When the out-door training season begins, the first two or three days
should be spent in jogging up and down the track. After that take
occasional sprints of thirty or forty yards, without practising the
start. On the third day practise the start two or three times, and try
clearing one hurdle about three times. On the fourth day do the same
thing. On the fifth day place two hurdles on the track at their proper
distances, and negotiate them two or three times. On the sixth day
repeat this performance with three hurdles. After this first week of
out-door practice, whenever the hurdles are being jumped, the athlete
should rush at them with his utmost speed from the proper distances, so
as to become accustomed to them. The general training for a hurdler
should be about the same as that undertaken for the 100 and 220 yard
dashes, as described in this Department on February 25th.
After three weeks of this kind of preliminary work, the high hurdles may
be placed in position, and the hurdler may try going over the whole
distance on time; but he should never attempt this move than once or
twice a week, doing his daily work over not more than three hurdles.
There are two things of vital importance for the hurdler to work at in
order to acquire speed; he should drive himself as fast as he can go
from the crack of the pistol until he stops running, and each hurdle
should be rushed at as if it were the last.
[Illustration: FIG. 1.]
Speed between the hurdles is of the utmost importance. The secret of
obtaining this lies in starting the foot, which has crossed last over
the hurdle, forward for the first step before the forward foot has
reached the ground, thus making the first step after the jump a very
short one, yet a very quick one. This is a difficult movement to learn,
but the athlete will find that it will lower his time perceptibly if he
can master it. The instinctive act upon landing after the leap is to
take a long stride forward with the view of covering distance. But the
athlete must restrain this inclination and force himself to take a short
step, even if he has to work over it for months, or he will never be
able to acquire skill or speed as a hurdler. That first short step after
clearing the hurdle gives the runner his impetus, and the other two
steps easily follow. The third step is shorter than the second in order
that the runner may gather himself slightly for the spring over the next
hurdle.
[Illustration: FIG. 2.]
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