Reflections on a change in the height o f the hurdles in the women's sprint hurdles event

by Norbert Stein

(Translated from the original German by Jürgen Schiffer)

[ pgg ©bylAAF

15:2; 15-19,2000

r/7e women's hurdles for specialists, who are the target group to be dealt with in this article, is consid­erably depreciated in skill demands when compared to the men's hur­dles. It should not be possible in the women's hurdles that the winner is an athlete whose performance in the flat sprint is demonstrably ex­cellent but whose technique of hur-dling is only moderate and whose anthropometric characteristics are not optimal. The author concludes that higher hurdles in the women's diseipline would lead ta a signifi­cantly higher importance of tech­nique and would therefore con­tribute to an upgrading of the . event. Because of the necessarily C Q greater Uft of the centre of gravity of the body when Clearing the hur­dle, the technical model would be­come similar to that of the men and athletes with a better technical training background would have a better chance.

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author has been Senior Lectur­er at the Institute for Athletics at the German Sport University Cologne for 20 years. He is a suc­cessful coach of female hurdle Sprinters in the German Athletic Federation. As IAAF Lecturer he has condueted several courses and High Level seminars on Sprints and hurdles.

M any years of experience as a coach in the speciality of women's sprint hurdles have led me to write this

article. My views have been shaped by nu­merous discussions with female athletes of all performance categories as well as the exchange of ideas with other coaches from within Germany and from abroad. Observa­tion of national and international develop­ment and current level of performance in this event have also contributed to my per-spective.What I am going to say should not be regarded as a scientific analysis of the problem. Such an analysis would require a lot of specific comparative data, which is not available at the moment. My Intention instead is to deal once again with a prob­lem which has been ignored for a consider­able time.

The problem

The hurdles sprint as a "compulsion run" is characterised by the fact that, according to the competition rules. the athletes have to run over six to ten hurdles which are placed at defined spacings from one an­other and whose height varies between men and women and between the different age categories. The major objective is to co-ordinate one's individual maximum sprinting ability within these fixed dis­tances.

From an objective.biomechanical point of view. it must be stated that a lot of fe­male athletes who are successful at nation­al and international level fall well short of exhibiting "optimal technique" of hurdle clearance. Another sign of this is the vari­ety of technique modeis which are used in the women's hurdles - some of which are

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Reflections on -i changt.1 in the heighi ofthe hurdles in ilu- women's sprini hurdles eveni

very different from one another. This does not apply to the men's hurdles. In this con­text one very often gets the Impression that the athletes and their coaches are looking for "fashionable trends" instead of sound Solutions which have been tailored to the athlete's particular needs. This is particularly the case in the training of young athletes when often the focus is on the blind copy­ing of a technique which appears to be suc­cessful. When. in spite of all this. the athlete achieves excellent Performances, the suc­cess can be explained by very good sprinting Performances and not by the level of tech­nical skill. which according to most text­books is of minor importance for female athletes anyway.

All this means that the women's hurdles for specialists, who are the target group to be dealt with in this discussion, is consider­ably depreciated in skill demands when com­pared to the men's hurdles. It should not be possible in the women's hurdles that the winner is an athlete whose performance in the flat sprint is demonstrably excellent but whose technique of hurdling is only moder­ate and whose anthropometric characteris­tics are not optimal. This was the case at the World Championships in Seville and the same problem can often be seen at interna­tional and national meetings.

History

In the men's hurdles almost nothing has changed since the 19th Century. The hurdle height of 1.06m (which corresponds to 3 English feet; which was the height of the standardised sheep hurdles used in sheep-farming), the spacings of 9.14m (ten yards) and the length of the whole event (which has only slightly changed from 120 yards/ 109.98m in the past to 110m today) have al­ways made this event a demanding core ex­ercise of athletics.

The development of the women's hurdles was different as it was introdueed much lat­er and, reflccting the sparing attitude to­wards women which prevailed at that time, the height of the hurdles was set at only 0.762m. The spacings between the hurdles were 8m and the length of the event was

only 80m (8 hurdles). It took a relatively long time before the 100m hurdles distance and the hurdle height of 0.84cm were intro­dueed. At that point time came to a stand­still so that, as far as the height of the hur­dles is concerned, we still have to deal with a relic from days long past where the athletic abilities of women were underestimated.

