Latest / The Gill Athletics Track and Field Connections Podcast / #119: Gill1918 presents Sammy Dabbs "High Hurdles Part 2" from Tampa Bay/USF Clinic

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#119: Gill1918 presents Sammy Dabbs "High Hurdles Part 2" from Tampa Bay/USF Clinic · 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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  coaches, for coaches powered by Gill Athletics.
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  Now let's get into today's topic.
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  I don't know if I can show it any better.
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  The visual we see how much up is taking place and it's literally
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  because they're all taking off too close to the hurdles now
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  because they're not going that fast. 14 O like I say, one young
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  lady IS136 in this video, but in this video she's not 13-6 shape
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  yet. I think indoor she ran like 890
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  something fourteen O 13614 three and eight eight in the indoor
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  hurdles good speed, not great speed, but this is what's
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  happening. This is what our average high
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  school track meet kind of looks like yet this is this is my own
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  coaching I can't I can't fuss and nobody but myself when I
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  take my cones away this is exactly what happens they're
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  getting too close. I think the spacing on this is
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  probably about 8.0 meters, but you can see the vertical, you
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  can see all the things they're doing.
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  They hips is turning, trail leg, lead legs is doing all type of
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  crazy stuff because they're trying to run in between.
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  And typically the reason they're trying to run in between is
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  because they started 3 stepping at an early age and the hurdles
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  were too far apart. So in their brain, what they
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  have to do to run in between the hurdles is actually run.
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  And as they get older, they never disassociate that concept
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  with how they have to run in between the hurdles.
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  So unfortunately, now they've gotten to a point where they're
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  all in high school and their brain still says run in between.
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  Because the hurdles, I have to do that to cover the distance
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  and the short time they've had with me as a coach, we have not
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  had enough time to get them to understand.
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  Quicken, shorten and quicken your steps.
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  So when they were younger, had they ran spacings in practice
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  that were shorter and been taught how to quicken and
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  shorten their steps in between, they would be much better at
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  this by the time they got to this point.
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  Is this making sense? OK, all right, all right.
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  For a hurtler who has great speed comes great
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  responsibility, all right. Further down the track, the
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  further you get, the taller the hips get, smaller the steps get.
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  So conceptually what I'm saying is this, as that velocity has
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  built up after about hurdle 5, hurdle 6, the further down the
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  track you're going, your body is really moving.
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  You have to tell yourself, almost literally here, you feel
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  the core starting to get tight and those steps have to be
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  really active. And we just saw Aries in the
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  middle of that video. That's pretty much what he was
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  doing. He's here and he's quickening
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  everything the further down the track he gets.
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  All right, back to this. Hurtler's doing drills where
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  feet move fast but don't displace.
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  Unrealistic. Your hurdle drill should mimic
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  what is taking place in a race, meaning that you should
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  purposely try to put them in situations where the hurdles are
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  flashing at them fast. There's a certain spacing that
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  you should not go inside if you're trying to do fast stuff.
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  Because again, now all of a sudden they're not shuffling
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  like they need to. So I went back and did some
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  analysis on some video when when Tonya was home during COVID and
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  we did a exercise where the hurdles are at 7.7.
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  And I did a strata analysis. And when I went back and looked
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  at the strata analysis on the 7.7 versus when she was actually
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  a lot further out, let's say 8.18 point 2, the exact same
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  adjustment as far as like the the steps in between, they were
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  the exact same from a percentage standpoint.
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  So I was literally able to say, OK, this step was this
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  percentage, and when it went further out, it stayed the exact
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  same way. So that let me know at 7.7, her
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  body still conceptually had to do the same things in between
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  the hurdles that she would if the hurdles were further apart.
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  All right, rhythm, spacing. So I just talked about 7.57
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  point 7. So when she was in high school,
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  I would run her at 7.5 from a six step approach.
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  By the time she got to be third year in college, she was
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  stronger and faster. That 7.5 was too close.
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  We had to go to 7.7. All right for boys, men, 8.2 to
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  8.5. Is that range all right now
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  based on speed? It can either be done from a six
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  step approach or eight step approach based on the athlete.
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  All right. When I do the six step approach
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  when women is 9 point, oh, meters, I have a lot of them.
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  I'll go to 9.09 point, 510 meters and I'll put different
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  athletes on a different line just based on how they
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  accelerate. With the guys, I found it to be
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  10.5 to 11 meters. And when we do that six step
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  approach, we load up on that trail leg and I tell them your
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  eyes need to be looking at that hurdle.
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  For whatever reason, these kids want to put their head down and
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  try to accelerate. You only got 6 steps.
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  You need to have your eyes on that hurdle right now and go
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  into straight attack mode because by taking your eyes off
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  of it for at least two, you're only giving yourself 4 steps to
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  adjust. It's not enough.
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  All right, I'm this part right here.
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  Hurdle drill should mimic was taking place in the race,
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  meaning that you should purposely try to put them in
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  situations where the hurdles are flashing at them very fast.
