and
• 22:54
  createspace so that that's what we do.
• 22:58
  So take off, touchdown, take off is when you're actually taking
• 23:01
  off to, you know, attack the hurdle.
• 23:04
  Touchdown is when your Lee Lake touches down off the hurdle, so.
• 23:13
  So you measure that. You measure from the time they
• 23:16
  take off in front of the hurdle to the time that Lee Lake
• 23:21
  touches down after the hurdle. I do that and I, I, you know,
• 23:26
  with my stopwatch touchdown times.
• 23:28
  So when Lee Lake touches down off of hurdle number one to when
• 23:34
  the Lee Lake touches down off of hurdle #2 that's touchdown time.
• 23:38
  OK. Oh, OK, so that's a different
• 23:40
  metric than I thought it was. And originally I was thinking,
• 23:43
  hey, pop to go right, since it's it's launched on turtle to to
• 23:48
  your foot back down to the ground, right.
• 23:49
  So that's what it sounds like, but it sounds like also take off
• 23:53
  to the touchdown, but then also space to the next hurdle, take
• 23:57
  off the touchdown is that. Correct.
• 23:59
  Yeah. So I think what you're saying if
• 24:01
  I'm, if I'm understanding like there's there's flight time,
• 24:04
  airtime. So when you take off to the
• 24:06
  hurdle and then when the Lee leg touches down, you know, people,
• 24:09
  some people time that I time when the Lee leg comes off of
• 24:14
  hurdle #1, touchdown, you got your three steps, you're
• 24:17
  attacking hurdle number 2 when the Lee leg comes off of hurdle
• 24:21
  #2. Touchdown, Touchdown Touchdown
• 24:25
  after one and after 2. Yeah.
• 24:28
  And then I go all the way down, down the down the track, you
• 24:31
  know, so we're doing 11 hurdles. I'm doing touchdown times for
• 24:36
  each segment to see, OK, where are we falling off?
• 24:39
  Are we staying consistent? Are we getting faster or where,
• 24:42
  where do we need to make adjustments?
• 24:44
  You know, I said the middle of the race, it's the beginning of
• 24:47
  the race, it's the end of the race.
• 24:49
  And as a hurdler, the only way you can do that is by, you know,
• 24:53
  getting touchdown times. So you got a lot of splits in
• 24:57
  it. I got a lot of splits going on.
• 24:59
  A lot. A lot of splits.
• 25:00
  A lot of splits. Do you have other people kind of
• 25:04
  splitting as well at the same time so that you can see if
• 25:06
  there's like an average or if there's any miscues that you
• 25:09
  might be missing? No.
• 25:11
  Not really I've I've done it so long I can just.
• 25:16
  Pop it, he's got the trigger finger over here saying it on.
• 25:20
  YouTube at. This point he's got the finger
• 25:23
  going here and, and popping. Let people know this is what
• 25:27
  we're measuring here. Touchdown, you know, touchdown
• 25:30
  the touchdown or take off the touchdown.
• 25:32
  And each of those segments is going to have a time split to
• 25:35
  it. And what?
• 25:36
  So what? Yeah, I'm going to take a
• 25:37
  sidestep here. So what what tells you that
• 25:41
  something? What are the red flags
• 25:43
  immediately that outside of just the time variation, what are the
• 25:47
  red flags you look for while you're looking at those splits
• 25:51
  or while you're looking at their progression throughout the
• 25:53
  hurdles? There's a major drop off with
• 25:57
  touchdown time. Something is going wrong and
• 26:00
  it's mostly, you know, a technical issue or they're
• 26:05
  reaching in between the hurdle or they're not running in
• 26:09
  between the hurdle or their arms or something is going wrong.
• 26:13
  So in the touchdown times, and I like say, if we're in a one, one
• 26:18
  through 4 hurdles and then you know, 5 through 8, we're one
• 26:22
  three, that's a problem. That's a, that's a big drop.
• 26:27
  So where they they're, they're not ready to handle that speed
• 26:33
  or, or that distance. They're not strong enough,
• 26:35
  they're not fast enough. So I make adjustments, you know,
• 26:39
  either I move the hurdles in closer or you know, we Sprint
• 26:43
  some more. It just, it just varies.
• 26:46
  But red flags is really the inconsistency of a touchdown
• 26:52
  time. So if we're having big drops in
• 26:54
  touchdown times, we got to go back and figure out why we're
• 26:57
  having that big job in the touchdown time.
• 27:00
  Do you often find that it's mainly just the mechanics or, or
• 27:05
  I guess you could say, Let me let me rephrase this.
• 27:08
  What percentage do you see? So let maybe what percentage do
• 27:11
  you see that it's, it's typically Sprint mechanics
• 27:15
  versus speed in itself, like their actual capability, I guess
• 27:19
  you call it with the ceiling, right?
• 27:22
  Or or something else? I think a lot of it is mechanics
• 27:30
  as well as fear, and I say fear because if you are hitting
• 27:37
  touchdown times and you're very consistent, what happens?
• 27:42
  The hurdles start coming up extremely fast.
• 27:45
  So if I am not prepared to take the hurdle at that fast clip,
• 27:51
  I'm going to put on the brakes and I'm going to slow down to
• 27:55
  make sure I'm safe to clear the hurdle.
• 27:59
  So it's a, it's a combination. But a lot of times I see that is
• 28:04
  when they start actually doing it right and they're snapping
• 28:09
  the trailer, bringing the trailer around, they're running
• 28:11
  off the hurdle and they start running up on the hurdles fast.
• 28:15
  They start, it's scary because you're sprinting and the hurdles
• 28:20
  are coming up fast and I don't know what to do.
• 28:22
  So I'm going to slow myself down so I can be safe, so I can clean
• 28:26
  the I can hurdle cleanly without hitting the hurdle or, or
• 28:30
  falling. So I see that a lot.
• 28:35
  And then technique, you know, as, as you, you know, get into a
• 28:38
  rhythm. Sometimes athletes lose their
• 28:40
  technique or do you know, just just get wild and not
• 28:44
  disciplined. Hurtlers going wild, y'all
• 28:51
  Alright? So obviously you're, you're in
• 28:53
  Missouri, right? Yeah.
• 28:55
  Right in Missouri, Right. And, and, and I know the weather
• 28:59
  isn't always great there and. It's freezing right now.
• 29:03
  It's like it's freezing this morning.
• 29:07
  It was -6. Sir, that's enough reason for me
• 29:11
  never to visit Missouri. Right there.
• 29:13
  OK, I've actually been to Missouri several times, but but.
• 29:18
  Hey gang, Mike Cunningham here. Hey, I hope you enjoyed this
• 29:22
  episode of the Guild 1918 Project series.
• 29:25
  It's really my mission, my passion to bring you massive
• 29:28
  amounts of value and I hope this one hit the mark.
• 29:32
  The Gill 1918 Project is really dependent on you if for you to
• 29:37
  build your own episode, to hear your voice, to have your voice
• 29:40
  heard you have something to say and teach other coaches out
• 29:44
  there. So please get a hold of me,
• 29:46
  E-mail, text message, Twitter, smoke signals, get a hold of me
• 29:51
  and let's help create your episode of the Guild 1918
• 29:54
  Project. Hope you enjoy the day, they
• 29:55
  will see you tomorrow.