Did letsrun ever come to an agreement about stepping on steeple barriers?

I was on board with stepping until I noticed that even Chick has changed his mind about this. He used to advocate stepping hurdles at lower speeds, but now he does not. He thinks a good practice is to get a 400 hurdler to run at the pace your runner will be running and then to video tape it to see the modifications needed to adjust to the slower speeds. Then use this technique to teach the steepler how to hurdle. He says to learn how to lead with both legs. He also never has his athletes practice on a barrier unless it is the water pit. They only use hurdles. Here is a link I found where he talks about his change in philosophy.

http://www.coachr.org/msteep.htm

Dave Bedford broke a British record with a foot on.

I was 6:18 2k and sub 10:00 3k runner who generally hurdled. When I came back at 46 after not doing one for about 10 years, I could still hurdled, but as I moved into the 50+ age group the slower speed made hurdling difficult.

I'd guess that if you can consistently and confident clear without too much stutter stepping (and few minutes practive a week helps to "see" the approach) you would be fine with even a rudimentary hurdle technique. That said, you are not going to lose much stepping on - I had a friend that was much further ahead of me over 3k steeplechase than 3k on the flat, and he stepped on.

I'm coming up for 55, and am only 5' 9" so I'm waiting until I turn 60, and they drop the barriers down to 30".

Steeple success isn't about technique or specialization. This is a myth steeplers use to rationalize their failure in the marquee events. Look at the Kenyans. If you can't make the 5k/10k teams, you go out for steeple. Since the Kenyan teams are so deep, a second-rate athlete in the marquee events dominates the "specialists" in the steeple. They put their foot on the barrier, stutter step, etc, but it doesn't matter. The specialists must refine their steeple technique because they are third-rate 5k/10k talents who can't compete with the poor execution but overwhelming talent of second-rate 5k/10k athletes.

'It's not about what is fastest for one barrier, it is about what is most efficient for 28 of them (not talking water here.) If you are not a good hurdler, step the barriers. Hurdling to be faster is like taking a 10 minute 3k out in 65 because it's faster. Especially at speeds it takes to run over 10 minutes you don't have the momentum to clear the hurdle efficiently which means you will be need to surge to each barrier to hurdle it'

Don't agree

I was running 3,000m s/c for club when not fit ran something crap like 11 mins or just under and it was my first ever one. Tried the foot on and you come crashing down the other side. So switched to hurdling which I had no practice but have reasonable flexibilty and found it much easier. Like someone else said you need more bottle to hurdle rather than put the foot on. Those solid barriers are bloody scary especially when you are tired.

Another time I was really fit so naturally got picked for the 400m hurldles as I can't sprint or hurdle great choice. Anyway a decent hurdler gave me some tips and I tried a few hurdles before no problem

Come the race I was going faster and after the 1st one every bloody hurdle! Going faster I just couldn't get the height running faster ie Going faster did not help me hurdle, but the opposite!

Unless you are short, have no fexibility or really slow like 12 mins you need to hurdle them

xlr8r33 wrote:

I was on board with stepping until I noticed that even Chick has changed his mind about this. He used to advocate stepping hurdles at lower speeds, but now he does not. He thinks a good practice is to get a 400 hurdler to run at the pace your runner will be running and then to video tape it to see the modifications needed to adjust to the slower speeds. Then use this technique to teach the steepler how to hurdle. He says to learn how to lead with both legs. He also never has his athletes practice on a barrier unless it is the water pit. They only use hurdles. Here is a link I found where he talks about his change in philosophy.

http://www.coachr.org/msteep.htm

This is exactly the way my coach trained us 10+ years ago. 2 days a week we would run reps of 400m to 1000m over hurdles and the waterpit with a plywood cover on it. The rest of the time we ran mostly with the 5k guys, but sometimes with the 1500 guys.

As to the poster above who said guys turn to the steeple because they can't run with the top 5k/10k guys. The top steeple guys would say that most 5k/10k guys don't run the steeple because they lack the skills and the confidence to go over the barriers for 8-9 minutes. I made my university's all-time list in both the steeple and the 5k, but I focused on the steeple because I loved the action in the race versus the easier flat track races.

'I made my university's all-time list in both the steeple and the 5k, but I focused on the steeple because I loved the action in the race versus the easier flat track races.'

A lot of people think the top steeple guy is inferior to the 5km top guy

If it were that straight forward the guy who was fourth in the Ethiopian OG 5km trial would run the OG s/c final and win it

Its not that easy or straightforward as the changes in pace and disruption in over the barriers change things. Plus the distance is shorter. Our best recent guy Mark Rowland who got Olympic Bronze was a miler who had the bottle to go with the pace in a big steeple race

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=1988+steeplechase+olympic&oq=1988+steeplechase+olympic&aq=f&aqi=q-w1&aql=&gs_l=youtube.3..33i21.160714l312567l0l313694l29l29l3l0l0l0l143l2378l21j5l26l0

.

Thanks to Tommytempo the new legend on youtube

It would be interesting to know what some college s/c's fast and slow think about the foot on v hurdling + any other tips on this event from coaches and athletes

ukathleticscoach wrote:

Like someone else said you need more bottle to hurdle rather than put the foot on.

What is "bottle"? Speed?

MapofTassie wrote:

Shaun Creighton, the Aussie record holder at 8:16, stepped on the barriers.

I am a 4:15 1500 and 9:45 3000 runner, so 10:30 seems like a fair goal for me in my first steeple this weekend.

From what I am reading here, stepping is the way.