Photo Credit @andy_brunner

Adapting to Feeding the Cats

By Brad Fortney, Kenosha Bradford High School (Wisconsin)

Varsity Linebacker Coach, Head JV Girls Basketball Coach,

Head Girls Track & Field Coach

Twitter:  @Bradford_TF

 

Evolution of Feeding the Cats

Back in 2015, I had just got done coaching a football season where we had grinded the seniors the last four years in the weight room and thought we outworked everyone in the country. Little did I realize at the time, I developed a lot of plow horses, which could explain why we finished 3-6 that season. This was six months after a girls track season where we had the best finish at state in school history, placing third with 36 points. We had an athlete finish as state runner-up in the 100m and 200m as a junior. As a senior, she was again runner-up in both the 100m and 200m because I had also made her into a plow horse. Her college track coach remarked that her strength was incredible.

I had been in a culture all my life of “outwork everyone and be as strong as you possibly can”. I knew that I needed to take a different approach to what I was doing in the weight room and at practice because we needed to do better. My high school track coach, John Brumund-Smith, sent me a Tony Holler article titled 10 Reasons to Join the Track Team. I pored over it and realized everything Tony said was spot on. This led me to reading more of Tony’s articles and I discovered the Track and Football Consortium (TFC).

My coaching life was changed on December 11, 2015, the date of TFC-2. I attended by myself because I could not convince any other coaches to go. Listening to Tony Holler and Chris Korfist speak that night opened my eyes. Low dosage, top speed, and out-of-the-box thinking had me so excited. I was all-in. I talked with Coach Brumund-Smith about it on the phone for the entire 75 minute car ride home. While it’s embarrassing to admit, meeting Tony for the first time made me feel like a little school girl meeting a boy band. My palms were sweaty for some reason. I spoke a mile a minute and told him how much I loved his articles and how I loved how he ripped on neanderthal football coaches. I could relate because I had been one of those coaches in the past.

The following Monday for morning lifting, I implemented some of what I had learned. I switched our offseason warm up and we did our best attempt at timing 10m flys with a stopwatch. I told the kids that the our emphasis was going to be on speed because if we get faster, we will get stronger. After morning lifting I had a meeting with our Athletic Director explaining that we need to get a Freelap timing system. That conversation led me to coming up with the idea to have a pasta dinner during a basketball game as a fundraiser. We purchased a Freelap with the proceeds.

That Monday afternoon, I had sent out clinic notes to my assistants about how we are going to change what we do. I also let them know the dates that I was going to attend Plainfield North’s track practice to learn as much as I could about Tony Holler’s program. My staff traveled to Plainfield, IL, to observe Tony work his magic. We actually visited twice. We had an awesome experience. 

 

First Year (2015-16 Girls Track & Field)

Our first year of adapting to Feed the Cats we did a ton of flys (10m, 20m, 30m) in-season. We probably did not do enough lactate work that year, but our kids still ran faster than the year before. We placed second at the state championships in the 4×2 and fifth in the 4×1 despite graduating our top two of our top three sprinters from the year before (including the state runner-up in the 100m and 200m). That first year of minimalist approach had me very excited for the years to come because our kids were happy and healthy. 

 

Second Year (2016-17 Boys and Girls Track & Field)

The second year of adapting Feed the Cats, I stopped coaching sprints and coached the throwers, but our sprint crew retained the speed-first philosophy. We applied minimal dosage into our throwing program where our week looked like this:

♦ Monday: Heavy Day 30-40 throws with Triphasic Lift (upper and lower body combined)
♦ 
Tuesday: Technique (drill work with implement)
♦ 
Wednesday: Heavy Day 30-40 throws followed by plyos and med ball tosses
♦ 
Thursday: Technique (drill work with implement)
♦ 
Friday: Light and fast 12-15 total throws, followed by 5 x 3 Inertia Split Squat, Bench, Hip Hinch Hop (moving the bar as fast as possible)
♦ 
Saturday: MEET

Example of Throwing Practice Plan

Heavy days are comparable to “lactate” days; technique days would be considered “X-Factor”, and our light and fast days are comparable to speed days on the track. We also had everybody become a rotational shot putter to help gain an edge when it came to the discus. We never did back-to-back heavy days. Light and fast always took place the day before a meet.

