coachpeterson.net Mike Peterson - www.CoachPeterson.net - @coachpeterson - Micheal.Peterson@icloud.com

"Being Average is Easy." - me

Pictured above is 110 HH School Record Holder, Keaton Wattier, 14.88. He currently is also the 60HH Wayne State College School Record Holder, 8.08.

I was the Sprint and Hurdle coach at O'Neill High School for 25 years and retired in 2024. During that time, we had an athlete qualify for State in a hurdle event every year but one. We have had 2 State Runner-Ups and several placers in that time.

What the goal of this website is:

1. My philosophy on hurdling and speed. (What worked for me at OHS)
2. Drills for success in those events.
3. Questions? Suggestions?

My Philosophy on Hurdling

• My philosophy is pretty simple - identify the best athletes on our track teams and determine if they can hurdle or not! I regularly attend our grade school track meet to identify who are the potential hurdlers.

"I guess you were right, Coach Peterson! When you came up to me at the 6th grade track meet and said my daughter should be a hurdler I thought you were crazy! Now she is going to State as a freshman!"

• Find 100 and 200 meter sprinters who I can teach to hurdle. We often have girls who can run around 13.3 or below in the 100 or sub 64 in the 400 - which does not get you a whole lot in Class B. Our philosophy at O'Neill High School is we want our kids to find success in an event that they can hopefully compete at the State Level.
• We work on making these kind of athletes hurdlers for us. I can tell within about two practices if an athlete can hurdle or not.
• It is a MYTH that you can make a hurdler out of a "slow" athlete. You MUST have speed to be successful in the hurdles.

• Treat your "Hurdle Crew" like FAMILY. If you build relationships with your athletes, they will perform better.

As you can see, I have not even talked about drills and skills yet. You must develop that relationship with them to have any success. I feel this was a BIG part of OUR success at OHS.

• You have to keep things simple for high school athletes. Much of the information I find on the internet is geared towards college and/or elite athletes. None of which we ever really get in O'Neill, Nebraska.
• If we have a young group, I dictate EXACTLY what we do in practice. If we have a more veteran crew, I have a general outline of what we will do in practice, but I allow them to personalize it some. (work on the skills, drills, etc. THEY feel they need to do.) This gives them some OWNERSHIP of their workout, and in turn, they tend to work harder.
• We DO have FUN, but I hold them accountable. We must always be prepared for a race. We always warm up as a group and hold each other accountable for this. MY BIGGEST PET-PEEVE IS WHEN WE DO NOT WARM UP PROPERLY.
• I tell my hurdlers I want them to warm up better than any other team out there. Take pride in it. I honestly LOVE watching other teams warm up. I learn a lot from this.
• I treat all skill levels the same. There is always room to celebrate improvement.
• I have the athletes VISUALIZE a PERFECT race the night before a meet.

Drills for success in the hurdles

Here are our EVERY DAY DRILLS:

• Wall Drills-Trail Leg 10 times each leg (emphasize snapping leg to ground)
• Wall Drills-Lead Leg 10 times each leg (emphasize starting with the knee bend)
• Walking trail leg drills (5 times each side)
• Walking lead leg drills (5 times each side)
• *ALL OF THE ABOVE, WE DO NOT DO EVERY DAY. GOOD FOR YOUNGER HURDLERS AND BEGINNERS.
• Static Stretching over a hurdle (see 2017 video below)
• Leg Swings (see 2017 video below)
• High knee trail leg drills (5 times each side)
• High knee lead leg drills (5 times each side)
• High knee walk-overs (5 times each side)
• Quick side walkovers (marching/dancing)
• 3 step trail leg drill (5 times each leg)

Hurdle Videos Made for Demonstration

Other Skill Drills

• Band Drills for Trail Leg and Lead Leg: We do these about once/week early in the season. GREAT for indoor work. 3 x 10 each leg (trail and lead) I bought the bands at Scheels in various tensions.

COACHING FOR SUCCESS IN THE HIGH HURDLES

The key to hurdling is maintaining your speed and running form while going over an obstacle-not for everyone.

