The Case Against Football Players Running Track
- Over half of high school track programs run too much and seldom sprint.
- If football players lack athleticism, their participation in track meets may be minimal.
- God makes sprinters, track coaches make milers.
The three statements above are true. Track is not a good fit for all football players.
What! The guy that “Feeds the Cats” and co-owns the Track Football Consortium is telling football players not to run track? Blasphemy! Is this a thinly veiled attempt to make peace with the Neanderthals, to buddy up to the meatheads?
Let’s talk about this idea that track is not for everyone.
First of all, track & field programs are typically under the direction of non-football people. The most likely guy to head a track program is the cross country coach. These people are runners. Running is like their religion. Running is good for you, the more the better, every damn day. The rarest track coach in the world is a football guy with a sprint background, a cat. Why do joggers have the advantage over cats to head track programs? My theory is that distance runners are organized, disciplined, and straight-A students. They probably played in their high school band, served on student council, and were likely honored as an Eagle Scout. The guys with football backgrounds who sprinted as track athletes just aren’t great candidates to head the biggest organizational and logistical nightmare in the high school sports world.
Alright, so we established that most track programs are led by distance nerds. Should football players run track for these guys?
I hate to ever answer a question with “it depends”, but it truly does depend on the enlightenment of that head coach. If that coach is a “Feed the Cats” guy, football players will benefit from running track. If he’s a 20×200 guy who worships “the cat-killer”, Clyde Hart, then no, football players will NOT benefit. Feed the Cats programs are speed and power-based, a perfect fit for football players. Programs that run-run-run, will detrain speed and power.
My second point: only the best athletes on a track get to run in the best track meets. I have 92 kids on my track team at a school of around 2500 students. Yes, we have a handful of weekday “participation” meets, but those meets seem almost recreational compared to an invitational. Weekday meets resemble a scrimmage game in football without a scoreboard. If we go to a varsity invitational, my 30-32 kids entered in the meet will easily fit onto one bus. That means 60-62 kids are left home (thank goodness we typically schedule two-level invitationals, fresh-soph AND varsity). In a Feed the Cats program, sprinters take a day off after every meet and every lactate workout. If a kid is not good enough to make the traveling team, he’s only getting a couple of workouts per week and very little opportunity to compete. Track is no different than any other sport. Those that get to play benefit far more than those who sit the bench. How can kids really improve if they seldom participate?
My third point: God makes sprinters and track coaches make milers. FACT: the ability to sprint is genetic. I coached a guy named Marcellus Moore. Marcellus broke 11.00 in the 100m in August before his freshman year of high school. IMO, the coaching he had received had nothing to do with his remarkable speed. Marcellus had an elite CNS. He also had incredible feet and ankles. As a freshman on my track team, Marcellus ran the AGE-14 WORLD RECORD (all conditions) in the 100m, 10.40. The next year, at the age of 15, Marcellus set the IHSA State Record, 10.31. Last year at Purdue, Marcellus ran 10.12 which was #3 in the world U20. He also ran in the Olympic Trials. Marcellus Moore is now at Texas and recently ran 9.99. He’s not yet 20. No one can take credit for the success of a genetic freak. Marcellus was born to sprint.
It can be argued that all really fast athletes are genetically superior to slow guys. Tendons, fast-twitch fibers, lean bodies, and an elite CNS are inherited. Around 90% of the fastest guys I’ve ever coached were fast when I met them as freshmen. Most elite sprinters were fast before they were introduced to their first good track coach. That’s why so many college sprint coaches are frauds. If you recruit the fastest kids in the nation, you become an instant expert. In contrast, I don’t get to import my athletes, all of my sprinters live in my neighborhood.
Too many S&C coaches love to argue, “Correlation does not imply causation.” Whenever someone posts the verified speed of a football player who was also a star track athlete, meatheads want to argue, “Of course star football players were star track athletes, they’re genetic freaks!”. This implies that competing in track and field does NOTHING to improve speed and power. These misguided coaches see speed as PURELY genetic, “Track simply reveals speed”. 100% wrong. S&C people would want to fight me if I said something like, “The weight room simply reveals strength.” Just like strong people get stronger in the weight room, fast people get faster when they sprint.
TRACK, DONE RIGHT (FEED THE CATS), WILL IMPROVE THE SPEED AND ATHLETICISM OF FOOTBALL PLAYERS WHO ARE TALENTED ENOUGH TO TRAVEL WITH THE TRACK TEAM.
Let’s make this perfectly clear at the risk of being repetitive. If you have a track program at your school that trains sprinters like sprinters and not like cross country runners, track is of significant value to any football player good enough to run in all the meets. Same can be said for your bigs. If you have a big, strong, explosive kid that’s good enough to compete as a thrower on the track team, track will make that kid a better football player.
“63% of all players at the 2022 NFL combine and 55% of 2022 D1 signees participated in HS T&F. NFL and college football evaluator clients depend upon HS T&F performance data because it is verified, standardized and contextualized. HS football players not only gain recruiting exposure because of T&F participation but also develop necessary athletic attributes through the season without spending registration fees or traveling long distances to weekend long academies/combines.” ~Brian Spilbeler of Tracking Football.
I can say this with total certainty, if you attend my high school, Plainfield North, and you are a potential college football player, YOU SHOULD RUN TRACK. You will be a VIP (yes, track does reveal talent), you will attend every meet, and you will get faster, more powerful, and more athletic.
But what about “the others”, the guys who will never play college football because they are small and slow? Just lift and do conditioning? Hell no! Speed should be prioritized in the offseason for ALL athletes. When somebody says, “That kid is athletic!”, they are NOT talking about weight room numbers and endurance. “Athletic” implies speed and explosive power. Every athlete is either getting faster or getting slower. Prioritize speed. Learn to coach speed. Train speed when fresh, prior to lifting. Keep telling yourself, “tired is the enemy”. Learn to “Feed the Cats”.
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This article was written for HEADSETS, Volume 2, Issue 4, the online football magazine produced by Kenny Simpson.
♦ RESOURCES ♦
The 2019 Three-Part Football Series
♦ Football Coaches: Too Many Priorities
♦ Football Coaches: Stop Doing Mindless Conditioning
Feed the Cats:
♦ Origin and Philosophical Basis of Feed the Cats
The Football Articles:
♦ 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
Football Podcast
♦ Run the Power with Tony Holler #1
♦ Run the Power with Tony Holler #2
♦ Coach and Coordinator Podcast #1
♦ Coach and Coordinator Podcast #2
♦ Mahoney Advanced Training Podcast
Brad Dixon:
♦ They Just Want the Damn Recipe
♦ Run The Power Podcast with Brad Dixon
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Feed the Cats Track Bundle – 50% off the Feed the Cats Track Package
Feed the Cats Football Bundle – 50% off the Feed the Cats Football Package
Want all the Feed the Cats stuff (track, football, speed)? Get all SIXTEEN COURSES for over 50% off. Click here.
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Bio: Tony Holler
♦ A coach’s son for 62 years
♦ 41st year of coaching (football, basketball, track)
♦ 38 years of teaching Chemistry
♦ Writer (approaching 300 articles) – book coming in 2023
♦ Co-Owner of Track Football Consortium (along with Chris Korfist)
♦ #1 Best-Selling DVD 2019 and 2020 – Championship Productions
♦ International speaker
♦ Two sons coaching (Alec and Quinn)
♦ Owner of “Feed the Cats”
♦ @pntrack
♦ tony.holler@yahoo.com
♦ 630-849-8294
