I’m only a sprinter for fun but the feed the cats mentality is amazing for school/college work. People brag about working multiple hours a day when the “work” consists of half study and half tik tok. Put entire focus on the task at hand and you can get it done in minimal time
Work Like a Lion Most people are not wired to work 9-5. Modern culture is a remnant of the Industrial Age-long periods of steady, monotonous work. If your goal is to do inspired, creative work, you have to work like a lion. Sprint when inspired. Rest. Repeat. ~@SahilBloom
Starting a track team for the first time in school history. I’m a 24 year old cross country coach/strength and conditioning teacher. We took third in the state of Nevada after the team finished dead least all the years before I got there. I’m big on mileage… when it comes to aerobic sports. I PROMISE I am feed the cats all the way when it comes to sprinting and lifting. Read a ton of Clyde Hart and found his training philosophy asinine for high school students. Binged every single one of your videos in the last month and I’ve learned so much. Wanted to make sure I got this out on a newer video so you would have a chance to see it. Thanks for all the content and I’ll be sure to let you know how we do this year! Oh yeah and I just ordered us a freelap set :) Happy Holidays!
Love your content! Had a Senior last year who never broke 12 seconds in the 100m. 1st year using FTC, he went 11.5. I also had a 11.08 and 11.3 sprinter. Looking to build on what we had last season.
25:34 I remember reading about such a lift, the 1-rep max relative hex bar deadlift. You can find a pretty good discussion for (Ryan Flaherty and The Money Lift) and against (Bret Contreras critique of The Money Lift, AKA You Got Guru'd) in various articles. The critique alone makes the discussion worthwhile, since it covers both sides and is well-researched. You've probably already seen both articles, but The Money Lift popped into my head when I heard does the weight room have a place in sprint training.
Hey Tony, really enjoy your talks and insights. Re: football Keep in mind that it is a very different sport than 100m sprinting. No one hits you on a track. Football is a fight down the field, so there must be an element of toughness involved. I do agree with you that this is often take too far. Where is the balance?.....very hard to say.
I coached 🏈 for 25 years. I’ve consulted with dozens of 🏈 programs, both HS and college. Hundreds of 🏈 programs now feed the cats. NEVER HAVE I EVER SAID 🏈 WAS THE SAME AS RUNNING THE 100M. Traditional football is BS.
Wished this program was out when I was running track. I’m 30 yrs old now, having some midlife crisis, loll. Interesting thing is I’ve still got some speed.
So glad I discovered your channel. I wonder what your experience is with shin splints? I delt with them throughout highschool. At first I thought it was just overtraining, but ten years later I'm playing frisbee once a week for two hours on rather hard turf, and I do plenty of stretching and strength work on the feet and shins, but the condition is still ailing me. What do you recommend to athletes who are dealing with shin splints?
Two keys… 1) Don’t get them. 2) Don’t make them worse. Our early season volume is very low. My sprinters never run more than a 200m in practice … never run a lap in practice. 90% of my guys NEVER have sore shins. The other 10%? My guys sit out of practice if shins are sore. 90% of the time, the soreness goes away after one off day. Anything that doesn’t go away… I send them to CHRIS KORFIST.
I start liking the feed the cat philosophy, the only down thing is that anecdotal evidence gives the idea of bro science, while there is actually some real science backing this philosophy up. For example there are studies of warm up having little to no effect, and studies around the optimal (really low) dose of sprinting if where there is least chance on hamstring injury (and the hamstrings are most strong, possibly therefor best for sprint times). It might be useful to include these studies or sources.
I’m a coach. Good coaches are typically 10 years ahead of the research. And, research on human performance is, for the most-part, flawed at best. Can’t escape the fact that every human has their own unique DNA (with the exception of identical twins). And, I’m more of a science guy than most coaches. 38 years teaching chemistry.
@@coachtonyholler Thanks, will do because I trust your tips. Great job on your commitment to reply to questions. That wins my respect. Any videos of older sprinter to empathize & connect? What do u want most from your students? Comprehension, positivity? How can I help u w/ your mission? I sell stuff online. I also practice longevity & high energy.
Hi Coach Holler, I've been following you for the past few months and absolutely love the methods of the "Feed the Cats" program. I've been implementing some of your things in my indoor program and have seen some great results in my kids so far this season. I'm located in Pennsylvania and our Spring weekly schedules are much different than yours. Our typical week includes Dual Meets on Tuesday or Thursdays, and Invitationals on Saturdays. What are your thoughts on programming the workouts with this weekly schedule? Thanks for the content!
