anyone have any idea’s on how to improve rhythm in the 300 intermediates? my athlete is a junior in hs who has run in the 42’s and has the capability to run in the 40’s but often runs 44’s. the problem becomes stutter stepping prior to each hurdle often times sometimes hitting the hurdle right legged, sometimes left legged. there’s never any consistent pattern. i’m not sure how to implement training or suggestions on how to correct these problems. any ideas, suggestions, are greatly appreciated on strategy and rhythm for the race. thx.
is your athlete comfortable leading of either leg? the reason i ask is i see athletes coming into a hurdle wanting to lead on a particlur leg and when they are off they stutter coming into the hurdle. Obviously this doesn’t fix the problem of stride patterns but being fluent on both leads will often help when you start to step down towards the end of the race.
Really the only way to work on rhythm is to practice in training. You need to do some SE runs over the hurdles (100-150m or so) and find what their natural stride No. is between hurdles. You really need to do this at different paces that match those in different parts of the race to get an idea of what stride pattern is the most natural.
No easy answer here because the race has so many variables and it is hard to get many quality reps in practice. At least in the early part of the race, you should have a set pattern and stride count, so you can go into each hurdle with confidence. At his speed, you probably are looking at 15 strides between hurdles. With good conditioning, this should be maintained throughout the race, but conditions as well as conditioning may require adding a step late in the race if necessary. I would work the first two hurdles, see how 15 steps goes and if that works comfortably – and quickly – you can add hurdle two then three and so on. Probably no more than 4 or 5 hurdles in practice. Use full recovery between reps – at least 10 minutes.