• We NEVER do a full flight of hurdles in practice. It is counterproductive and not necessary. I see this all of the time with Junior High athletes thinking they need to go over 10 hurdles as many times as they can the day before a meet. If you can maintain good speed, form and technique over five hurdles, you can do the same with 10. (my wife was a sub 15 second hurdler and could NEVER three-step in practice!)
• We do a lot of block starts to the first 5/4/3/2/2. Sometimes lowered and shortened to maintain speed and to work on three-stepping. *Simulating a meet in practice is always the problem with practicing the hurdles.
• I know some coaches do not emphasize block starts as much as we do, but I feel it is a key to mastering the high hurdles. The more reps we have at the actual start, the less stress the athletes will feel in a meet-becomes 2nd nature.
• Much of our conditioning involves SPRINTING. To BE FAST, you need to TRAIN FAST! We do a lot of 100s, 150s, 200s and 300s at race speed at various reps.
• Getting young kids to ATTACK the first hurdle is the key to future success.
• I time and film the high hurdlers (Hudl) often to show them the speed needed to obtain the desired time. Here is a great site to calculate touchdown times also. Excel file download link. (You can also use the chart to see at what point of the race the athletes are having trouble.)

• One Step Drill. We do this probably once/week. Does a great job of getting a lot of form work done in a short amount of time. Great drill for indoors also with a limited amount of space.

• Rhythm 3 Step Drill: We do this every couple of weeks to work on quick 3 STEP rhythm and footwork. Hurdle heights (inches): 27/27/30/30/33/33/33/30/30/27/27. Hurdle spacing (feet): 10/12/14/16/18/20/22/22/22/22.

Rhythm Drill: We do this every couple of weeks to work on quick 1 STEP lead and trail leg rhythm and footwork. Hurdle heights (inches): 27/27/30/30/33/33. Hurdle spacing (feet): 10/11/12/12/12.

• We do this drill I call "Speed Hurdles" or 7 Steppers. Take out every other hurdle doing 1-3-5 both directions x 3. Use for a conditioner.

I follow a guy on YouTube and Instagram, Terry Reese, who was a world-class hurdler (13.23 in 110 HH) and now helps coach various athletes in Raleigh, North Carolina. @teereesejr on Instagram and "Tee Reese" on YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/user/teereesejr

COACHING FOR SUCCESS IN THE 300 HURDLES

• My philosophy in the 300 hurdles is to NOT worry about counting steps, but to ATTACK each hurdle. We drill this often and reinforce that philosophy.
• I tried counting steps when I first started coaching, but it seemed to really mess with my athletes' heads! With the various directions and velocity of the wind we have in Nebraska, I find that it is much better to focus on ATTACKING each hurdle rather than worry about steps. If we are attacking the hurdles the way we should be, the steps will take care of themselves. *I do count their steps when watching video if they are having problems with a certain part of their race.
• We do a LOT of starts to the first 4/3/2 at race speed using a pacing chart. This makes the athletes know the speed they have to attain to achieve a desired time.

• Below is a drill we do at least once a week that we call "Random 200's". Athletes start at 200 start and then attack the 5th - 8th hurdles. 5th and 8th are on the right markings on the track, 6th and 7th are set at random spots on the track and I move them before each rep. This makes them not worry about steps, but ATTACK each hurdle.
• Coach cue to them is, "Stride and Attack" They should sprint AT the hurdle when they are around 10 meters away. IF THEY STUTTER-STEP, THEY HAVE TO DO THE REP AGAIN. Really cuts down on the stutter stepping!

• For the 300 hurdles we do a lot of the "FIRST FOUR" or the "LAST FOUR" at various rep amounts.
• We also do the "FIRST TWO-Stride the Middle-LAST TWO" and sprint to the START of the 300's. Reps depending on day of the week and where we are in the season. Focuses on two of the most important parts of the race and then some added conditioning.

SAMPLE WORKOUTS

SPEED TRAINING

After years of "struggling" to coach speed, I began to research what was working and what was a philosophy I could relate to. That is when I found "FEED THE CATS" by Coach Tony Holler. The philosophy emphasizes speed and a lot of it.

“There’s three things you can do in practice to get faster: Max speed, mechanics, and then jumping”

“If you train at 100 mph, 80 mph will seem comfortable. If you train at 60 mph, 80 mph will seem uncomfortable.”

“Sprint as fast as possible as often as possible while staying as fresh as possible.”

In 2020 I had researched extensively FEED THE CATS and was PUMPED to use it...then, Covid, so I was not able to implement it until 2021, and WOW, did we see results.