Why Hurdle Drills Matter

It may seem like a waste of time to many hurdlers but it is imperative that each hurdler masters the different drills that they practice every time they hurdle. The first benefit is that it prepares your body to hurdle. This way when you actually start to hurdle, you don’t injure yourself or just feel uncoordinated over the hurdle. By doing these drills it is warming up the different motions in a way that prepares the body well and also reminds your brain what exactly it is supposed to be doing with each limb. The second thing that intentional drilling does is that it makes your technique better faster. If you only focus on what happens when you actually hurdle in a race or in practice, it will be a lot harder to fix the problems you notice. By drilling, you can slow down the movement and begin to focus on different aspects more easily than if you were trying to fix something during the real deal. Drilling also allows hurdlers to feel more what their body is doing and this can lead to minor adjustments being made to accommodate a hurdlers body type. Lastly, being intentional while drilling can lead to better race performance. Even if your hurdle form is perfect (believe me it isn’t) doing drills lazily can negatively impact your race performance. If you consistently don’t focus on an aspect of the drills, like not moving your arms with intention, then in a race your arms might slack on the last 3 hurdles when the arms matter the most. This is because you have trained your body in a specific way so that when your mind gets tired it loses focus of the arms because you trained that way. Being intentional about drilling leads to better performance. Being intentional about drilling can be the difference between you and your competition, it can lead to PRs and even championships. The next time you do hurdle drills, be sure to focus on them and make all your movements intentional. It isn’t easy at first but you’ll soon see the benefits.