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  Now we're going to talk about the elite levels.
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  So my next video is the world record in the women's 100
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  hurdles. These are the splits for this
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  race, 379 and I want you to remember 856, 379-850-6379 are
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  the units from between hurdles one through 5856 are the units
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  from hurdle 1 all the way through hurdle 10.
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  All right, again, something else I picked up from Coach Anderson.
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  What we're looking at is time, the time you actually spent
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  doing the actual hurdle exercise.
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  And for me, when I'm doing my video breakdowns and my analysis
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  of my athletes, I'm always looking at these numbers right
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  here. If you took the start out of the
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  equation, take the runoff out of the equation, this right here
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  gives you a really good idea how fast athlete is running so I can
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  make comparisons. All right, 370-9856 rhythm.
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  So you would have to think and practice if she this is what
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  she's running from hurdle one through hurdle 10 in a race, how
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  much faster has she felt in practice?
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  Assuming this is 919193949593, that mean in practice her body,
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  in order to be able to do that, has probably felt 8988 in
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  practice. All right, this was doing COVID
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  when Tonia was back home with me.
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  This is 12 hurdles, six step approach.
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  We just talked about watch how quick she gets her head up.
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  That's that 7.7 All right, 382 a 52 so that that 3 80. 2 That's
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  her lead leg. Touchdown.
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  Off of hurdle. Five yes, OK from her that's the
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  that's the cumulative time from hurdle one to hurdle five with
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  the with her initial yes, from I'm only timing the touchdown
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  and then 852 is a touchdown through 10.
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  So theoretically her body just felt the world record.
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  You can't run something that you haven't.
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  So theoretically her body felt the world record right there.
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  OK, This is what I mean by a herder doing something in a race
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  that you need to make them feel in practice to simulate it.
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  All right, this young lady right here, this is Jalesia Smith.
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  She just graduated from USC. Jalesia Smith ran a windy 1293
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  to win our state meet back in 2021.
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  All right, very talented young lady.
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  Think she was All American at USC, 3-4 times US champion,
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  under 20 going into the state meet.
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  Texas is historically windy. You have to prepare for it.
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  So I didn't know how Wendy was going to be a state, but I knew
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  I needed to prepare her for a situation that she had not seen
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  yet. So this is what we did.
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  We did a 10 step approach. That means I'm trying to add as
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  much speed to the beginning as I can do.
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  We put the 1st 5 hurdles on 30. I think they were about 8.0
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  meters. Then we put a gap.
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  We put a space between hurdle 5 and hurdle 6 and put a five step
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  in there to try to see can we build even more speed.
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  And then the second-half hurdle, six through 10, we dropped the
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  hurdles down to 27. And then I threw a cone
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  literally about this size right in the middle of the track at
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  about 1.3 to 1.4. When people see cones on the
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  track in my videos, they think, do the athletes step on those?
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  I never put them at the takeoff point.
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  They're about almost 2 feet inside the takeoff mark.
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  What it does is a visual, and it tells them, get your feet down
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  all right. So pay attention again to the
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  splits, the number that hits here and the number that hits
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  here. You can see the little red cone
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  just kind of right in there. All right, 398 for the first
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  five and then hurdle 6 through 10413.
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  All right, it's a situational stuff in football.
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  We y'all do this all the time. Third down and 10 what we doing?
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  Offense, defense, third and five, what we doing?
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  We got a defense and offense for every situation that we're
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  dealing with and that's all this is.
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  This was situational. Now this is the actual state
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  meet. She is right here
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  and you look at the girls in one and two and the girl next to
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  her. If you understand what it looks
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  like to get too close, you can see they just start struggling
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  midway through the race because the estate is hot.
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  They jacked up nervous system wise and they got a strong
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  tailwind at them. They not accustomed to having to
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  move that fast. So we said 398 and 4.14124 O 7.
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  So when I hear coaches talk about well you, you got to run
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  regular spacing in practice and regular hurdles in practice to
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  do. The numbers were the exact same,
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  6 inches lower and probably about 1/2 a meter in all right.
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  And she handled it better than everybody else.
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  And so an athlete who can handle that type of situation, for me,
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  that was great. All right, now, tall, short,
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  everybody asks me you want to tall her.
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  I do not want to tall hurtler, not for the short hurdles.
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  Tall hurtlers get in trouble. They are a problem.
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  So for me, this is thought all right, give me that grey stark
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  type. All right on the guys.
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  Let him be about 6 foot and make sure he got some foot speed.
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  All right. Caught me back to the training
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  30 fly times for women if you're trying to be good under 340 for
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  guys under three O 5 all right, if they're not in the speed
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  ranges like this, that means there hurdles what you're
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  running in practice, you're going to have to keep them at a
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  distance that's probably a little bit closer all right
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  until the speed gets up or as everybody else you see it until
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  you start to see them be able to run 1.0 splits in between.
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  Once you can see, they can start running 1.0 splits in between
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  and you can start gently nudging them out, but only until you
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  start to see those 1.0 splits. All right, all right, Those are
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  my social medias. I think I'm I'm fully out.
