Steeplechase water jump

Put a steeple barrier at the edge of the long jump runway so they can practice higher volume in the sand.

Have him do a few slower where he focuses on planting on the barrier and then landing with separated legs. It will be more like he kind of "drops" down into, rather than pushing off. Then gradually speed it up. Make sure he "runs" out of it too.

For body position, where your eyes and shoulders go usually determines your center of gravity. If you are looking down, well, you are going to go down. When he plants to push off, have him look ahead and past the pit. Maybe stand on the other side or something. A lot of two-footers look at where they are landing, freak out, and then go straight down. Once he plants to push off he has to already look ahead and past the pit.

Thank you a lot, I never thought about where you look you go, its a great tip, I hope it works

OR.....he could just hurdle the water jump as many do today. See which is getting through faster.

That's what I did. We didn't have steeple barriers at my school so I had a friend of mine make one that was one lane wide. I got the wood and hardware from the wood shop class in school and had it built.

In fact he can do that, and with this technique fall with the right form but I think that lost meters

In my case the wood was old so now is broken, and was replaced by metal, use is spikes probably isnt a good option haha and even dangerous :/

What’s the logic behind having him run the Steeple? It’s not for everyone.

You could probably correct it in a couple of days. You just need to take a step back and break it down. Start standing on something small, maybe 12 inches off the ground, practice pushing off with one foot and landing on the other (and running from there). Work both feet. Progress to running start, step up and push off. Then move to something taller (24 inches) on grass. Then a steeple barrier into sand. Lastly work the actual water jump.

Great post. I'll also add lowing the barrier height or even using a lower box as long as it's secure to take the psychological part out of it. Usually a two foot landing comes from their brains not being able to override the instinct that two feet is safer than one on the landing.

Take a look to see if he is underrotating in the air. If hit feet are landing perpendicular to the incline he's not going to be able to land on one foot. His body should be relatively upright and that first foot is almost hanging in the air just waiting for touchdown. We really cue having a quick step out so they get in their heads that the first foot landing just sort of helps break their fall and that the step out of the water is what we are relying more on. It seems to help a lot with keeping out momentum out of the pit

Is he for some reason obsessed with the steeple?

If so, that's OK. But if he doesn't take to it naturally why not just run the 1500/3000/5000??

Yup, also don’t give him a massive run-up to the pit. Sometimes if a runner approaches it from a distance, they start overthinking.

In a steeple race when you cut inside to the water jump, it’s really only the last few steps are an acceleration. If runners start accelerating too far back they will overthink, stutter, and then not carry great momentum with them. THAT, or they go too fast into the water jump and go way too far with too much momentum and receive a hard landing because they essentially keep two feet dry.

For the poster mentioning hurdling the pit, don’t do that. Yes, Africans on the world stage do it, but also these aren’t world class athletes. The pounding and abuse you would take from slamming on the track wears on your legs and will probably impact your race by lap 6-7. Steeplechase racing is all about running a 3000m with obstacles as fast as possible. Pick the most efficient, least costly route.

If he is tall, make sure his run up isn’t too far back. I have two 6’4 dudes steepling right now and they were stuck in the 9:00s last year because landing outside of the water will kill their legs late in a race. We fixed it and they both got their regional qualifiers last year. They are making the same mistakes already in their build-up again for Stanford Invite. There is still time to fix these things though.

Calling BS.

In 30 years of watching world-class steeples I haven't seen a single runner hurdle the barrier and not place at least a single foot in the water.

Photo/video or it didn't happen.

Watch the leader @ 10:30. Side view. One of many examples.

Put the practice barrier on the track with pieces of tape at 9' and 12'. Have him practice his form and hitting one foot between the pieces of tape, and the next foot out front. You can also use a plyo box if you don't have a barrier/ practice barrier.

It's been a while but whenever I landed with two feet it was usually a combination of fatigue and momentum. He may be standing up on the barrier, it helps to stay low once your front foot plants and allow your body to come just past the barrier before you push off.

He may also be too focused on getting out far. If he's trying to jump too far, he'll feel unstable and land on two feet. Going over the barrier should just be an extension of his stride. Similar to a fallen tree on a trail. If you don't actually have a water jump, just get a barrier out on some grass and mark out the pit with cones and get some video. The video should show if he's standing up on the barrier and losing momentum or just trying to jump too far. Less distance and smoother is better than landing on two feet.

Lastly, the steeple may not be for him. It requires a level of athleticism that not all runners have to smoothly execute the hurdles and barriers. Superior speed can overcome that though.

Here's a video with some solid water jump advice from a steeplechase legend of a coach.