M-Speed Tu- Meet Wed- Off Thurs- Speed Fri- X-Factor Sat- Meet M- Speed Tu- X Wed- Speed Thurs- Meet Fri- Off Sat- Meet With two meets a week, you can't do lactate work in practice. Too much.
Very Helpful! I'm an "Old" sprinter hoping to win the 400m race this outdoors Masters USATF championship. Should all my workouts be fast and short (100 to 300m) of will over distance at slower pace help my endurance. So, 400m runners need always speed or more endurance?
Speed is priority. Sprint further is secondary. trackfootballconsortium.com/logistics-of-the-23-second-drill/ and trackfootballconsortium.com/the-4x4-predictor/
Coach, is it possible to still be a decent 100m sprinter when you're carrying a bit of muscle weight? I'm a former sprinter, having done a lot of Crossfit more recently and gained ~8kg in muscle mass. Can I maintain the muscle but still sprint well? Can I just get stronger in my sprint / speed to carry the weight? Or should I try lose some weight? Sitting at 91kg 40 year old. Personal best 10.3/10.4 sec.
Yes and no. If the weight is “natural” and not “artificial”, the CNS and tendons handles it better. If the weight was intentional (body building), the weight will slow you down. 🏈 players can maintain and even increase speed if they train that speed as their bodies grow. As we age weight becomes more of a burden. Losing weight almost always makes us feel younger.
Is there any simple but practical literature on explosive type of sports? I've tried reading Verkhoshansky (lol even in the original version, I'm a native russian speaker), and I don't get shit of what he says. It seems to me, they intentionally make it hard to read just to make it seem important
I'm not refuting what you're saying but I ran a 10.9 in the 100 and a 49.8 in the 400 and I had the worst vertical ever. I tried long jump one time and I was horrendous.
@@coachtonyholler this is possible I wrestled and played football as well. We trained like crazy (something I don't do a lot with my track athletes). I'm very interested in this new method of training as a track and field coach. I've coached for over 20 years but I'm always looking to learn new things.
Does this change if I'm interested in improving my speed over 10-20m for small soccer (roughly 45m by 28m field) specifically this summer? In terms of strength I can leg press 1x BW only. I self-timed a 40m run in 6.26s
@@mark-ol2qe There are no 10m races. Bolt is patient in his LONG acceleration. His first 60m in Berlin would have set the world record (6.29). Nuff said.
@@coachtonyholler ok thank you. I am just starting to use it and figure everything out. I love your stuff and you have been a tremendous help. Take care
I get an energy-injection by doing stretching in more than one muscel at the same time. It's like sleepy muscels in between the stretched muscels get activated. I also need to constantly change the stretching-combimations to achieve this. I guess Im fiddeling with the nervouse system, muscelchains and things like that. Any thoughts?
1:25:10 I would disagree! We should not force certain limb positions! Those positions/technique are always the result .It's true that fast sprinters have a similar limb movement pattern. But we must accept that there are also as much world class athletes with major differences in technique. I think technique is more the effect rather than the cause. The cause is force/muscle activation patterns. Too much backside mechanics could mean just a delayed SSC in the hipflexors or a weak core. Anatomical differences also play a big role. For example most coaches favor a more front side dominant style like Asafa Powell, Justin Gatlin or Sachin Dennis. But at the other extreme there is Michael Johnson, Tyson Gay , Erriyon Knighton or Noah Lyles with a more backside dominant style. Maybe because they are more elastic sprinters
Yes. Let rugby train rugby, both the skills and the specific energy requirements. Off the field, train the extremes... lift heavy, sprint fast, jump high, jump far.
Swimming is great for recovery, rowing is great for your heart, most people that are great athletes do different things and are more well rounded. In order to use speed in sport you can’t be one dimensional, can you make a great sprinter without all this, the answer is yes but let them play and enjoy themselves. Lifting weights doesn’t make you slow as long as you continue to sprint more and do more plyos in relation, but most people want to look good and be able to perform. Sprinters are sprinters because they couldn’t cut it on the field, there’s no money in sprinting. We need athletes not just people who can run fast, we want fast ATHLETES
@@coachtonyholler playing sports involve much more than linear speed, there’s a reason bolt, gatlin, Gay, green, etc didn’t play in the NFL. I’m saying competitive sprinting pays you nothing and just focusing on linear speed doesn’t make you a good athlete. I’m saying do more than just sprint, play all different sports as a kid, do gymnastics, swim, crawl, jump and sprint and weight lifting is incredible for our bodies as we age
I’m only a sprinter for fun but the feed the cats mentality is amazing for school/college work. People brag about working multiple hours a day when the “work” consists of half study and half tik tok. Put entire focus on the task at hand and you can get it done in minimal time
Work Like a Lion
Most people are not wired to work 9-5.
