Feed the Cats Podcast
Feed the Cats Podcast
Podcast Description
When Tony Holler’s name is mentioned, SPEED is the subject… maximum velocity sprinting. Tony Holler is a track coach, most recently the head coach at Plainfield North H.S. Tony retired from teaching chemistry after 38 years in the classroom and has 44 years of coaching experience (football, basketball, and track). Tony Holler is a member of Illinois Track & Field Hall of Fame and Co-director of Track Football Consortium along with Chris Korfist. Holler created the revolutionary "Feed the Cats" in 1999.Tony Holler is the son of 47-year high school and college basketball coach Don Holler. Tony is the father of four, including two successful coaches, Alec Holler (Edwardsville H.S.) and Quinn Holler (Andrew H.S.). Tony Holler has diversified his “Feed the Cats'' message for all sports and the classroom. Tony has consulted with the New York Yankees who started feeding the cats in their 2022 spring training. He’s also consulted with college lacrosse (Princeton, Johns Hopkins, Georgetown, Penn, Arizona State, and Northwestern). Princeton made the NCAA Final Four in 2022 for the first time in 18 years with the battle cry of “Feed the Tigers''. Hundreds of high school football teams now use a FTC approach (also known as “Sprint-Based Football”). At least 12 states have football teams who have won state championships by prioritizing speed over conditioning. Tony also has a Sprint-Based Football Podcast. Tony Holler has presented his content in 30 different states. In addition, he’s done multiple presentations in England, Ireland, and France. Tony is also a frequent presenter at football and lacrosse clinics. In the past year, he's delivered two presentations on "Coaching the Classroom" for teachers. Tony has done several Feed the Cats Seminars which include nine hours of instruction over a 24-hour period. FTC Seminars are usually a one-man clinic. Tony Holler’s Feed the Cats DVD was the #1 best-seller for Championship Production for ALL SPORTS in 2018. It has been the #1 best-seller from 2018 to 2025 in the track and field category. Holler’s most recent content can be found at CoachTube, where he is #2 in sales, all sports, all time. Tony Holler was named as a “Prime Nine Speaker” by Glazier Football Clinics.
Podcast Insights
Content Themes
The podcast primarily explores themes of speed training, athletic development, and coaching philosophy, featuring episodes on topics like the revolutionary speed training methods of NFL star Adam Archuleta, powerlifting techniques with Dan John, and the intersection of sports and education in Rus Bradburd's satirical work 'Big Time'.
When Tony Holler’s name is mentioned, SPEED is the subject… maximum velocity sprinting.
Tony Holler is a track coach, most recently the head coach at Plainfield North H.S. Tony retired from teaching chemistry after 38 years in the classroom and has 44 years of coaching experience (football, basketball, and track). Tony Holler is a member of Illinois Track & Field Hall of Fame and Co-director of Track Football Consortium along with Chris Korfist. Holler created the revolutionary “Feed the Cats” in 1999.
Tony Holler is the son of 47-year high school and college basketball coach Don Holler. Tony is the father of four, including two successful coaches, Alec Holler (Edwardsville H.S.) and Quinn Holler (Andrew H.S.).
Tony Holler has diversified his “Feed the Cats” message for all sports and the classroom. Tony has consulted with the New York Yankees who started feeding the cats in their 2022 spring training. He’s also consulted with college lacrosse (Princeton, Johns Hopkins, Georgetown, Penn, Arizona State, and Northwestern). Princeton made the NCAA Final Four in 2022 for the first time in 18 years with the battle cry of “Feed the Tigers”.
Hundreds of high school football teams now use a FTC approach (also known as “Sprint-Based Football”). At least 12 states have football teams who have won state championships by prioritizing speed over conditioning. Tony also has a Sprint-Based Football Podcast.
Tony Holler has presented his content in 30 different states. In addition, he’s done multiple presentations in England, Ireland, and France. Tony is also a frequent presenter at football and lacrosse clinics. In the past year, he’s delivered two presentations on “Coaching the Classroom” for teachers.
Tony has done several Feed the Cats Seminars which include nine hours of instruction over a 24-hour period. FTC Seminars are usually a one-man clinic.
Tony Holler’s Feed the Cats DVD was the #1 best-seller for Championship Production for ALL SPORTS in 2018. It has been the #1 best-seller from 2018 to 2025 in the track and field category.
Holler’s most recent content can be found at CoachTube, where he is #2 in sales, all sports, all time.
Tony Holler was named as a “Prime Nine Speaker” by Glazier Football Clinics.
What happens when a high school football program stops training like everyone else and puts speed first?
Learn more about the Feed the Cats Academy powered by Universal Speed Rating:
https://feedthecatsacademy.com/
In this episode of Feed the Cats, we sit down with Coach Cale Sanders of Carlsbad High School in New Mexico to talk about the transformation of his football program after adopting a sprint-based, speed-first approach to training.
Carlsbad enrolled in the Feed the Cats Academy powered by Universal Speed Rating, giving their coaches a way to regularly test and track speed, jumping ability, power, and other performance metrics. Those results create an overall performance score that allows athletes to measure their progress against teammates and other athletes in programs participating in the Academy.
But the biggest changes aren't just happening on the testing numbers.
Coach Sanders shares how this approach has helped his athletes become faster, healthier, and more explosive, while reducing the emphasis on traditional conditioning and the constant grind that can leave athletes fatigued and more susceptible to injury.
And the results on the field have followed.
Carlsbad has seen major improvements in athlete performance, fewer injuries, and more success—including the program's first playoff win in 16 years last season. Now, the program enters the upcoming season highly ranked and looking to build on that momentum.
In this conversation, we discuss:
• Why Carlsbad made the shift to sprint-based football
• The philosophy behind putting speed before conditioning
• How regularly testing speed and power changes the way athletes train
• Why training athletes to perform at a higher level may be more effective than simply doing more work
• The impact on injuries and athlete health
• How Carlsbad's athletes have improved their top-end speed
• The connection between speed development and winning football games
• What other high school coaches can learn from Carlsbad's transformation
• Why the traditional approach to football conditioning may be changing
Could a speed-first approach be the future of high school football?
#FeedTheCats #FootballTraining #SpeedTraining #HighSchoolFootball #SprintTraining #FootballSpeed #FootballConditioning #AthleteDevelopment
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