The Lead Leg: Open, Don’t Kick

Was looking at some races on youtube and came across an indoor race from earlier this year in Dusseldorf, where Dayron Robles won the 60m hurdles in 7.50. Eric Mitchum finished second in 7.55. Shamar Sands of The Bahamas finished 3rd in 7.62. In the footage of the race, the replay features a head-on view of Robles and Sands that reveals a major difference in their styles that largely serves to explain why Robles ran a faster race than Sands.

Let’s do a little compare/contrast:

The major difference between Robles and Sands has to do with what they do with their lead leg after they finish driving the knee at the crossbar. Robles merely opens the foot, whereas Sands kicks it. That kicking motion is what causes Sands problems.

Robles opens his foot, maintaining the rhythm a running stride. There is no extra effort, no power move involved. When he opens the foot, it is descending upon the hurdle. So he is already on his way back to the ground.
Sands, on the other hand, kicks his lead leg upward, breaking the rhythm of a running stride. There is a power move there, where he kicks the foot up. So the foot is still rising even though it should be on its way back down.

Robles’ lead leg descends on the crossbar once the foot opens and the calf passes the bar.
Sands’ lead leg continues to rise even after the calf has passed the bar.

Robles clears the hurdle on a downward angle, making the hurdle smaller.
Sands kicks up, then snaps down, making the hurdle taller.

Robles counts on his knee lift to give him the height necessary to clear the hurdle cleanly.
Sands counts on the foreleg kicking up to give him the height necessary to clear the hurdle cleanly.

The ironic thing is that Sands has excellent knee-drive into the hurdle. He doesn’t really need to kick in order to clear the hurdle. But he’s kicking anyway, thus clearing the hurdle too high.

In my own coaching, I’m moving away altogether from teaching athletes to snap down the lead leg. To kick out the lead leg and then snap it down breaks the sprinting rhythm, it negates the power and speed that can be gained from the trail leg, which is really the more important leg for creating acceleration off the hurdle, since it’s coming from the back. Robles doesn’t snap down; he descends. That’s why his trail leg is tighter and faster – because it’s not waiting on the lead leg to finish kicking and snapping.

But Sands is smaller, you might be saying. How can a smaller hurdler clear hurdles the same as Robles? To that argument I say, height isn’t the issue. A smaller guy can do what Robles does. Sands could do what Robles does. By kicking the foot up, he’s clearing the hurdle by over six inches. With that kick, his foot is higher than his butt. It’s like he’s hurdling uphill. A smaller hurdler just needs to push off more vertically while driving the knee in order to create a clearance angle that is similar to Robles’.

Plus, there are plenty of taller hurdlers who don’t hurdle the way Robles does, who don’t look like he does over the hurdles. Plenty of taller hurdlers kick out, then snap down.

With a high knee drive when attacking the crossbar, you make the hurdle small. Being taller makes it easier, but being smaller is no excuse.

In the Dusseldorf race, Robles is pulling away because his trail leg doesn’t have to wait on his lead leg. He’s able to run off the hurdle. When the lead leg kicks, then snaps, the trail leg has to wait. When the lead leg opens naturally as opposed to kicking, both legs operate more as a unit, with both knees facing forward. When the lead leg dominates, its foot stretches forward, and the trail leg knee stretches outward, so they’re working against each other, creating balance issues. So the first step back on the ground is wasted. The trail leg drops, and then in the second stride, balanced is regained and reacceleration begins. And this process of gaining speed, losing speed, regaining speed, losing it again, is repeated over and over again all the way down the track.

One of the grand illusions of hurdling is that it needs to be overtly powerful. I think that’s why a lot of hurdlers waste a lot of effort and energy with these unnecessary power moves, such as kicking the foot of the lead leg, and then snapping it down forcefully. Robles serves as a good example of why that logic is misguided. He looks as fluid and graceful as any hurdler in history, he doesn’t do anything over the hurdle that is particularly powerful in comparison to what he is doing in between the hurdles. Yet, when you see him running down the track, you see power. The truth is, fluidity and grace are very powerful without the athlete going out of the way to try to be.

It’s also worthy of note that Robles rarely hits hurdles. In the Dusseldorf race, he clipped the first one with the foot of his trail leg, and he barely skimmed the second one with the heel of his lead foot. Isn’t it true that taller hurdlers throughout history have struggled with getting too close, too crowded? Didn’t we used to assume that 6-0 to 6-1 was the optimal height for a hurdler for that very reason? So why doesn’t Robles have a problem with getting crowded? Because he opens the foot of the lead leg instead of kicking it. I know it’s really not that simple … but it really is.

In the video, the replay runs from 1:06 to 1:30. Pause it at the moments when Robles and Sands are attacking each hurdle to see what I’m talking about regarding the knee height. Pause it at the moments when they kick/open the lead leg to see what I’m talking about in regards to that issue. Pause when they touchdown to see what I’m saying regarding the balance issues.

© 2010 Steve McGill