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  OK, I can take a question or two and then if I need to, I was
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  going to show a video or two. All right, questions.
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  If you have a young hurdler like he's saying that, you know,
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  we're sliding the hurdle in so that they don't force stuff and
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  all that and they have a preferential lead leg at a young
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  age. But it's not necessarily the the
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  comfort of how they set up their blocks.
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  Do you defer to their preference of a lead leg and to psych them
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  into that being their leg, the back leg, and the blocks?
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  So you're saying does this? Is this causing them to take
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  more than 8 steps to the hurdle? Yes.
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  We don't know yet the goal of the 80 steps.
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  Yeah, but like the kids like that didn't feel good, Coach,
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  you had to switch my blocks because normally I line up with
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  my left foot, but she won't. But I feel like my right leg is
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  my dominant leg or whatever. They don't get a choice.
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  It's eight steps to the first hurdle.
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  Those talented, those gifted ones, strong enough, fast
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  enough, tall enough. Seven step.
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  I'm not a big advocate of high school kids doing 7 more.
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  So the eight step, The thing is this, it's the first four steps.
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  High school athletes want to run fast.
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  Now to the hurdle. I force every kid in my program.
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  The first four steps have to cover a certain distance.
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  So a high school girl, first four steps, if her first is her,
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  if her 4th step is not at least at 4.4, she's going to come up
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  short. If a high school boy is not at
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  least at 4.7 on Step 4, they're going to come up short.
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  The faster more talented ones, you can see that metric moves a
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  little bit, but on average, if they're not that fast, if they
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  come up short on 1st floor, they're not going to make it.
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  You can put a piece of tape on the ground and just test it out.
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  They don't even know if the tape is there for, but just test it
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  out and see and you'll notice Dang, they short there.
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  If they short there by foot, it's just like in a long jump.
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  Your problems on the board didn't happen at the board.
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  They happened back at the beginning when you pushed out.
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  All right, all right. I saw another hand over here,
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  young lady, You have a. Specific amount of time season
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  starts January state oftentimes you get the referral you get the
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  kids that heart measuring up to like a. 100.
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  Or 200 or whatever. But if you're going to only
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  train them running three steps, how?
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  Do you develop them if they're not that bad?
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  OK for for them to know. All right, so those exercises I
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  was talking about with those spacings, they need to run nose
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  often and through about 8 to 10 hurdles.
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  All right. Next you have to Sprint them and
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  you have to Sprint them in. This is getting really technical
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  almost in what's because most of them are probably over striding.
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  They're on their heels. So you have to Sprint them
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  through something that makes them have to shorten their
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  stride so their foot can get under their hips.
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  It's a concept called shorter than and so, you know, a lot of
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  times coaches don't have a chance to go out and measure
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  trochanter lengths and stuff like that.
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  But if it's a girl, if you have wickets or cones or anything to
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  step over, force them to have to run spacing that set 5 feet, 9
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  inches. If it's a boy, force them to
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  have to run spacings that are at six feet, 3 inches and give them
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  about a 10 to 15 meter, at least 15 meters to run into that and
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  try to make them hold it for 20 meters.
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  It's going to force the nervous system to have to start turning
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  over in ways that they don't like.
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  As they get better, the girls move them out to six feet.
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  As the boys get better, move them out to 6 1/2 feet.
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  All right, Now, the reason those six feet and 6 1/2 feet are so
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  important, that's actually the average.
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  If you were to break down the three strides in between the
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  hurdles, that's actually the average stride in between the
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  hurdles. If you averaged all of them out,
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  they get better at doing that. You're going to see the nervous
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  system start responding. They're going to start turning
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  over faster. You should start to see better
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  splits in between the hurdles when they're running it's.
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  A50 meter lead in with the women or the girls spacing on the
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  wicked Starting at what? 5 feet 9.
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  Boys. 6 feet three we've. Got Sammy here tonight and
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  tomorrow so I can play that video.
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  As. We get Eric to.
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  Come up all right, I want to show one more example of we
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  talked about the the the the rhythms from track from practice
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  to racist. I have two high school boys.
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  They ran 766 and 782 indoors last year.
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  Outdoors they ran 13 four and 13 six.
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  And again, this is one of those times where, again, I'm talking
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  about splits. So the guy on the left, 411, the
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  guy on the right, 425. This is in practice at about 8.8
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  meters apart at the end of the indoor season.
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  Same two guys, the white kid in the middle and two lanes over to
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  his right with the white top and black bottoms.
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  Same two kids 4/17 and 4/28. If you are running them
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  consistently in practice and especially competitive type
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  stuff, what they're doing in practice, even if it's 36, even
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  if it's about a foot in, it shows up.
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  But you've got to be consistent and running them on a consistent
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  basis in practice. Awesome.
• 20:58
  Good luck Christina Gabs. Hey gang, Mike Cunningham here.
• 21:04
  Hey, I hope you enjoyed this episode of the Guild 1918
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