Modern culture is a remnant of the Industrial Age-long periods of steady, monotonous work.
If your goal is to do inspired, creative work, you have to work like a lion.
Sprint when inspired. Rest. Repeat.
~@SahilBloom
These are quite awesome guidlines. Thanks for your work and the thorough explanation.
Starting a track team for the first time in school history. I’m a 24 year old cross country coach/strength and conditioning teacher. We took third in the state of Nevada after the team finished dead least all the years before I got there. I’m big on mileage… when it comes to aerobic sports. I PROMISE I am feed the cats all the way when it comes to sprinting and lifting. Read a ton of Clyde Hart and found his training philosophy asinine for high school students. Binged every single one of your videos in the last month and I’ve learned so much. Wanted to make sure I got this out on a newer video so you would have a chance to see it. Thanks for all the content and I’ll be sure to let you know how we do this year! Oh yeah and I just ordered us a freelap set :) Happy Holidays!
My favorite FTC coaches are those that have an endurance background. So cool to see the change in thinking!
You can also use that feed the cats mentality in real life. Focus. Thanks coach.
⚡️⚡️⚡️
Love your content! Had a Senior last year who never broke 12 seconds in the 100m. 1st year using FTC, he went 11.5. I also had a 11.08 and 11.3 sprinter. Looking to build on what we had last season.
That's inspiring! Thank you!
25:34 I remember reading about such a lift, the 1-rep max relative hex bar deadlift. You can find a pretty good discussion for (Ryan Flaherty and The Money Lift) and against (Bret Contreras critique of The Money Lift, AKA You Got Guru'd) in various articles. The critique alone makes the discussion worthwhile, since it covers both sides and is well-researched.
You've probably already seen both articles, but The Money Lift popped into my head when I heard does the weight room have a place in sprint training.
thanks again Coach Holler from france !!
my women basket team is using FTC, and it works
Ouais il assure.
🇫🇷
@@coachtonyholler its olivier nemery here ;)
happy holidays with your familly and friends
Coach Tony your the Best.....
Hey Tony, really enjoy your talks and insights.
Re: football
Keep in mind that it is a very different sport than 100m sprinting. No one hits you on a track. Football is a fight down the field, so there must be an element of toughness involved. I do agree with you that this is often take too far.
Where is the balance?.....very hard to say.
I coached 🏈 for 25 years.
I’ve consulted with dozens of 🏈 programs, both HS and college.
Hundreds of 🏈 programs now feed the cats.
NEVER HAVE I EVER SAID 🏈 WAS THE SAME AS RUNNING THE 100M.
Traditional football is BS.
Hey man, appreciate your opinions/words. Keep up the great promotion of freshness over fatigue!@@coachtonyholler
Wished this program was out when I was running track. I’m 30 yrs old now, having some midlife crisis, loll. Interesting thing is I’ve still got some speed.
Never slow down, never grow old.
Looks good to me too coach!
This is really good.
Thank you.
Thanks for new input!
So glad I discovered your channel. I wonder what your experience is with shin splints? I delt with them throughout highschool. At first I thought it was just overtraining, but ten years later I'm playing frisbee once a week for two hours on rather hard turf, and I do plenty of stretching and strength work on the feet and shins, but the condition is still ailing me. What do you recommend to athletes who are dealing with shin splints?
Two keys… 1) Don’t get them. 2) Don’t make them worse.
Our early season volume is very low. My sprinters never run more than a 200m in practice … never run a lap in practice. 90% of my guys NEVER have sore shins.
The other 10%? My guys sit out of practice if shins are sore. 90% of the time, the soreness goes away after one off day.
Anything that doesn’t go away… I send them to CHRIS KORFIST.
