MUMBAI — A well-planned preparation, explosive strength, tough mental approach, do-or-die attitude, and a harmoniously rhythmic running style bolstered by a new approach, India's top hurdler Jyothi Yarraji is banking on a newly tweaked running style to produce her best performance at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.
Usually a smooth and rhythmic runner, Jyothi has added explosive strength to her technique to make up for the lack of aggression and tempered it with hard work and a tough mental approach. Her coach James Hillier further tweaked her style in recent months, bringing changes in her start from the blocks and speed to the first hurdle to make her running more effective.
The 24-year-old Jyothi, who is supported by Reliance Foundation, earlier used to start on her left leg, but Hillier had made her switch to a right-leg start after the Monet Grand Prix event in Finland where Jyothi equalled the national record of 12.78 seconds despite nearly tripping off the final hurdle.
After Jyothi recovered from a hip flexor injury, Hillier also asked her to reduce the number of steps she takes to reach the first hurdle, thus making her speed up her approach. She now takes seven steps to the first hurdle instead of eight, thus improving her speed.
Hillier said the reason for the change was to fully utilise Jyothi's speed and strength and to help maintain her acceleration going into the second and third hurdles.
"The reason why we made these changes is because she is so fast and strong that she was getting in too close to the first hurdle, and she was chopping and then basically slowing down a little bit and sort of skying the first hurdle. And then it would affect her approach to the second and the third hurdle and was ruining her acceleration a little bit," Hillier said during an online interaction from Poland.
He said they decided to explore a faster approach to attack the first hurdle. "We talked about it and decided that it would be a good option to explore seven steps because we felt she was strong enough (to handle it) and it was good. She was good enough to help with the seven strides to attack the first hurdle and also be able to be better at the second hurdle. So that's something we explored, and she took to it really quickly."
"It was difficult in one respect because she had to start with the other leg forward. That took a little bit of learning and getting used to, but it's definitely been something that's worked well. It's something that has helped her. She keeps improving and she keeps getting better because of this. She's a lot more consistent now. She's consistently running 12.81, 12.71, etc.
"All year she's been running that, and I believe a lot of that is because she's setting up the race better at the first and the second hurdle. That's why we made the change. And look, you've always got to look at how you can make improvements," Hillier added.
The High-Performance director from the UK says the new approach has presented them with some pleasant problems.
"So as a coach, I'm always looking at that and as she gets stronger and faster, new problems arrive. Nice problems arrive. You know, like, at the moment, she's so fast the problem now is that she's getting close to the hurdle. Because she's so quick that, you know, when she hit the hurdle in Finland, it was a lovely problem to have. She is running so fast that she hit the last hurdle. But that happened for a good reason, not a bad reason. She didn't make a mistake. It wasn't a mistake. It was because she was running so well that it happened. So it was a good problem to have," said the high-performance coach who has worked with British Athletics for years before relocating to India four years ago to take over as head coach of Reliance Odisha Athletics High-Performance Centre in Bhubaneswar.
Hillier says tweaking Jyothi's running style is an ongoing process, and they will have to bring more changes as she becomes stronger and faster.
"We always need to keep tweaking, and as she gets faster and stronger each year and gets better each year, we just keep tweaking, and we keep looking at how we can make improvements and get better. Because Jyothi is very internally motivated. She wants to be the best she can be. She never wants to be comfortable running 12.70, she wants to run faster. Every day she comes to me and says, 'Coach this girl ran this time' and 'This girl did this'. She wants to be the best.
"She's like a student of the sport. She knows more than me about what's going on out there. She tells me all the stuff that's happening, and she wants to be absolutely the best that she can be. She's so internally motivated. It's brilliant. It's brilliant," said Hillier.
Hillier is also ensuring that every training session that Jyothi has done in the last couple of months is a simulation of what she would do at the Olympics. The daily repetition of that simulation just ingrains it into her mind and she gives her best in every practice session.
"What I try to do is create an environment where I'm replicating the rhythms and the postures, as what I want from her in a perfect world situation. So, for example, let's say her goal is to run 12.50 seconds. My job in training is to create an environment where she feels a 12.5 rhythm when she runs. There are various ways of doing that -- by making the hurdles a bit lower or by increasing the spacing between the hurdles to allow her to get up to more higher speed.
"So I'm trying to get her to feel what a 12.50 rhythm is, because my belief is if she can feel that rhythm, then if everything is good and her body allows her, she'll have a better chance to replicate that in a race.
"Jyothi has talked about replicating her training at the Olympics and that's all we're trying to do. We will be trying to replicate at the Olympics what we're doing in training. So everything we're doing in training right now is geared towards the race. The feelings, like, say, the rhythms, the postures, even in the gym. I'm telling Jyothi, 'When you're doing this exercise, imagine it's in the race, and how's it going to benefit you in the race?' Because that's all that's important right now, is the race.
"So I want to deliver her at the Olympics with a feeling and a belief that she can run significantly faster than her personal best because she's done it in training," said Hillier.
The coach believes that if Jyothi manages to improve on the timings she has clocked in training and fellow competitors make mistakes, it will open the door for the Indian star hurdler to blaze a path to the podium in Paris.
The only thing they are hoping for is that Jyothi remains mentally strong at the Olympics and gives her all in every race.