 

Third Year (2017-18 Boys Football, Girls Basketball, Boys and Girls Track & Field)

Going into year three, I finally felt comfortable adapting Feed the Cats into everything I coached. I am the linebacker coach in football, so my linebackers would test once a week with the Freelap with some type of fly (pass drops, edge rushing, pursuit, etc.). By the second week of practice, all defensive lineman and linebackers would do some type of fly to start their individual drills. I would also keep track of game reps in practice and stress the importance of going full speed or no speed. On our hard days, I expected to stay between 45-60 game reps. On days that we were suppose to be fast, the game reps were kept lower, between 25-40. We would never have two back-to-back hard days. The whole football program was starting to buy into Feed the Cats, but they were a little hesitant to go all-in. Because I had almost total control over the linebackers, they experienced a complete Feed the Cats program: quality reps, adequate recovery, speed emphasis, numbers-based football.

The head coach was on board with making sure our hard days involved hitting and our fast days featured very little contact in order to aid recovery. All three of our starting varsity linebackers earned All-Conference honors this past year. I believe keeping them fast and fresh attributed to this success.

After football ended, girls basketball started. I coached JV basketball this year, and we practiced at the same time as the varsity. Our varsity head coach is our jumps coach for track. I remember talking to Chris Korfist over the summer and he said if he were coaching basketball, he would test fly-tens once a week. Well that is exactly what we did this year. Every Monday we would test two flying 10’s and two vertical jumps using the Just Jump mat. The reason I chose Monday is because the girls were coming off a rest day on Sunday. We would also test the vertical leap of every girl the day after every game to gauge their recovery from the night before. Those results would dictate the type of practice we would have. For example, if the girls were not fully recovered, we would work on ball handling, shooting and passing at low intensity.

If the girls were fully recovered, we would set up game-like situations in practice and have the girls go full speed. The girls who did not play much the night before were usually fully recovered, so practice would differentiate slightly between starters and bench players in post-game practices.

One day a week we would do an X-Factor (Example practice plan) day that included depth jumps from a box into a jump shot, passing with different size basketballs and volleyballs, mini-hurdles into layups, seated one-legged layups, and anything else I could think of. Upon learning I was applying Feed the Cats to female athletes, Tony Holler introduced me to John Hunter, a national champion volleyball coach who has coached professionally in Japan. John and I would talk often about what would make a good X-Factor exercise for basketball, and how I would apply it in practice.

The day before games, practices were relatively easy with some skill work and walk-through preparations. But the last five minutes of practice we would do full-speed situations. I just wanted us to be fresh for the games. This year our JV team won its first game in their lifetime of playing basketball (all the girls were sophomores). Wins were scarce, but three of our last four games were defeats by four points or fewer. If I had the actual basketball knowledge of most coaches, we may have won those games.

During basketball season, we had morning and after school lifting going on for non-winter sports athletes. Each week we would test 40’s, vertical leaps and flying 10’s. I also adjusted how we lifted and added more yoga/mobility into one of the days each week. I thought having timed 40’s throughout the winter really helped us going into the start of track season. The athletes with the best attendance were the ones with the biggest speed gains, and they also had the best speed endurance to start the season. It’s taken me three years to adopt the Feed the Cats mentality to all the sports. Shifting the mindsets of my fellow coaches have taken just as long. Track Practice Week Example

Here are the following guidelines I have come up with when you adapt Feed the Cats.

