Why does my hurdler clear the hurdle with way more height than they need?
Every extra inch of air over the barrier is time spent in flight instead of time spent running, and most hurdlers who do it have no idea they are doing it.
Clearing a hurdle by a wide margin looks safe, and it feels safe to the athlete, which is exactly why the habit is so hard to coach out. It is also slow. A hurdler is sprinting the whole race except for roughly a tenth of a second at each barrier, and extra height just stretches that tenth of a second longer.
Where the extra height comes from
Most over-clearing starts with the takeoff point, not the jump itself. An athlete who takes off too close to the hurdle has to get up and over quickly, which often means jumping rather than running the step. Treat the hurdle like a small high jump instead of a running stride and the body follows: a higher lead-leg lift, a longer time in the air, and a landing further past the barrier than it needs to be.
- Takeoff spot too close to the hurdle, usually from misjudging the last stride before it.
- A past clip or fall at that same hurdle, which makes the athlete add height out of caution without being told to.
- Overstriding into the hurdle, which forces a bigger last step and a bigger jump to match.
- Coaching cues left over from learning hurdles as a jump rather than a sprint with obstacles in it.
Why it costs more than it looks like
Extra air does not just cost time at that one hurdle. A longer flight usually means a longer landing distance too, which throws off the stride count to the next barrier and can turn a clean three-step rhythm into a scramble.
The Film Room's hurdles check reports how far the hips rise at each clearance, which is exactly the number this fault shows up in. What it will not tell you is why: whether the athlete is overshooting the takeoff spot, still flinching from a fall at a past meet, or was simply taught to jump hurdles instead of running them. That part still needs a conversation, and the drill the app points to for it, close-spacing run-throughs, works because the shorter spacing makes floating physically impossible.
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Related
Why does my hurdler duck so low over the barrier that it slows them down?
Dropping the chest low over the hurdle feels like the safe way to clear it, but the extra dip costs the exact forward drive a hurdler needs on landing.
Read →Why does my hurdler lose speed between the hurdles even though the clearance looks clean?
Clearing every barrier well does not guarantee the three steps in between are still sprinting, and that is where the time usually goes.
Read →How many steps should a hurdler take to the first hurdle?
Seven and eight both show up at the highest level of the sport, so the number that matters is not tradition, it is whether the athlete arrives at the mark running over the barrier rather than jumping it.
Read →Try it: Hurdle technique analysis from video: trunk dip, lead leg, hip rise