Prospects

My thoughts are not new. Only a few years ago the problem was pointed out and pro­posals for possible Solutions were made but without success and without the recognis­able Intention to change the corresponding competition ailes.

In order to give further dynamic Impetus to women's athletics, to reserve the hurdles sprint (60m and 100m hurdles) primarily for specialists and to make the event more at­tractive by increasing its demands, it is high time to raise the height of the hurdles to 0.914cm, with the spacings between the hurdles remaining the same. This would be in line with the principles of a modern develop­ment of women's athletics, typical charac­teristics of which are the introduction of physically and technically demanding events such as the pole vault, the triple jump and the hammer throw and their inclusion into the Olympic programme. However, it would be worthwhile to think about maintaining the current hurdles height in the heptathlon.

Facts

In the male sector of the sport there is a continuous rise in the hurdle height with in­creasing age from the child categories through the age groups up to senior men (see Table 1), but with women this develop­ment comes to an end when the "A" youth category (18/19 years) has been reached. The possible argument that the physical develop­ment of girls comes to an end at an earlier time so that a further increase of the hurdles height after leaving the youth category would be superfluous is not tenable in view of the actual relation between body height/leg length and hurdle height. Taking into consideration the sometimes consider-

Reflecliäns on a change in the heighi of ilu- imrdk-s in ilu- wiiiiu-ns sprlm inuilk-s i-vcni

able deviations from the norm both for men ancl women, the fact remains that with the women the relation between the height of the hurdles and the mean leg length is con­siderably smaller.

It is a fact, too, that sprinting ability has an over-proportional significance for the hurdles performance both at international level and in the transition from national to international level. At the international level only athletes showing an above average

18/19, they have learned to run over the height of 84cm, - which is not difficult -and they have had enough time for the de­velopment of the specific movement pat­tern, they should be ready to speed up the technical development in addition to the sprinting quality.

It is still remarkable that all young female hurdle Sprinters from Germany eut a good figure technically when compared interna­tionally. However, in the past hardly any of

Table 1: Hurdle heights and distance specifications according to the competition rules of the German Athletics Federation

Men 110m Male"A" youth category (18/19 years) 110m Male "B" youth category (16/17 years) 110m Male "A" children category (14/15 years) 80m Male "B" children category (12/13 years) 60m

Women/female "A" youth category (18/19 years) 100m Female "B" youth category (16/17 years) 100m Female "A" children category (14/15 years) 80m Female "B" children category (12/13 years) 60m

Number

10 10 10 7

6

10 10 8 6

Height

1.067

0.991 0.914

0.840 0.762

0.840 0.762 0.762 0.762

Run-up

13.72 13.72 13.72 13.50 11.50

13.00 13.00 12.00 11.50

Spacings

9.14 9.14 9.14 8.60 7.50

8.50 8.50 8.00 7.50

Run-out

14.02 14.02 14.02

14.90 11.00

10.50 10.50 12.00 11.00

(speciai) sprinting ability have the chance to challenge the top athletes (see Table 2). This sprinting ability must not just reflect itself in the flat sprinting performance achieved un­der competitive conditions. Although in gen­eral the fact that the women's hurdle race is mainly oriented towards the sprint must be accepted, the role of the technical compo­nent within the spectrum of the total event-speeifie demand profile is too small at the moment.

It was certainly justified in 1984 to change the rules in the youth category in Germany with the goal to require and promote the sprinting character of the event at an earlier stage. Since that time even female "B" youth athletes (16/17 years) had to run over hur­dles placed at a distance of 8.50m. The young ladies when leaving the "A" youth category (18/19 years) should have learned to manage the specific demands of these competition distances. When, at the age of

these athletes managed to develop further at a corresponding level or were successful in making the transition into international class at senior level. What are the reasons for this? Considering the orientation of the training methods in Germany the reason is not necessarily a lack of technical training. It is a well-known fact that in Germany this kind of training is much more intensive than in the USA. However, on the other hand the conclusion that there was simply nothing eise to do but learning lo sprint would be too simple. Although, in my opinion, ade­quate measures are taken in this respect, too, it is difficult to keep up with the sprint­ing values demonstrated at international level. I do not want to speculate here about the reasons for this. However, it should be noted that the German men are able to keep up with the best hurdlers in the world al­though in the men's hurdles the technical demands are higher.

