Week 9 workouts*

12/30 KC. Second week of break, and Joe came in for another session. Warm up followed by a strength series, including 3x3x310 deadlifts, box drives, push ups, walkovers, post ups. 5x 1/2-space 33. 5x1 (36>42), 3x3 (42>39). 4x4H up/back (36 -3/-4). 5-4-3-2 bench press and reverse leg press. Stretch and foam rolling. Best timed start 2.10. Hand-timed splits around 1.2.

Week 8 workouts*

12/23 KC. With everyone else home on break, Joe came in for a hurdle workout. Warmed up, lifted 5x290 and 4x310 along with depth jumps, push ups and post ups. 6x3H -5, working on quickness and squaring the shoulders. 4x2H (39-39-42-42) and 4x4H (42-42-39-39) all at -1, 4x6H reactive (22-14-24-14-36-24). Bench press and reverse leg press with reps of 5-4-3-2 of increasing weight.

Week 7 workouts

12/16 KC. Jerome ran HJ practice for the group, which by all reports went well.

12/18 KC. Joe, Matt, Chris, Desarae and Jessica warmed up and then did 2x3-4 deadlifts with 5x depth jumps, 10x push ups and 10x post ups. Drills included line skipovers, jogovers and hangovers. Block work and then starts over H1, working on some fine tuning elements with blocks, rhythm, attack and clearance. 3x3H at relative spacing, 3x2H random spacing with 1/2-lap run in. Kettlebell work included 2x10 lunge walk, step up and single-leg deadlift followed by foam rolling.

Week 6 workouts

12/8 KC. Joe, Matt, Spencer, Chris, Jessica and Desarae were in the house. Warm up included joint mobility, swings and cycles, skips. Strength work included 2x4 deadlifts (340 for Matt and Spencer, 290 for Joe, 260 for Chris and 220 for Jessica and Desarae), 20x Russian boxes and 10x push ups. Jog to stride, stride to sprint, accel. 1/2-space 3-step, working on pushing into hurdle with head/shoulders in an effort to "get on top" of hurdle and put downward pressure on lead leg to get off the hurdle quicker and accelerate. Falling starts over one hurdle at increasing heights. 3x2H block starts and 2x3H block starts. Women worked at regular height and spacing, 4 stepping. Men worked at regular height and in less than a foot. Reps got better as things went along. Timed H1 start on the 2H reps. Bests: Matt 2.16, Joe 2.14, Chris 2.25, Spencer 2.23, Desarae and Jessica 2.21. Did some hand timing on the 3H reps. Matt mid-1.3s, Joe 1.1s, Spencer mid-1.3s, Chris low-1.3s, Jessica mid-1.4s, Desarae near 1.9. Calf stretch and foam rolling ended a good night.

12/9 KC. Jerome, Spencer, Alex, Kasey and Madeline did some jump rope warm up, flexibility series, takeoff skips, circle runs, rim jumps, turn tuck jumps, pit arches, backovers, 6-step jumps, run throughs, opening height jumps and a few more about 2 inches higher. Madeline and Kasey cleared bars at 4-5 before departing for PV and class, respectively. Alex had time to go higher, making 4-7. Spencer made some significant improvements and repeatedly made 5-5 before going to PV. Jerome cleared 6-4. Jerome and Alex did medball throws, single leg hip thrusts, walking lunges and 20-10-10 jump rope. Foam rolling. Efficient, effective workout with good performance.

12/11 KC. Circles, swings (side), cycles (lead/trail), skips (A-back-B-back-carioca), 10x squat jax. 3 to 4 deadlifts at same weight as Monday. 20x Russian box. 10x push up. 2 sets. 10x3H at relative spacing. Kettlebell -- 10-step lunge walk (pass through), 10 left and 10 right hip thrust (one foot up on box with kb held with both hands at waist level). 5x jump squat (kb in each hand). Rolling/Stretching.

UWM: Jerome launches season with 6-8.75 leap

12/5 Milwaukee. Jerome started off the season with an outstanding 6-8.75 jump. He had first jump clearances at 1.85, 1.90, 1.95 and 2.00. One miss at 2.05 before making it on his second attempt. He was close on one of three attempts at a school indoor record of 2.10. Moved out to 15 feet for the approach at 61 feet. Competition started at 10 p.m. and ended just before 11 p.m. Here is the 2.05 jump:

Week 5 workouts

12/1 KC. Matt was back training but still dealing with mono. Spencer's foot problem seems to have cleared up. Jessica, Chris and Joe also trained. Started with mobility exercises and jacks to warm up for deadlifts. Went a little heavier -- 3x3 with more weight than before break. Spencer 345, Matt 335, Joe 315, Chris 240, Jessica 190. Strength set also included 20x Russian boxes and 10x elevated push ups. Followed with a couple minutes of jump rope and a high-knee jog to stride. 2x walkover, skipover, jogover. 6x 4-step power hurdle with a one-step hurdle. 4x1H (-6 -3 R R). 3x2H (R)(-1). 2x3H (R R -3) (-1). 2x10 Lead and trail leg band exercises, and 2x5-7 loaded GHR. Foam rolling. Block work was good. Matt worked on keeping feet a bit lower on first couple steps. Jessica worked to get more upright. Entry to hurdle still could be better optimized for most. Video showed some still reaching on the step before take off. Need to get on top of the take off foot with a vertical shin. Hurdle clearance was a little cleaner than it was before break, but we will need to do some fine tuning there. Next week: some side by side starts, real hurdles and some timed reps.



