Sally Perason’s World Championships 100 m hurdles gold medal performance was outstanding! Her peformance was perhaps the best of the entire meet…only .07 off Donkova’s world record which has stood for so long. It’s been a long time since any female hurdler has gone under 12.30, and Sally did it in style.
I’d sure like to know what protocol her coach, Sheron Hanna, followed to get Sally to where she is today. Anyone with such information, please post it.
When you look at the history of the 100 m hurdles you find the European women (Australians included) out performing women from the U.S. and Canada, time wise. One thing in particular that stands out big time is hurdling technique. The European women hurdlers have much better technique/biomechanics. This may be because the Americans and Canadians focus on speed more than biomechanics in the 100 m hurdles. That’s not to say that speed is unimportant in the 100 m hurdles, but technique is as important as speed, and European women by-in-large have better technique.
But to put things in perspective, Pearson and Kallur are the only ‘European’, as you call them, women to break 12.50 since 1993. Nearly all the top honours have gone to Americans, Canadians, Jamaicans since.
As I’ve state numerous times over the years, the US is way behind in the area of sport science, and all that this field encompasses, as it may be directed into the coaching pipeline.
What we dominate the world in, however, is our vast and diversified gene pool. This and economic opportunities is what gives us a chance at the world level.
One of my eastern European associates who has extensive schooling in the field of track and field sprint events as well as sports biochemistry and I have discussed this time and time again. At one point he cited how this was apparent to him when he compared/contrasted the performances of some of our sprinters and high jumpers.
Power outputs being vital for both disciplines; yet, technical implications are stronger in the high jump as they relate to sport results. He observed glaring flaws in the technical execution of high jumpers and, due to the technical implications serving as a higher corollary, the discipline is less forgiving.
Similarly, as you noted, the technical implications on the hurdles are greater in comparison to the short sprints and this lends itself towards those, all things relatively equal, who are most technically efficient.
Perhaps the strongest testimony to my point is the horrendous movement skills demonstrated by many NFL athletes. What may come as a great surprise to those not in the know is that many of those athletes do not know how to run/sprint and change direction properly; however, so many of these athletes possess phenomenal power outputs and their horsepower compensates for their lack of mechanics.
The same may be said for many a T&F athlete. Dan Pfaff made reference to this in regards to pole vaulters; in that his contention was many high level vaulters don’t know how to run.
It’s a shame because the athletes are the ones who lose out and most don’t know any better and tragically find their way into the instruction of incompetent coaching.
If her coach was to tell what she does differently I would be interested in what made her come up with it. I saw a presentation at a coaching seminar a few years back, funny thing is I saw the same program 10 years earlier being used by another coach. If anyone would care to do a slowmo I would be surprised if triple extension is present at any stage of her race.
My observation is of the extended history of the 100 m hurdles going back to the 70s and 80s. When you do that you’ll see that there are only two none European women, Devers and Hayes, who have run under 12.40 in the 100 hurdles. All of the others are Eroupean women. And, the all time top ten times belong to Europeans women as well. My point is, European female hurdlers have better technique, therefore they by-in-large out perform American and Canadian 100 m hurdlers. And, you can add African, and Caribbean 100 m hurdlers to the list as well.
Excellent observation! Particularly as you indicate, “… the US is way behind in the area of sport science, and all that this field encompasses, as it may be directed into the coaching pipeline.”