 

Cannon Ball

When adjusting to a new style of training, I would highly recommend to jump in the deep end instead of testing the waters and getting used to the temperature. As Boo Schexnayder put it during the the strength and conditioning certification course I took last summer, “When training you should go full speed or no speed because in between doesn’t get you better.” When you jump into the deep end, people will follow you because you are all-in. Mindset changes aren’t easy.

 

Be Patient

The biggest thing with minimal dosage is to be patient. Our first year of doing minimal dosage, our distance coach made a comment to me that our 400 guys were not in shape and died 300 meters into the race. He suggested they do more endurance running. My comment in response to him was, “They’re not supposed to be in shape now and they’re supposed to die.” He looked at me like I was crazy. Perhaps I could have phrased it better. Now over two years later, he fully understands that we need to be patient and let our kids gradually improve. Steve Jones, head football coach at Kimberly High School, uses a motto called “Water It.” It is a reference to bamboo. Bamboo takes four years to grow 60 feet, but for the first three years the bamboo doesn’t show any visual growth. I look at track as being a four-month process.  I explain to our coaches and athletes that we are watering the bamboo and should not rush the process.

 

Leave Tread on the Tire

When sitting back and reflecting on the 2017 track season, I realized that by state weekend, most athletes were running their fastest times of the year. But they were also very fragile and beaten up. That season we only had two sprinters qualify for state: a girl hurdler and a boy 400m runner. Both had some nagging injuries during championship season. My approach for 2018 has been to not overdo our practices early so the athletes have more tread left on their tires at the end of the season.

Leaving more tread on the tires have led to us to being smarter in the weight room regarding our volume and workout selection. This thinking has also helped us during the indoor season, where too often, we want to see the athlete do one more sprint or run one more race. Keeping the sprinting minimal early in the season will leave more tread on the tires late in season when they need it most. Our first indoor meet is only 11 days into the season, so my rule was that our athletes only did one event that first meet. If we have two meets in a week during the indoor season, the athletes cannot do over four races total the whole week. Our season starts March 5th and our indoor season is one month in duration. Less is more. 

 

Speed Builds Endurance

I have been guilty in the past, as I am sure of many coaches have, to believe athletes need a “base” of conditioning under them before they can start training. This is untrue. Instead, take the athlete where they are and grow from there. Does it help when athletes come into season with better speed endurance than others? Yes it does, but you need to ask yourself at what cost? Speed needs to be worked on from day one and watered no more than three days a week. If you have athletes who can only run one 10m fly in early March because they feel like they will puke afterwards, cut them off and have them be done for the day. Championship season does not happen until May, so you have time to slowly bring them along. Working on top speed constantly will build an athlete’s speed endurance over time. Rushing the process can put that athlete at greater risk for injury and stunt their growth. I would rather an athlete be fast and fresh than tired and sluggish.

 

Sprint Days

Rule number one is no more than three sprint days in a week (meets count as a sprint day). We have two types of sprint days. The first type of day we do is a lactate day, which is anything over 10 seconds of sprinting. Our indoor lactate workouts include the 24/28 second drill (because we have 160 meter track), 3x150m (3-4 min rest), or 4x125m (4-6 min rest). These are all done at 100%. Outside we utilize our hill, 3x200m (3-4 min rest), 3 x 150m (3-4 min rest). Our other speed days I refer to as “The Carnival”. For “The Carnival” we do a combination of fly’s, block starts, technique, jumps, resistant sprints, hurdles, booms, sleds, etc. The Carnival is set up so the athletes go from station to station for 2-3 rounds.

 

Non-Sprint Days

Days after sprint days are always non-sprint days. These days are either sprint holidays (go home!), pool, yoga/mobility, or X-Factor. Our X Factor  days involves zero sprinting or any type of running because I want to keep tread on the tires. If we do a jumping exercise, it is on to some type of padding. We also do different types of body weight exercises along with med balls, bands, hurdles, water bags, landmines, and anything else we can use from our storage closet.

