Feed the Cats Seminar

It was 1980-something, over thirty years ago, and I was the head basketball coach at Harrisburg High School. I flew (my first-ever flight) to learn the ins and outs of Duke basketball. The clinic was billed as a “One Man Clinic”. Coach K and his staff put on an amazing show. If my memory serves my right, it was a two-day event. I wrote over twenty pages of notes.

As a young coach, I was mesmerized by Coach Krzyzewski who had once recruited me to attend West Point as a basketball player (1976). Looking back, I was star-struck. Today I understand that famous college coaches benefit from a rigged system where the haves beat the have-nots. Football teams like Alabama, basketball teams like Duke, and track teams like Oregon, have the advantage of attracting the cream of the crop year after year. Winning begets winning. The rich get richer. The highest-ranked elite high school athletes go to the winningest college programs and are transformed into college elites.

Most high school coaching clinics still feature college coaches. Why?

99.9% of coaches in America can’t relate to overpaid college coaches benefitting from a rigged system.

Maybe high school coaches should be educating high school coaches. Maybe we should learn from coaches who also teach five classes five times a week. High school coaches don’t get five-star recruits, our athletes come from the hallways of our schools.

On December 13 and 14, the first-ever “Feed the Cats Seminar” will be held at Andover Central High School in Wichita, Kansas.

Feed the Cats has become an overarching set of ideas for teaching and coaching kids.

The origin of Feed the Cats dates back to 1999 when I decided to find ways to make track “un-suck” for sprinters. I decided that sprinters really didn’t like to “run”, so I did away with running. My practices became sprint-based. In order to sprint fast, I figured out that rest must become a priority. I learned that sprinting can only be done in spikes (“If you ain’t wearing spikes, you ain’t sprinting” – Boo Schexnayder). I also learned to record, rank, and publish (if you don’t record, rank and publish, you ain’t sprinting).

It worked. Feed the Cats: How to Help Track Athletes Stop Hating Their Sport and Start Running Faster Than Ever

My philosophy of coaching track began to impact the way I coached football. It worked. Feed the Cats is now impacting football programs across the nation. Two *Feed the Cats* football programs in Illinois played for state titles this weekend, one won.

Below are seven football-specific articles I’ve written. The first, “New Ideas for Old School Football Coaches”, is the most-read TFC article of all time.

♦ New Ideas for Old School Football Coaches

♦ Football Dosage and Approach ⇒ FAQ

♦ Football: Differentiating Sprint Practice and Non-Sprint Practice

♦ A Football Coach’s Guide to Feeding the Cats

♦ Big Cats (Not Hogs)

♦ Football Coaches: Too Many Priorities

♦ Football Coaches: Stop Doing Mindless Conditioning

My classroom evolved alongside the evolution of my coaching. I began to Feed the Cats in Chemistry. I’m planning an article over the holidays, “Feeding the Cats in the Classroom”.

Now I’m consulting with coaches from a variety of sports. I’ve never attended a rugby match, but many rugby coaches attended my recent Feed the Cats Tour of England and Ireland (five workshops).

The “Feed the Cats Seminar” in Wichita will be a blast. The target audience will be football and track coaches but anyone can attend. Much of the instruction can be applied to general coaching, teaching, and even parenting. I like the metaphor of teaching the art of cooking but allowing the recipe to evolve. If you understand “never let today ruin tomorrow”, you are free to experiment as long as you stay true to the ideology. If you accept “Do Less, Achieve More”, you free yourself from volume and quality is all that remains. The recipe is still yours.

The host of the seminar will be Aren Coppoc, head track coach at Andover Central High School. We are expecting a crowd of between 70-100. The early bird rate of $100 has been extended through December 7th. After December 7th, the price goes up to $150. Tickets can be bought at the door. We are offering early bird staff rates of $90 per coach for a staff of three or four; $80 per coach for a staff of five or more.

The FTC Seminar was originally going to be a true “One Man Clinic”, with me doing all nine sessions. A few days later, I floated the idea of including my sons, Alec and Quinn. Now it’s going to be the three of us.

Alec and Quinn both think they know me better than I know myself. They might be right. (They argue about who knows me best!)

Alec is the best hurdle coach I know. Next week, Alec will be making a CoachTube video/course on hurdling with a Feed the Cats approach. He already has a hurdling video on YouTube with 87K views. Alec coached the best hurdler in Illinois history (Travis Anderson, 13.59, pictured below) and wrote, A Hurdle System for Cats.

In addition, Alec is a terrific assistant football coach for one of the top programs in the state of Illinois (Edwardsville, 67-16 last seven years).

Quinn, the youngest of my four kids, served as my relay coach at Plainfield North 2014-2018. During those five years, our average best 4×1 time was 41.79 culminating with a 4×1 state title and setting a state record (41.29).

Quinn began his teaching career at Andrew High School last year where they had run the 4×1 in 44.68 the year prior. In Quinn’s first year, his 4×1 ran a school record 42.09, placing 4th in the state. The picture below shows John Bickel of Andrew (10.76 in 100m) handing off to Micah Spells (14.62 in 110 HH). Both return next season.

Quinn (below) is also the quarterbacks coach for the varsity football team at Andrew HS, where his team was a state qualifier in his first two seasons.

Below is the flyer for the seminar.

For more information, don’t hesitate to email or text Aren Coppoc or Tony Holler.

Aren Coppoc (785) 614-2531, coppoca@usd385.org (Aren will be attending TFC-Chicago this weekend)

Tony Holler (630) 849-8294, tony.holler@yahoo.com

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UPCOMING EVENTS

Coach Holler will be speaking at all of the following.

TFC-Chicago, Dec 6-7, Elmhurst College… featured speakers: Vince Anderson (sprint guru) and Brian Kula (track coach and trainer of Christian McCaffrey)

Feed The Cats Seminar (first of its kind!), Wichita, KS Dec 13-14 (11 presentations, early bird only $100, staff rates available). Seven sessions will appeal to football coaches. Presenters: Tony Holler, Alec Holler, and Quinn Holler

Georgia GATFXCCA Coaches Clinic Jan 10-11, Atlanta, GA

Central Illinois Track Clinic Jan 17-18, Unity High School, Tolono, IL (only $50 pre-registered!) Special event… Coach Holler and distance coach, Andy Derks will co-present, “Cats vs Dogs”.

Minnesota Track Clinic January 24, Minneapolis, MN

TFC-Dallas January 25-26 (Amazing Line-Up!), Jesuit Prep, Dallas, TX… featured speakers: Vince Anderson (sprint guru) and Brian Kula (track coach and trainer of Christian McCaffrey), Steve Jones (112-7 at Kimberly HS, WI)

TFC-St. Louis February 7-8 (Maybe best-ever TFC lineup!) Festus H.S., Festus, MO… featured speakers: Derek Leonard (FB coach at Rochester, 45-2 playoff record in the last ten years!) and Kurt Hester (author of Rants of a Strength and Conditioning Madman)

TFC-11, Chicago June 2020 (June 5-6)