There are two distances for hurdle races which have become recognized by the Intercollegiate Associations and the larger athletic clubs as the standards for this event. The shorter distance is 120 yards, the race being run over ten hurdles, 3 feet 6 inches high, placed ten yards apart, the first and last obstacles being respectively fifteen yards from the starting and the finishing lines. The longer distance is 220 yards, the ten hurdles in this case being 2 feet 6 inches high, twenty yards apart, and the first and last respectively twenty yards distant from the start and finish. These two events are usually spoken of as the "high hurdles" and the "low hurdles," the distances being invariably understood as given above.
Hurdling requires skill, strength, spring, nerve, and a cool head; and to become a fast hurdler you must devote several years of hard and faithful practice in this particular event. The training for a beginner should be begun in the gymnasium in the winter, with light calisthenics, rising on the toes, rising on the heels, raising the legs, and practising the double jump on the toes. This double jump is a peculiar exercise, and consists of raising one leg, bent at the knee, forward, and the other leg, bent at the knee, backward, alternating the legs at each jump; this serves to limber the muscles that are used in hurdling, and also helps to lengthen the stride. An occasional short jog out of doors on fair days, and light all-round work in the gymnasium, for general physical development, should be made a part of this preliminary training. One of the best exercises that a hurdler can possibly indulge in is to dance up and down on the spring-board for ten or fifteen minutes every day. This develops that very necessary quality of spring and suppleness.
When the out-door training season begins, the first two or three days should be spent in jogging up and down the track. After that take occasional sprints of thirty or forty yards, without practising the start. On the third day practise the start two or three times, and try clearing one hurdle about three times. On the fourth day do the same thing. On the fifth day place two hurdles on the track at their proper distances, and negotiate them two or three times. On the sixth day repeat this performance with three hurdles. After this first week of out-door practice, whenever the hurdles are being jumped, the athlete should rush at them with his utmost speed from the proper distances, so as to become accustomed to them. The general training for a hurdler should be about the same as that undertaken for the 100 and 220 yard dashes, as described in this Department on February 25th.
After three weeks of this kind of preliminary work, the high hurdles may be placed in position, and the hurdler may try going over the whole distance on time; but he should never attempt this move than once or twice a week, doing his daily work over not more than three hurdles. There are two things of vital importance for the hurdler to work at in order to acquire speed; he should drive himself as fast as he can go from the crack of the pistol until he stops running, and each hurdle should be rushed at as if it were the last.
Fig. 1.
Speed between the hurdles is of the utmost importance. The secret of obtaining this lies in starting the foot, which has crossed last over the hurdle, forward for the first step before the forward foot has reached the ground, thus making the first step after the jump a very short one, yet a very quick one. This is a difficult movement to learn, but the athlete will find that it will lower his time perceptibly if he can master it. The instinctive act upon landing after the leap is to take a long stride forward with the view of covering distance. But the athlete must restrain this inclination and force himself to take a short step, even if he has to work over it for months, or he will never be able to acquire skill or speed as a hurdler. That first short step after clearing the hurdle gives the runner his impetus, and the other two steps easily follow. The third step is shorter than the second in order that the runner may gather himself slightly for the spring over the next hurdle.