FEEDING THE CATS IN THE EMERALD ISLE JULY 6
In the past year, I’ve spoken to groups as small as 25 (NSCA Illinois) and as large as 500 (Glazier Football Clinic, Las Vegas). I addressed an entire coaching staff at Joliet Central last August. I do 10-15 consults every month. I contributed to an upcoming basketball book by Alex Sarama. I continue to work in the lacrosse world through Jamie Munro, JM3 Sports. I’m a business partner of Less Spellman and Universal Speed Rating. Last December, I traveled to Nantes to introduce speed training to the French Football Federation.
I’m not a pro and don’t have an agent. I don’t seek speaking engagements. My only employee is my son, Troy, who runs my YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram.
In a couple weeks, I will be speaking at the Atlas High Performance Centre in Limerick, Ireland. Promoting a seminar overseas is tricky. How do we get this information into the hands of Ireland’s coaches?
This will be my second trip to Ireland. In 2018, Jonas Dodoo hosted me for a series of five workshops, four in England, one in Dublin.
On Saturday, July 6th, I will make six presentations with check-in at half nine (9:30 am check-in, first presentation at 10:00 am). Tickets cost only €100 if purchased by June 28th. Complimentary breakfast and lunch is included. Every attendee will receive three of my CoachTube courses for free ($117 value).
THE PRESENTATIONS
“Feed the Cats: The Revolution Starts Now”
Feed the Cats is a revolutionary counterintuitive coaching model that prioritizes speed and performance, even in practice. Speed is the cornerstone of athleticism. Ask coaches to define “athlete”. The first word out of their mouth will be “FAST”. Feed the Cats is not a gimmick, not a system, not a “recipe”. Feed the Cats is a new way to cook. As Buckminster Fuller said, “You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change things, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.” FTC is the new model.
Asked to describe Feed the Cats in 37 words: “Sprint, record-rank-publish, sprint before lifting, never let today ruin tomorrow, accept rest & recovery to create performance-level outputs, stop doing sh*t that makes you slow, and make practice the best part of a kid’s day!” (All athletes are kids!)
“Building Apex Predators”
My “Four Pillars of Athleticism” are 1) Sprint Fast, 2) Lift Heavy, 3) Jump High & Far, and 4) Bounce. My presentation will outline exactly how we can create fast and explosive athletes. (Notice that “endurance” is not one of my pillars.)
“Speed is the Tide that Lifts All Boats”
If movement is involved in a sport, improved speed will improve all of those movements. If you train the extreme, you train the range. The most extreme human movement is sprinting with energy, excitement, and enthusiasm… in spikes, on a track, in a straight line, and getting timed.
Whether we are talking about the athleticism required to play Gaelic Football, Hurling, Soccer, Track & Field, Golf, Tennis, Cycling, Boxing, Lacrosse, Cricket, Hockey, or Basketball, improved athleticism improves the ability to move.
“Perform in Practice and Allow the Games to Be Hard”
It’s no secret that huge practice volumes are the #1 cause of injuries in sports. I believe coaches should practice “the disciplined pursuit of less”. The idea of doing less is counterintuitive, but remember, this is the new model that makes the existing model obsolete.
American football coaches worship at the church of hard work, often for hard work’s sake. In other words, football teams spend lots of time doing things that don’t make better football players and don’t make better teams. Winning depends on the high performance.
Keir Wenham-Flatt once remarked, and I’m paraphrasing, “If football coaches coached marathon runners, they would 26 miles on the first day of practice. On day-two, they would run 30 miles. When athletes complained of sore legs on day-three, the coach would get mad increase the workload to 40 miles.” I can hear the speech after practice, “Pain is just weakness leaving the body”.
My father, a basketball coach of 47 years, used to tell his teams, “We are going to practice so hard the games will feel easy.” This made sense to my dad and made sense to his teams. The FTC the cats model encourages coaches to “Allow the games be hard.”
My presentation will outline a way to make practice the best part of a kid’s day. I will discuss my “Wave Theory” and the implementation of “Clusters”. Coaches will learn the inspired brilliance of Harry Marra’s quote, “Get to the starting line 100% healthy and 80% in shape, not the other way around.”
“Reflexive Performance Reset”
From Cal Dietz, “RPR is the biggest secret in sports performance today”.
It all began with South Africa’s Douglas Heel and “Be Activated”. Be Activated became a performance tool that athletes could use to get into THE ZONE (parasympathetic state). Be Activated bulletproofed athletes from soft-tissue injury. Most importantly, performance measurably improved.
Next generation “Be Activated” is now called “Reflexive Performance Reset”. The owners of RPR are my good friends, Cal Dietz and Chris Korfist.
I will introduce RPR and explain how I’ve implemented RPR into my practices.
“Sprint the 400 with Mircodosed Training”
This is the only topic that specifically relates to my main sport, track & field.
My 400 runners are sprinters. My sprinters never run more than a 200 in practice and we never run a warmup lap. EVER. Our biggest workout last year was 3×200 with 4 minute rest.
Even though “Sprint the 400” seems to be specific for track coaches only, there are far-reaching principles to be learned by all coaches, all sports.
My 400-training allows the 400 to be hard. I preach the same to sports coaches. Keep practice volumes at 50-60% of game volumes and PERFORM IN PRACTICE. Not only will athletes get better at what wins games, but you will have a healthy, enthusiastic roster heading into competition. The grind is not a performance enhancer.
THE CONCLUSION
The day’s presentations will end at 5:45, but I will stay until the last question is answered. Then I will enjoy a Guinness.
For more information, you can email me at tony.holler@yahoo.com or the host of the event, Stephen Walsh at stephen@atlashpc.ie.
If you know of coaches in Ireland who would be interested, please pass this along.
Flyer
(please share digital link)