 

Evolve and Adapt

What has helped us the most when adapting to Feed the Cats is trial by fire. We do not have our whole season written out because there are too many factors (like weather) to overcome. We have tried some drills or workouts the athletes didn’t like, so we scrapped them. Every year we make slight changes based on what we think will help our runners perform better. Our speed drills usually have one or two aspects added or removed from the year before. I really try to dummy-proof our speed drills so we never reinforce bad mechanics. Sometimes a workout you put together will suck, and that’s okay. Learn from it and move on. I have put together drills in a carnival I thought would be great, but after round one I wondered what I was thinking. This year I thought it was a good idea to do over-speed sprinting during the carnival where I pulled the athletes with a rubber band. The only problem with this is we had 84 sprinters and I was absolutely dead after the first round.

 

Visit the Kings of Minimal Effective Dose

Take your staff to observe Tony Holler and Chris Korfist. Both staffs at Plainfield North and Montini were great to observe and allowed me to ask question throughout the practice. They both did a tremendous job of paying it forward.

 

Educate Your Coaches

After I attended my first TFC, I spoke to all my coaches about the importance of max speed, ankle rockers, low volume, vertical force, off days, lactate, booms, and RPR (Korfist bruised the heck out of me). Everyone looked at me like I was crazy. Finally at TFC-5 (June 2017) three of my colleagues joined my in attendance (softball coach, head basketball coach, and assistant football coach). After TFC-5, I was no longer the village idiot. I can tell my staff about the minimal dose mentality all I want, but to have them listen to Tony Holler, Chris Korfist, Cal Dietz and Dan Fichter went a long way to validating all the information I’d been trying to get across for the past two years. I had shared articles and videos with those coaches in the past, but getting them to finally join me at TFC was what got our whole staff to evolve. I was no longer alone. 

 

Assess after the season

It’s easy to look at a poor performance and think you need to practice more or practice harder. Instead, I would encourage you to assess how Feed the Cats is going after the season is complete and all the smoke has cleared. Prepare yourself for some resistance. Expect people to question your training methods. We are currently using a four-year approach to assess if having our shot putter spin instead of glide is what’s best for them. We are in year-two of the spin for everyone, and we believe it has helped our kids become more athletic and bridge the gap in the discus spin. If we assessed just one year of throwing for a high schooler, then the glide would be the best method to use, but we think spinning gives the shot put a higher ceiling over four years.

 

Conclusion

I took a leap of faith over three years ago to change the way I coached and adapt the Feed the Cats mentality. Growing up working in the yard with my dad, he always told me to work smarter, not harder. I’ve been fortunate to learn early in my coaching career to coach smarter, not harder, which is the basis of Feed the Cats. I just wish I could have played in a program that prioritized quality over quantity.

Feel free to contact me with any questions or comments regarding my transformation into Feed the Cats, not just in track but in all sports that I coach. You can reach me at my email: coachbradfortney@gmail.com

 

Comments
  • Coach Q

    When I stopped worrying about volume concerns and building a base and all the terms you hear when you first start coaching things changed dramatically. This is my 3rd season following a plan similar to feed the cats and some of K. Tolberts and L. Thomas programs. I’m having the time of my life. My girls are healthy and fast and we have 4×1, 4×2, 4×4, and sprint medley qualified for the state championship and earlier than ever because they have been running fast with the right dosage since day 1. I’m the boys and girls head coach and I also coach our throwers who have been getting PR’s every meet. Feeding the cats, run fast run smart, whatever you want to call it, works. New coaches listen to what you are reading in posts like Feed the cats and tell those old 1970’s coaches to take their grind and die philosophies and stick em where the sun don’t shine. If you are a head coach and you have assistants that just don’t understand don’t fight them just keep doing it the proper way and show them. The results will speak for themselves and as you teach them they will come around so just be patient. It takes time to convince someone to get away from those old philosophies.