Pace and Attack in Hurdles

The three-step rhythmic pattern

In hurdles racing, success depends not only on pure speed, but on the athlete's ability to integrate that speed into an unalterable rhythmic pattern.

The technical standard in high performance is the "three-step rhythm" between hurdles.

This means that, after landing after clearing a hurdle, the runner must take three full strides before attacking the next hurdle.

Counting the landing contact, this is a sequence of four ground supports: landing, step 1, step 2 and step 3 (preparation for take-off).

The importance of maintaining this odd number of steps lies in the fact that it allows the athlete to attack all the hurdles with the same leading or attack leg.

If the athlete were to take four steps, he would have to alternate the attack leg at each hurdle, which, although possible, is usually less biomechanically efficient for most runners, who have one dominant leg for the stride.

Frequency versus length management

Unlike the 100m sprint, where the athlete can increase his speed by increasing both frequency and stride length freely, in hurdles the length is confined by the fixed distance between barriers.

Therefore, to go faster, the hurdler cannot simply take longer strides (as he would "eat" the hurdle).

The only variable he can manipulate to increase speed is stride frequency.

This involves a technical paradox: as the athlete accelerates, he must consciously reduce the length of his strides to fit into the available space while maintaining the three-step pace.

The coach must work on this fine-tuning, teaching the athlete to "chop" the ground quickly rather than float or overextend between obstacles

Knee height adjustment

To facilitate this increased frequency and controlled reduction in stride, the running technique between hurdles differs slightly from the smooth sprint.

Whereas in sprinting an extremely high knee position is sought to maximize leverage, in hurdling a "medium-high" knee position is adopted.

The idea is not to run low, but to not raise the knee so high as to generate excessive flight time with each step.

By keeping the knee a little lower than usual for a pure sprinter, the foot ca