All Access Wartburg Track & Field Practice: Hurdles

with Marcus Newsom,
Wartburg College Head Coach;
2026 American Rivers Conference Coach of the Year;
2021 NCAA Men's Outdoor Track & Field National Champions;
5x NCAA Women's Outdoor Track & Field National Champions;
3x NCAA Women's Indoor Track & Field National Champion;
21x IIAC/ARC Women's Outdoor Champions;
18x IIAC/ARC Women's Indoor Champions;
13x IIAC/ARC Men's Outdoor Champions;
13x IIAC/ARC Men's Indoor Champions;
6x United States Track Coaches Association DIII Indoor Women's Coach of the Year;
6x USTFCCCA DIII Outdoor Women's Coach of the Year;
6x USTFCCCA DIII Indoor Women's Coach of the Year;
4x USTFCCCA DIII Outdoor Men's Coach of the Year

featuring Scott Ganshirt, Wartburg College Assistant Track & Field Coach

The Wartburg Track program has grown into a national power under Coach Newsom's watch. Wartburg has won 14 straight indoor women's conference championship titles and nine men's indoor championships. The women have a string of 17 consecutive outdoor titles. The men have won eight league outdoor titles since 2002. In 2009, his women's teams became only the seventh team in NCAA Division III history to sweep indoor and outdoor national titles in the same season, and earned the inaugural Deb Vercauteren Program of the Year award from the USTFCCCA. The program also won the award in back-to-back-to-back season (2012-14). The 2012 women's team swept the National Championships and set new all-time meet records in team points in both venues.

This 'all access' hurdles video is unlike any hurdles video you have ever seen. This first-of-its-kind video takes you inside two days of Wartburg's hurdles practices. Highly decorated coach Marcus Newsom brings a unique approach to developing his hurdlers by removing the complexity and grinding out the fundamentals to do the simple things right. Coach Newsom's process is very simple, clear and precise to teach hurdlers the necessary skill development principles for eliminating lead leg faults, trail leg faults, and speed faults involved in the hurdles event. He preaches proper technique for leading with the knee and how to clear the center of the hurdle while leading with the eyes to build a more explosive hurdler.

Athlete Preparation

You will learn the specifics for establishing an effective hurdler development program. The ultimate goal is to create a performance adaptation while keeping your hurdlers injury-free so they grow in their hurdle fundamentals, and consistently hit performance goals. Coach Newsom breaks down a typical workout day for the athlete and coach and explains why each component of the session is a critical part of the workout. Components include:

• Warm-up
• Stretching
• Drills
• Cool-down

Hurdle Drills

Coach Newsom explains how to create basic drills to improve a hurdler from inexperienced to high level. Watch as he has his athletes demonstrate over 20 hurdle drills that optimize the athlete's strengths and cover the key fundamental elements of being a successful hurdler:

• Attack the first hurdle
• Drive with the knee
• Tuck the trail leg
• Focus on form and technique
• Be aggressive between the hurdles

The progression of walking drills to jogging drills, and then to full running drills prevents the problem of hurdlers doing too much full speed work. This will help you focus on technique issues for each hurdle since most athletes can hide mistakes when they do things quickly. If athletes understand how to slow down a drill, they can transfer that to a better hurdle race.

Hurdle Starts

Coach Ganshirt breaks down and demonstrates the four key phases behind a successful block start:

• Concentrate on drive phase
• Power position with your hips
• Use arms for first 3-4 steps
• Drive out

Coach Newsom is a hurdle technician with one objective: build technically sound and proficient hurdlers. His simple principles show exactly how he maximizes his hurdlers' performance by building discipline with their lead leg, body positioning, trail leg, speed mechanics, and aggressive block work for getting out and over the first hurdle. In this video, you'll find practical information, drills and common sense coaching tools to help improve hurdlers at every level.

"Love how the coach has a progressive approach to the hurdles!!! This is something that has helped my new and experienced hurdlers improve on going over hurdles while not overextending my time. Can work with all hurdlers at the same time!" - Customer Review

96 minutes. 2017.