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Why your hurdler can't three-step

Three-stepping is a speed problem wearing a stride-length costume, and the fix is almost always the spacing rather than the athlete.

A hurdler who takes four or five strides between barriers while everyone else takes three is usually assumed to have a technique problem. Occasionally that is true. Far more often they are simply not fast enough yet for a distance that was set by a rule book and does not care how hard they are trying.

The arithmetic of the gap

In American high school racing the boys go over hurdles set 9.14 metres apart and the girls 8.5. The athlete lands somewhere around a metre and a half past the barrier and has to be airborne again about two metres before the next one, which leaves roughly five and a half to six metres of actual running to be covered in three strides. That is close to two metres a stride, at speed, repeated nine more times.

Telling a fourteen-year-old to reach does not produce a two metre stride. It produces a long, braking step, a takeoff from too far out, and a slower race than the one they were already running.

Odd strides, even strides

The number matters for a second reason. An odd number between hurdles, three or five, brings the same leg through every time. An even number alternates them, so a four-step hurdler needs both legs to be competent leads. For most beginners that is a bigger ask than the speed itself, which is why five strides is the usual holding pattern rather than four, and why a well run five-step race beats a forced three-step one.

What actually makes three-stepping possible

• Flat speed. There is no route to three strides between hurdles for an athlete who cannot run the equivalent pace on the flat.
• A low, short flight. Time spent in the air is time not spent running, and a jumped hurdle also lands the athlete further out, which shortens the run they had left.
• Racing height that suits them. A barrier too tall for the athlete forces a jump, and the jump eats the gap.
• A controlled approach to hurdle one. Most high schoolers take eight strides from the blocks to the first barrier, the bigger and faster ones seven. Arriving there chopping or reaching sets the pattern for the whole race.

The fix is the track, not a cue

Move the hurdles in. Find the spacing where the athlete can three-step with a real sprint stride rather than a stretch, usually somewhere between half a metre and a metre short of racing distance, drop the height, and let them run repetitions there until the rhythm is theirs. Then move the barriers out a few inches at a time over weeks, and back in again whenever the pattern breaks.

This is the fix nobody likes, because from the fence it looks like the athlete is doing an easier version of the event. They are doing the correct version at a distance they can do it at, which is the only place the correct version has ever been learned.

It is also worth saying plainly that some athletes will not three-step this season, and that racing five strides cleanly is a better season than racing three badly.

What the Film Room can tell you

The hurdles setting reports trunk dip over the barrier, lead-leg extension, how far the hips rise at the hurdle, and overstride between the barriers. Two of those bear directly on this question. A large hip rise is the app's way of saying the athlete is jumping rather than running over, and it sends you to close-spacing run-throughs, which is the same medicine as bringing the hurdles in. An overstride reading between barriers is the braking step that a stretched three-step produces.

What it will not do is count strides. It does not know your spacing, it does not measure touchdown distance past the hurdle, and it cannot tell you whether the athlete is four-stepping or five-stepping. Film from the side, step through the frames, and count them yourself. That part takes a minute and no software.

Film at the spacing you actually train at, from the same place each time. A clip shot at reduced spacing and compared against one shot at racing distance will show differences that belong to the hurdles rather than to the hurdler.

Related

Try it: Hurdle technique analysis from video: trunk dip, lead leg, hip rise