with Chris Parno,
Minnesota State University Associate Head Men's & Women's Track & Field Coach / Recruiting Coordinator - Sprints & Hurdles;
7x USTFCCCA Indoor/Outdoor Assistant Coach of the Year - Central Region;
2x NSIC Indoor/Outdoor Men's Assistant Coach of the Year;
has coached 90 individual/relay NSIC Sprint/Hurdle Conference Champions, 198 national provisional qualifying marks, 6 individual NCAA National Champions, 57 1st-Team NCAA All-Americans, 17 2nd-Team NCAA All-Americans, and 10 Drake Relays titles

Minnesota State University associate head coach Chris Parno provides a phenomenal balance of relay theory, logic, and drills to progress through during the season to ensure your team is successful in all relay events. Coach Parno's golden rule of "get the stick around the track as fast as possible" allows for you and your athletes to focus on three critical components:

• Timing the stick
• Athletes being "stick transporters"
• Creating a plan around maintaining the "speed of the stick"

The faster the stick moves, the lower the time, and the greater your success!

Hand-Offs

Coach Parno provides detailed descriptions for every type of hand-off that can be incorporated into each specific relay, then gives you a structured way to practice these concepts in low impact, highly repetitious format. His system will provide your athletes with confidence to execute when it matters most - the meet!

In addition to hand-off descriptions, each segment in the video specifically addresses the incoming and outgoing runners' responsibilities to ensure the "speed of the stick" never slows down.

Increasing Stick Speed

Next, