I'm a junior in high school who is going to run steeple this year. I raced it a couple times last sumer and I was able to hurdle the barriers fine but this year I'm having trouble getting over them. I'm just wondering how much time i would loose if i was to just put my leg on the steeple and then push off as opposed to hurdling them.
It's not so much that you lose time stepping on the barriers, but that you waste energy. You raise your center of mass higher by stepping than you do by hurdling. Thus, you will get tired sooner and start running slow sooner. If you step on all the hurdles, you will get owned because others will be fresher than you later in the race. Practice hurdling until it's second nature.