FEED THE CATS-INSPIRED PHYSICAL EDUCATION

Fast, Fresh, Fun, Happy, and Healthy. Those are five Feed the Cats-inspired words that form my mantra to teach, coach, and live by. My personal journey into the realm of a Feed the Cats (FTC) mentally began with an FTC DVD that our head track coach ordered and shared with me at the time that COVID struck. Due to the lockdown created by the pandemic, I finally had plenty of time-for the first time in my years of teaching and coaching-to study new and effective methods of training. This was career changing and life changing.

I teach K-12 Health & Physical Education in a very small, rural school district in a town of about 400 people in McCool Junction, NE. (We don’t even have a traffic light in our town!) Our class sizes average approximately 20 students per grade. Additionally, I have coached numerous sports, ranging from youth sports to varsity sports. Currently I am an assistant high school football coach and an assistant high school track & field coach. We apply FTC principles in the sports that I coach, but the main focus of my article is how I apply FTC to Physical Education.

Maybe it’s not for everybody, but I LOVE being in a small school and knowing almost every kid on a deep level. I know nearly every kids’ first and last name, almost all of their siblings, and most of their parents. I also know nearly every kids’ 10yd Fly time, 40yd Dash time, Vertical Jump, and other metrics that we measure frequently during school and during our athletic training in and out of the school year. I keep a Google Sheets spreadsheet that tracks all of the physical testing throughout our students’ years in PE classes.

We are fortunate enough to have a FreeLap timing system that was purchased in June of 2020, and we recently purchased a SkyHook mat that we are still learning the best methods of how to incorporate into all grades, including Kindergarten. I am excited to continue to track the jumping data, and-more importantly-kids are loving getting to measure their vertical jumps frequently!

Our elementary school consists of Kindergarten through Sixth Grade. Each of our elementary PE classes are separate from one another, and each elementary PE class meets for 30 minute class sessions. Our Kindergarten and First Grade PE classes are every other day. I hand time their 40 yard dash and 400 meter run twice a year, and I now use the SkyHook to measure vertical jumps twice a year. With Kindergarten and First Grades, I focus on a lot of basic locomotor skills and do not yet dive too deep into FTC activities outside of our physical testing.

Our Second and Third Grade classes are also every other day. Twice a year, like our youngest grades, we time and test the same physical metrics and then add Pro Agility (5-10-5) and Standing Broad Jump physical testing. We start to set the table for FTC implementation with Second and Third Grade PE. Our brief daily warmup routine for these two grades will include the introduction of and learning of some basic Speed Drills including High Knees, Prime Times, and A Skips (Speed Skips). Following our warmups, I frequently use a station routine in all of the Elementary PE classes, and I begin to incorporate some FTC-related movements with the Second and Third Grade station routines. Movements that we perform with this age group that originate from an FTC influence are different types of mini-hurdle exercises and the Goat Drill, which is inspired by Cal Dietz.

Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth Grades are where we take a much bigger leap into FTC activities. This is very rewarding because the kids get pretty excited for these activities! I feel like this may be my “wheelhouse” for FTC in PE. The movements and activities learned from these three grades gives our kids a great FTC base to springboard them for their 7th-12th grade years of speed and power! I get to teach these three grades daily. When students come into class on all days-except for Tuesdays-they have an immediate warmup routine that mixes in Speed Drills including Booms, High Knees, Prime Times, and A Skips (Speed Skips). We perform a station routine three days per week. The station routine for these ages have progressed and are more advanced than the K-3 grades. Like Second and Third Grades, we incorporate mini-hurdles, the Goat Drill, and then we add a variety of different “Landings” to absorb force, much like Coach Tony Holler’s Cat Jumps. A few years ago, I watched a free video on the NFHS website on ACL Injury Prevention; therefore, the Landing routine we use helps to absorb force as well as teach mechanics for safety in the ankles, knees, and hips.

Tuesday is a highly FTC-centered day for 4th, 5th, and 6th Grades. I call it “Technique and Timing Tuesday.” When students come into the gym on Tuesdays, they lie side by side on a line on the floor for belly breathing and RPR. I have found that when kids lie down for those activities, they tend to focus better on themselves and get in a more relaxed state. Once we complete that segment, the students sit up to watch and listen as I explain basic running mechanics that we hope to see performed when we do Speed Drills and sprints. We follow with a minimal amount of Speed Drills for these groups, and we generally perform the same six: Speed March, Speed Skips, Booms, High Knees, Bounding, and Prime Times. We also introduce a standing Split and Rip starting technique so that these kids become familiar with effective takeoff movements. The fourth graders tend to struggle at the start of the year with these Speed Drills-they are gangly and all over the place with limbs, necks, and torsos flying in all different directions! But, I am always impressed as they progress and become much more efficient.

