Any thoughts?

A good steeplechase runner should be fairly good at going over a hurdle, as the technique is the same...just not as many of them. The water jump is where most athletes lose a lot of time, so I would spend time on developing their form, technique, and strategy for going over that barrier. Train them as a distance runner but work on hurdles twice a week. Hurdles fall over easier and hurt less than using the barrier all the time.

In college, the steeplechase is 3000m (7 1/2 laps) with 28 intermediate height (30 inch high) barriers and 7 water barriers.

A competitive performance is a time under 9:20, and under 9:00 minutes will give your athlete a chance to win most competitions. At the invitiational level, it's going to take a time under 8:45 to win. With that in mind, I would suggest training that is more "middle distance" based.

Yes, there's an endurance factor involved; but having trained for the 1500m for my first two years of college, the switch to the steeple wasn't as difficult because the firts half of the race just seemed slow. I could concentrate on hurdling and stay aggressive at the water jumps. Like a lot of sports, you want to be able to put yourself in a position to win. Once that's accomplished, it comes down to speed... and speed wins!

FYI - I was a 3:46 1500m and 9:00 Steeple runner.

ChrisG Wrote: Oops! make that 36 inches, (30 for women)
-------------------------------------------------------
> In college, the steeplechase is 3000m (7 1/2 laps)
> with 28 intermediate height (36 inch high)
> barriers and 7 water barriers.
>
> A competitive performance is a time under 9:20,
> and under 9:00 minutes will give your athlete a
> chance to win most competitions. At the
> invitiational level, it's going to take a time
> under 8:45 to win. With that in mind, I would
> suggest training that is more "middle distance"
> based.
>
> Yes, there's an endurance factor involved; but
> having trained for the 1500m for my first two
> years of college, the switch to the steeple wasn't
> as difficult because the firts half of the race
> just seemed slow. I could concentrate on hurdling
> and stay aggressive at the water jumps. Like a
> lot of sports, you want to be able to put yourself
> in a position to win. Once that's accomplished,
> it comes down to speed... and speed wins!
>
> FYI - I was a 3:46 1500m and 9:00 Steeple runner.