Jessica shows a good entry but there's a little twist with the right arm and right shoulder crossing over to the left side and coming back left in tight against the torso as she comes off the hurdle. Need to keep the arms working front to back and keeping hips and shoulders as square to the hurdle as possible.



No major issues here for Joe. Runs a good line. One thing that could be better is keeping the shoulders square coming off the hurdle, rather than twisting in a way that moves the left shoulder to front and right shoulder to back.

Chris had some difficulty on entry at times. In this example, he is back on heel and the shin angle is backward because of a reach toward the hurdle. Takeoff point is in right spot, but Chris needs to lengthen the steps prior to this one to be able to get in better position to push into the hurdle.

Matt's mechanics are good. This frame shows good lean and good arms with hips and shoulders squared. Lead leg might be moving outside in here, so we may need to get a bit better alignment within the lane.

Great entry for Matt here (knees close, shin vertical, on ball of foot). Probably a few inches too close to hurdle.

Spencer is in good position, too, though a few inches too close to hurdle.











12/2 KC. Hurdlers trained with sprinters. High jumping tonight were Alex, Kasey, Madeline, Jerome and Spencer. Standard warm up plus some back flips and 6-step jumps followed by approach work and then full jumps going up 2 on makes and down 1 on misses. Madeline took a few fulls before going to vault, clearing 4-4. Alex was good at 4-6 and Kasey at 4-8, checking out at 5:15 for class. Spencer got to 5-5 after making some adjustments to approach and take off (keeping left hand over right). Jerome cleared 6-3 and had a good attempt at 6-6, just folding slightly on it. Single leg box jumps and jump rope 40 doubles, 20+20 singles, 20 running and 40 doubles.

 Alex is hitting the plant about parallel to bar. Hips should be about 45 degrees but the are 90 here -- partly because of the plant angle. Arms are blocking pretty well, but rotation to get back to bar has already started on the ground rather than after takeoff.

Similar to Alex, Jerome is turning his back to bar and starting layout right off the ground.

Great attack into the plant here, staying back with arms and dropping hips to get displacement needed to have a rising hip into jump. Don't like the foot turning out that way -- should be pointing to back corner.

Kasey had a good night clearing some bars but should keep the torso vertical until off the ground. Looking at the bar and leaning in like this will knock off a lot of bars on the way up.

Nice layout here. Good heel tuck and shoulders are lower than hips.

At the plant, you can see the head and eyes go to the bar and shoulders, which should be perpendicular at this point, already are turning toward the bar.

Spencer can get off the ground, but there's not much knee drive (want to drive it to the bar height) and he is starting his layout (arching backward) right off the ground at takeoff. Also have the shoulders tilting a bit toward the bar instead of away. That's why we like to get the left hand over right at takeoff, which ensures that the shoulder nearest the bar remains higher at takeoff.

Because layout started prematurely, Spencer cannot go over the bar perpendicularly. Better to have the left arm on the thighs or out to side to keep more mass below the bar.

Spencer is looking over the shoulder and toward the bar rather than the far standard. Arms should be back to load the takeoff foot and provide more force into block. Plant angle looks good and lean into turn but looking at bar and raising that right arm higher than left defeats the lean.









12/4 KC. Joe, Matt, Chris and Jessica were joined by Ian and Desarae, who had their first indoor 400H workout, and for Desarae, it was her first hurdle workout ever. Did mobility exercises, 3x3 deadlifts, 5x tuck jumps and 10x push ups. Deads: Matt 335, Joe 315, Chris and Ian 240, Jessica 200, Desarae 170. Did walkovers, skipovers, jogovers and powers over 4H with half of sets oppo. 2x30m accels off 3-pt start timed. Bests: Joe 3.92, Matt 4.13, Chris 4.40, Ian 4.46, Desarae 4.79, Jessica 4.81. 6x3H at relative spacing. Joe and Matt on 15, Chris and Ian on 17 and Desarae and Jessica at 19. Joe, Matt, Chris, Ian and Jessica were solid on rhythm for nearly every rep. Desarae got better as the reps went along, but this was a tough assignment for a first night on hurdles. Next, some 1-step reps over 3H off power hurdle, working left and right legs. Followed with 2-step reps over 3H. Ended with 3H at random spacing and foam rolling.