After we finish our Speed Drills, then comes the most fun part: Timing and Recording of sprints! We use our FreeLap to time our sprints for all age groups from Fourth Grade on up. While the weather is warm, we will do our whole routine with sprints on the track. We perform two 10 Yard Flys with a 30 yard run in with 4th-6th Grades when we are on the track. Once the weather gets frigid in Nebraska, we move our routine into the gym; therefore, our 10 Yard Flys have a much shorter run in. Indoors we make a modified “gauntlet” in which our kids will stand in a line close to our sprint area and cheer loudly for the sprinter to encourage each other. We also alternate our testing every Tuesday once we have moved inside. One Tuesday we will time sprints, and the following Tuesday we will time the Pro Agility Drill. I Record and Publish the times that we accumulate, but with elementary grades I do not Rank them.

I announce the student’s time after they sprint as well as announce if the student set a Personal Record (PR). We celebrate any new PRs by cheering and clapping. That helps ramp up the energy levels, and it sometimes seems like PRs become contagious. At the end of class, I hand out PR stickers to these groups. They will proudly wear their stickers all day! Some of the kids will put their personal collection of stickers in a row on their desks or on their lockers to display. In addition to PR stickers, I award Speed Bands (wristbands) based on MPH of their 10 Yard Flys. For 4th-6th grades, they have to reach at least 15 MPH to earn a wrist band. Wristbands are also passed out and celebrated at the end of class at the same time that I pass out PR stickers. On a side note, I have seen kids upset if they don’t set a PR, and I tell them two things: one, I don’t like seeing them upset because I care deeply about them; and two, them being upset shows me that they are competitive!

As I mentioned earlier, we recently purchased a SkyHook jump measurement mat and are learning how to best incorporate it into PE. I am aiming to mix the SkyHook into our elementary station routine in some manner soon. At the time of this article, we have been measuring all 4th-6th grade vertical jumps as part of our Friday (non-station day) routine. I look forward to continuing to measure our jumping data and improving our force production through the use of the SkHook mat.

Seventh and Eighth Grade in our school is our Junior High. I do not teach any JH classes because of the way our schedule works, so I do not have as many opportunities to work with these students with FTC training during regular school hours. I coordinate a morning weight room program and help lead our summer training, and I will have some JH students take part in those activities.

I teach three different High School Physical Education classes: 9th Grade PE, Lifetime Fitness, and a Strength and Conditioning class. Our class periods are approximately 45 minutes in length. I mix in FTC training with Lifetime Fitness and S&C. I am not able to mix in FTC with 9th Grade PE very consistently because we only have class two to three times per week-depending upon the week. My guess is that I am similar to many other FTC practitioners with how I do FTC training during HS classes. The aim for our HS classes is to get two days per week of FTC training. When it is warm enough, we go to our track for RPR, Speed Drills, and a variety of short sprints. We alternate our short sprints with 10 Yard Flys, the 40 Yard Dash, 40 Yard Flys, and the 60 Yard Dash. The kids really like when we do our 40 Yard Flys (with a 20 yard run in) because they like the ridiculously-fast 40 Yard Dash times! We then Record, Rank, and Publish all sprint times. If we do not do a second sprint day during the week, we will do a Power Day. In FTC lingo Power Day for us is basically X Factors. For Power Days we mix in a variety of sprint mechanics, jumps, landings, agility drills, and our SkyHook mat. We will Record, Rank, and Publish measurements such as Pro Agility, Three Broad Jumps, Six Bounds, and Vertical Jumps. Between our Sprint Days and Power Days, this gives us many measurements for our kids to set PRs.

For our Speed Bands, I base our speed requirements off of the data that I have collected at our school so that our Speed Band standards best fit us. I time and test many age groups, different ability levels, and both genders; therefore, the following are the McCool Junction Speed Band Minimum Requirements: Elementary = 15 MPH, JH Girls = 16 MPH, JH Boys = 17 MPH, HS Girls = 16 MPH, and HS Boys = 19MPH. It is quite gratifying to see Speed Bands being worn around the school.

Lastly, I have to give credit where credit is due as I have learned from many people who are way smarter than me. From an FTC perspective, the first people that I owe gratitude are my fellow track coaches in McCool Junction, Jeff Germer and Ryan Underwood, by not only buying a Feed the Cats DVD and sharing it with me, but for being some of the best track coaches-and human beings-that I have ever been around. Over my 22 years in teaching and coaching, I have had the fortune of learning from and working alongside many outstanding educators and coaches. Some of the “legends” that I have been inspired by through their social media posts, articles, podcasts, books, etc. are Tony Holler, Chris Korfist, Cal Dietz, Brian Kula, Brad Dixon, Mark Hoover, Tony Villani, Brad Fortney, Kurt Hester, Matt Rhea, Ken Clark, Les Spellman, Lee Weber, and the list could go on. I have not personally met many of these extraordinary people that I follow, yet they have had a massive impact on me and helped lead me to a world of Fast, Fresh, Fun, Happy, and Healthy.