Annie McBain
Athletics O+A
As the hurdling technique is quite complex I thought it would be best to choose a person who plays a lot of sport and is used to picking up new techniques and adopting existing techniques.
Leanne
Reasons and Corrections for the weaknesses.
Reason for weakness 1.
Leanne is anxious and unsure of the approach and pacing to the hurdle, and afraid of hurdle clearance. Leanne straightens up too soon from the start and her vision is not at the 1st hurdle. There is not sufficient drive at the hurdle.
Corrections
- I lowered the hurdle and with Leanne showed her how to pace her stride to the 1st hurdle. I showed Leanne how to maintain forward lean until the 5th and 6th stride and then attack the hurdle with aggressive acceleration and body lean.
- Leanne practiced bounding to increase her stride length.
- Then with the ...
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Leanne is anxious and unsure of the approach and pacing to the hurdle, and afraid of hurdle clearance. Leanne straightens up too soon from the start and her vision is not at the 1st hurdle. There is not sufficient drive at the hurdle.
Corrections
- I lowered the hurdle and with Leanne showed her how to pace her stride to the 1st hurdle. I showed Leanne how to maintain forward lean until the 5th and 6th stride and then attack the hurdle with aggressive acceleration and body lean.
- Leanne practiced bounding to increase her stride length.
- Then with the low hurdle practiced 8 strides in the lane next to the hurdle and jumped at the point where the hurdle would be.
- Once she had perfected this she started doing it in her lane until she could clear the hurdle totally.
- Advance: As Leanne adjusted to this previous exercise I began to raise the height of the hurdle until it was at the proper height.
Reason for weakness 2
Leanne straightens up prior to clearing hurdle. The approach is too slow to the hurdle, and Leanne over strides prior to take off. Leanne has weak use of leading leg and opposing arm. This is causing her to perform a breaststroke like arm action to try and propel her self over the hurdle.
Corrections for weakness 2
Leanne needs to maintain upper body lean immediately prior to and during hurdle clearance. Leanne should driving the opposing arm and the upper body low and forward during take off and hurdle clearance. Leanne must sprint aggressively so that the take off position is correct.
- The 1st exercise that we practised for this was a drill where Leanne ahs to walk slowly with high knee lifts along the side of low hurdles.
- Leanne had to lift the thigh of her leading leg to horizontal, then
- Extend the lower leg over the hurdle
- Bring the trail leg around the side of the hurdle
- Advance: As Leanne gained confidence she increased the jog to a skip and then the skip to a jog.
Throughout this exercise I showed Leanne how to use her arms correctly.
I also showed her how to aim for good acceleration from the standing start.
I also told her:
Drive aggressively toward the hurdle
Don’t slow down as you approach the hurdle.
Don’t jump over the hurdle, get over it low and get back to sprinting.
Reasons for weakness 3
Leanne’s hurdling technique needs to be improved. There is no drive towards the next hurdle and the body is too upright.
Corrections
Leanne practised driving at the hurdle and getting into the sprint action as fast as possible after clearance. Leanne can improve her arm action and leg drive with repetitive bounding and hopping hich we practised before starting the drills.
I set up a practice with 2 hurdles. I Varied the distance of the 2nd hurdle from the forst and I also set the 2nd hurdle at a lower height than the 1st to make it easier for Leanne to get over.
As Leanne’s speed and confidence increased I could move the hurdle more towards the correct position and height.
Leanne spent a lot of time working on 8 strides to the 1st hurdle and 3 to the 2nd.
Advance:
Competition helps to develop a more aggressive approach to the hurdles which helps with fast sharp actions involved. For this practice I set the hurdles at the correct distances apart but kept the 2nd hurdle lower for Leanne.
I raced Leanne against Lauren Bridle and Anneka Wicks to girls in the same year and of the same fitness levels.
Leanne came second in the race to Lauren who competes and trains in hurdles.
There was quite a definite improvement in Leanne’s technique and performance. Her speed had increased a lot whilst still maintaining good technique. This enabled me to put out a set of 5 hurdles and correct height and distances, and Leanne managed to get over all the hurdles with out dropping her technique or speed.