The Forgotten Ingredient of Feed The Cats

By guest blogger, Alec Holler.

Feed The Cats is a training philosophy that is highly adaptable to all different types of athletic training. FTC principles would greatly benefit athletes of all sports. It seems to have taken the track and field world by storm.

My dad, Tony Holler, designed Feed The Cats as he evolved as a track coach.  He began to see that happy, healthy, and fresh athletes always out-performed tough but broken-down athletes. The main goal of the transition from the traditional track and field training methods to FTC was to lower practice volume and increase intensity through competition in practice. The idea was training by running instead of sprinting (you all surely know the difference if you are reading this article) not only breaks the body down, it makes you slower. In addition, long grueling workouts are not fun.

Training at high intensity and max effort trains the central nervous system, arguably the most important factor in all speed sports. The CNS determines explosive output much more than muscles do. And, just like muscles, the CNS can be overtrained.

If you subscribe to the Feed The Cats philosophy, you believe that small doses stimulate, moderate doses inhibit, and large doses kill. But, in training, this phrase is usually in reference to volume. If you are doing four lactate workouts (maximum effort for 15-50 second, incomplete rest) a week, you are slowly poisoning your athlete. However, volume is not the only poison. If you are training at high intensity four or more days a week, you are poisoning your athlete through CNS fatigue. 

How do you know when your athlete has CNS fatigue? In my experience, you will know it when you see it. Fast athletes that can’t sprint because they have hamstring tightness usually have CNS fatigue. I believe an unexplained slump in speed metrics (10m fly) can be attributed to CNS fatigue. Older athletes with a muscular injury have a high probability of developing CNS fatigue quickly and re-injuring themselves. In my humble opinion, these athletes need just as few max velocity days as they do lactate days.  Maybe less.

I need to add, CNS fatigue is not only the result of too much high-intensity. If sprinters are failing to get 8-9 hours of sleep every night, the central nervous system fails to reboot. If athletes are experiencing high stress in their lives, the CNS may get sluggish.

At Edwardsville High School, where I coach, we have a few athletes every year that can’t stay healthy.  Every time we ramp up the intensity and competition multiple days in a week, their systems fail. They pull a muscle or develop muscle tightness or they experience unexplained pain.  Even if there’s no true injury, the end result is the same. I am sure you have dealt with similar situations in your coaching experiences. Not all central nervous systems are created equal. Some have a high capacity for maximum output. Others crap out after a month of speed training twice a week. The key is differentiation. If you treat all athletes the same, some will thrive, others will crash. Learn which athletes are not responding to the maximum effort days and cut theirs back. On max velocity days, have an alternate plan for those that are dealing with CNS fatigue. For example, plan an x-factor circuit of wickets, hurdle mobility, leg swings, and speed drills.

Why doesn’t football and basketball deal with the amount of hamstring issues that track does? Those sports play at mostly sub-maximal efforts. In those sports, athletes might play fast but “under control”. Football and basketball players are rarely playing at 100% health and freshness. That’s not to say that those sports wouldn’t benefit to a great degree from maximum effort, straight-line sprint training. Improving max velocity improves controlled sprinting, submaximal effort, change of direction, jumping, and tired speed. Speed reserve should be the Holy Grail of all speed sports.

It is hard to avoid high intensity days in season. Some weeks have two meets. Weeks that don’t usually require a lactate day to bridge the gap between meets.  Where can you fit-in max velocity days?

In my opinion, max velocity days need to be replaced with sub maximal recovery days in April and May. And even sooner for athletes that show signs of CNS fatigue. 

My general weekly plan in April-May would look something like this:

Monday:   Event specific. High intensity.

Tuesday:  Lactate day or meet day. High intensity.

Wednesday:  Recovery day. No practice or low intensity.

Thursday:  Event specific. High intensity.

Friday:  Meet day. High intensity.

Saturday:  Rest

Sunday:  Rest

For athletes suffering from CNS fatigue, Tuesday would be switched to a recovery day of low intensity or a submaximal, low-rep interval strength day if needed.

If you are feeding the cats, you have developed a great speed base through the winter and into early spring. You have probably been sprinting 2-3 times a week in December, January, February, and March. Your athletes are getting some form of CNS training at least four times a week during outdoor season with lactate workouts, high-speed handoff/pre-meet/event specific days, and meets. Why try to squeeze in one more max velocity day a week in the last two months of the season? Is your four-month speed base not enough? Are your other maximum effort days during the week not enough?

Pro athletes run 1 to 2 races in meets 2 to 3 weeks apart. We squeeze about 18 meets in a 3-month span through good weather and bad in a high school season and continue to rev it up in practice. That is insane. A kid that runs a 12.0 100 might be fine to run in all your meets and all of your high intensity workouts. My guess is your 10.6 guy should not. 

“Sprint as fast as possible as often as possible while staying as fresh as possible.” –Tony Holler

This is one of the main mantras of Feed The Cats. It has been wildly successful for so many programs. Just make sure to carefully monitor the frequency of sprinting and the freshness of your athletes. If an athlete is hiding in the training room, revise your training plan. Stop giving him max velocity days. Take him out of Tuesday meets. Prioritize central nervous system freshness.

Any fool can make another fool’s CNS tired.

Alec Holler
@a_hollerEHS

Addendum from editor (Tony Holler):

I’m always evolving. I often say that Feed The Cats is a way to cook, not a recipe. The recipe has never been perfected. Once you think you’ve found it, you find that it doesn’t work the same the next season.

When I read Alec’s article, I responded with a quote from Keir Wenham-Flatt, “Never burn the steak.”

I then took Keir’s epic statement about hormesis and took it a step further. “There’s two ways to burn the steak, cook it too long or cook it too hot.” My better understanding of part two has come from Alec. I might add, “And every steak is different!”

Alec told me he was getting cold feet about publishing an article based on his limited scientific background. I told him, “That’s what makes it good.”