Thanks so much for the reply! I'll check out Chris Korfist@@coachtonyholler
I start liking the feed the cat philosophy, the only down thing is that anecdotal evidence gives the idea of bro science, while there is actually some real science backing this philosophy up. For example there are studies of warm up having little to no effect, and studies around the optimal (really low) dose of sprinting if where there is least chance on hamstring injury (and the hamstrings are most strong, possibly therefor best for sprint times). It might be useful to include these studies or sources.
I’m a coach.
Good coaches are typically 10 years ahead of the research. And, research on human performance is, for the most-part, flawed at best. Can’t escape the fact that every human has their own unique DNA (with the exception of identical twins).
And, I’m more of a science guy than most coaches. 38 years teaching chemistry.
Any tips for older sprinters, below the knees, less blood flow, more elevation & compression, more flushing below the knees sprinter? 🎽
Go barefoot as much as possible. Theragun feet and ankles before workouts. Do spring ankle work daily (Chris Korfist, Cal Dietz).
@@coachtonyholler Thanks, will do because I trust your tips. Great job on your commitment to reply to questions. That wins my respect. Any videos of older sprinter to empathize & connect? What do u want most from your students? Comprehension, positivity? How can I help u w/ your mission? I sell stuff online. I also practice longevity & high energy.
@@smartscot Don’t have videos of older sprinters but I have this… trackfootballconsortium.com/never-slow-down-never-grow-old/
Hi Coach Holler, I've been following you for the past few months and absolutely love the methods of the "Feed the Cats" program. I've been implementing some of your things in my indoor program and have seen some great results in my kids so far this season. I'm located in Pennsylvania and our Spring weekly schedules are much different than yours. Our typical week includes Dual Meets on Tuesday or Thursdays, and Invitationals on Saturdays. What are your thoughts on programming the workouts with this weekly schedule? Thanks for the content!
M-Speed
Tu- Meet
Wed- Off
Thurs- Speed
Fri- X-Factor
Sat- Meet
M- Speed
Tu- X
Wed- Speed
Thurs- Meet
Fri- Off
Sat- Meet
With two meets a week, you can't do lactate work in practice. Too much.
@@coachtonyholler Don't need to! I learned this coaching HS distance: lay off the heavy intervals on weeks with races.
Very Helpful! I'm an "Old" sprinter hoping to win the 400m race this outdoors Masters USATF championship. Should all my workouts be fast and short (100 to 300m) of will over distance at slower pace help my endurance. So, 400m runners need always speed or more endurance?
Speed is priority. Sprint further is secondary. trackfootballconsortium.com/logistics-of-the-23-second-drill/ and trackfootballconsortium.com/the-4x4-predictor/
@@coachtonyholler Thank you very much. Why we need a coach!
Would you recommend this type of training for soccer players ? Even though endurance is so important in this sport
Yes. Are the best soccer players athletic? Fast and explosive or slow? If you train for endurance, you will sacrifice speed and power.
Coach, is it possible to still be a decent 100m sprinter when you're carrying a bit of muscle weight? I'm a former sprinter, having done a lot of Crossfit more recently and gained ~8kg in muscle mass. Can I maintain the muscle but still sprint well? Can I just get stronger in my sprint / speed to carry the weight? Or should I try lose some weight? Sitting at 91kg 40 year old. Personal best 10.3/10.4 sec.
Yes and no. If the weight is “natural” and not “artificial”, the CNS and tendons handles it better. If the weight was intentional (body building), the weight will slow you down. 🏈 players can maintain and even increase speed if they train that speed as their bodies grow. As we age weight becomes more of a burden. Losing weight almost always makes us feel younger.
@@coachtonyholler Thanks Tony. Makes sense. I shot you an email, by the way.
Coach I have so many questions I don’t know where to start. If you read comments do you have a direct method of communication?
Tony.Holler@yahoo.com
Is there any simple but practical literature on explosive type of sports? I've tried reading Verkhoshansky (lol even in the original version, I'm a native russian speaker), and I don't get shit of what he says. It seems to me, they intentionally make it hard to read just to make it seem important
They are "complexifiers". My stuff attempts to connect with everyday people.
I'm not refuting what you're saying but I ran a 10.9 in the 100 and a 49.8 in the 400 and I had the worst vertical ever. I tried long jump one time and I was horrendous.
But, if you could improve your jumping, you might have run 10.60. Also possible your volume of training detrained your ability to jump.
@@coachtonyholler this is possible I wrestled and played football as well. We trained like crazy (something I don't do a lot with my track athletes). I'm very interested in this new method of training as a track and field coach. I've coached for over 20 years but I'm always looking to learn new things.
