CHAMPIONSHIP SPEED AND POWER DRILLS: HURDLES (COOPER)

with Jarius Cooper,
Arkansas State University Assistant Coach;
USA Track & Field Level 1 Certified Instructor,
four-year letter winner and SEC All-Academic Team Member while competing at the University of Florida;
In 2014, Cooper guided Sharika Nelvis to an NCAA DI National Championship in the Women's 60-meter hurdles and the outdoor 100-meter hurdles

Learning how to sprint from start to finish while limiting time on the ground is the key element behind a successful hurdler. It's important for athletes to learn the proper drills that enable them to put speed and power elements into play. High performance speed and power drills that teach this philosophy are essential behind a training program designed for success.

Jarius Cooper stresses the importance of the "sprint" in the sprint hurdles as the essential component for running faster times in all hurdle events. Coach Cooper's approach to developing speed and power in the hurdles is a fundamental foundation that must be built upon for successful hurdling. Cooper's mantra of "control time on the ground, not control time in the air" is a prerequisite for successful sprint hurdling.

Using a combination of warm-ups, hurdle mobility drills, agilities, power elements (jumping sequences), hurdle drills, block starts, and bounds, Cooper provides the critical elements for continued speed and power development in both off-season and in-season training. In all, more than 30 drills/sequences are demonstrated throughout the video. Coach Cooper explains that his speed and power drills will allow the athlete to:

Hurdle-Specific Warm-Up

Cooper takes you inside his 'Red Warm Up', designed to prep hurdlers for practice. Beginning with a jogging series, Coach Cooper progresses through a static stretch series into hurdle mobility drills. He closes the warm up with high-intensity speed development drills, including A skips, high knees, and butt kicks, into a fast 20 meter acceleration. By learning how to sequence drills, Coach Cooper shows you how to progressively prepare your athletes for their training sessions by including movements that reduce injury, balance the body, and improve coordination.

Plyometric Elements of Hurdle Development

In this segment, you will learn how to use box jumps, hurdle hops, and depth jumps to help your hurdlers develop explosive power, stability, and coordination. While sharing important cues to ensure safe landings, Cooper discusses how to carefully progress your athletes from bilateral box jumps, to single leg hops, before moving into more advanced activities such as depth drops and hurdle hops.

Hurdle Drills

The 'meat and potatoes' of any hurdle speed and power development program is the ability to tie the various speed and power elements together on the track. In this segment, you will learn how to use drills such as the 5-step drill to help both high and long hurdlers use their dominant and non-dominant legs to improve coordination and balance the body. Cooper also shows hurdle rhythm sprints to teach proper posture between the hurdles, and help athletes maximize their run into and through the first hurdle.

Coach Cooper provides numerous strategies, cues, examples, and progressions to emphasize the importance of speed and power in hurdlers. The emphasis of the individualized approach and allowing athletes to progress at their levels and strength provides an excellent "bag of tricks" for the sprint hurdle coach.

49 minutes. 2017.

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