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RHIcciii.uis on a change in the heighi olllic hurdles In ihe women"s spnnt hurdles eveni

Finally, it should be mentioned that in the past the "low" demands in the women's hur­dles as far as hurdle height is concerned of­ten led to the fact that in competitions a lot of athletes did not show the necessary ag-gressiveness. A "defensive" approach to run- 3. ning over the hurdles, which can often be observed in the age group categories, thus continues into the women's category. A spe­cific indication of this is the fact that a lot of female hurdlers tend to give up the race too early if they touch the hurdles, which can be 4. painful sometimes.

push-off and landing points to the hur­dle and their effects on the stride pat-tern, the lift of the centre of gravity as well as the velocity losses in front of and behind the hurdle. Since the "new" demand profile would be more related to technical aspects, ath­letes with a better technical training background would have a better chance. Thus the sprint hurdles event would be no longer an "offshoot" of the flat Sprint. In any case, the development of speed would remain a decisive training-me-

Table 2: Best sprinting times of the best 100m hurdles Sprinters in the world In relation to their 100m Performance (according to Harksen)

Bukovec, Brigitta (SLO) Morrison, Melissa (USA) Freeman, Michelle (JAM) Rose, Diane (JAM) Rüssel, Jilian (JAM) Enquist, Ludmilla (SWE) Girard. Patricia (FRA) Atede, Angela (NIG) Lopez. Aliuska (CUB)

Blaßneck. Heike Sonn, Caren

lOOmH 12.59(1996) 12.53 (1998) 12.52 (1997) 12.64(1996) 12.66(1998) 12.26(1992) 12.59 (1996) 12.72 (1998) 12.67 (1996)

12.86(1998) 12.88(1997)

100m 11.80(1993) 11.45(1993) 11.16(1993) 11.38(1995) 11.37 (1996) 11.04(1992) 11.11 (1994) 11.25(1997) 11.53 (1987)

11.71 (1995) 12.02 (1996)

Difference 0.79 1.08 1.36 1.26 1.29 1.22 1.48 1.47 1.14

1.15 086

l i !

Consequences

1. Higher hurdles in the women's diseipline would lead to a significantly higher im­portance of technique and would there­fore contribute to an upgrading of the event.

2. Because of the necessarily greater lift of the centre of gravity of the body when Clearing the hurdle, the technical model woiilrl becomp similar to that of the men (e.g. as far as the posture of the upper body is concerned). In this context differ­ent biomechanical aspects should be dealt with in order to clarify the effects of the rule change on the hurdle sprint behaviour. Some of these aspects would be hurdle contact times, the push-off and landing forces, the distances of the

thodical parameter, although the focus would change to hurdle-specific speed. Just as in the men's event, one can expect that the focus would be more on the Spe­cial, rhythm-related stride rate than on the development of stride length which is of equal significance in the flat sprint.

5. Higher hurdles would definitely not lead to a completely new type of hurdle sprinter. However, apart from a marked level of specific strength, very yoou speed and reactive strength abilities, co­ordination ability at a high level and above average flexibility, psychological characteristics such as courage, mobili-sation and concentration ability must be brought into a balanced relationship.

$. Although the unpleasant topic of illegal Performance manipulation would cer-

Reflections on .i change in the heighi oi the hurdles in the women's sprini hurdles eveni

tainly not be abolished by increasing the height of the hurdles, a greater number of female athletes would be able to com­pete at international level. So long as their physical prerequisites are of a suffi­ciently high level, these athletes could prepare and present themselves on the basis of a systematic training build-up, great diligence in training and a perfeet hurdles technique.

7. Perhaps the proposed change of the rules would lead to the effect of a

8.

greater consideration of the (hurdle-specific) basic training and a well-timed specialisation. Such a tendency would be very desirable as a means to promote the hurdle sprint as a "key event" in age group athletics which would have a pos­itive effect on other events (such as the flat sprint).

Unlike other adaptations in the past (e.g. in the javelin throw), a change in the height of the hurdles would not cause great organisational difficulties. •

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