Does this change if I'm interested in improving my speed over 10-20m for small soccer (roughly 45m by 28m field) specifically this summer? In terms of strength I can leg press 1x BW only. I self-timed a 40m run in 6.26s
Max velocity is the tide that lifts all boats.
@@coachtonyholler But Bolt has the highest max velocity and a comparatively slower first 10m to those he beats over 100m?
@@mark-ol2qe There are no 10m races. Bolt is patient in his LONG acceleration. His first 60m in Berlin would have set the world record (6.29). Nuff said.
How many feet between do you do the wicked drills?
6 feet
Hey tony close to the end of the video you said you would say how to fix showing your spikes to Jesus?
Shorten wickets. Video. Cue “Big in front, short in back”. Extend spacing. Video. Repeat until habits are formed.
What do you think about overspeed training?
Love it. Nature is best (WIND).
Wait, did I miss what was said about how to develop the glute med
Swiss ball hip hikes from Chris Korfist.
Coach how accurate is free lap? Do you ever get any times that seem really fast or really slow for a given athlete?
99% accurate. If a time is an outlier, throw it out.
@@coachtonyholler ok thank you. I am just starting to use it and figure everything out. I love your stuff and you have been a tremendous help. Take care
How to you build the glute medius
ua-cam.com/video/l5E4l8PKu6g/v-deo.html
I get an energy-injection by doing stretching in more than one muscel at the same time. It's like sleepy muscels in between the stretched muscels get activated.
I also need to constantly change the stretching-combimations to achieve this.
I guess Im fiddeling with the nervouse system, muscelchains and things like that.
Any thoughts?
If stretching improves your performance, do it. But, remember, a stretched rubber band doesn’t shoot very far. 🙂
Coach Holler, have you read the book "So you want to be a Sprinter" by Bud Winter?
If so, what did you think of the content?
I have not. Is is good?
@@coachtonyholler I don't know, but Dan Pfaff and Glen Mills say it's a great book, so I'll have to read it one day.
1:25:10 I would disagree! We should not force certain limb positions! Those positions/technique are always the result
.It's true that fast sprinters have a similar limb movement pattern. But we must accept that there are also as much world class athletes with major differences in technique.
I think technique is more the effect rather than the cause. The cause is force/muscle activation patterns. Too much backside mechanics could mean just a delayed SSC in the hipflexors or a weak core.
Anatomical differences also play a big role. For example most coaches favor a more front side dominant style like Asafa Powell, Justin Gatlin or Sachin Dennis.
But at the other extreme there is Michael Johnson, Tyson Gay , Erriyon Knighton or Noah Lyles with a more backside dominant style. Maybe because they are more elastic sprinters
Thanks for your input.
Would you recommend feed the cats for rugby players
Yes. Let rugby train rugby, both the skills and the specific energy requirements. Off the field, train the extremes... lift heavy, sprint fast, jump high, jump far.
@@coachtonyholler thank you . Been using your methods here in New Zealand
55:09
The guy on the far right @ 4.45 of the video looks like he would be very popular with the girls!
I didn't know cheetahs box jump.
Shows how little you know. 🙂
Swimming is great for recovery, rowing is great for your heart, most people that are great athletes do different things and are more well rounded. In order to use speed in sport you can’t be one dimensional, can you make a great sprinter without all this, the answer is yes but let them play and enjoy themselves. Lifting weights doesn’t make you slow as long as you continue to sprint more and do more plyos in relation, but most people want to look good and be able to perform. Sprinters are sprinters because they couldn’t cut it on the field, there’s no money in sprinting. We need athletes not just people who can run fast, we want fast ATHLETES
“Sprinters couldn’t cut it on the field?” Sheesh. Swimming? Rowing? Speed is one dimensional? Some bizarre sh*t.
@@coachtonyholler playing sports involve much more than linear speed, there’s a reason bolt, gatlin, Gay, green, etc didn’t play in the NFL. I’m saying competitive sprinting pays you nothing and just focusing on linear speed doesn’t make you a good athlete. I’m saying do more than just sprint, play all different sports as a kid, do gymnastics, swim, crawl, jump and sprint and weight lifting is incredible for our bodies as we age
@@jfitness432 Speed is the tide that lifts all boats.
@@coachtonyholler speed along with coordination, agility, change of direction, and the ability to process things quickly is the package we want
@@jfitness432 But speed improves all those things.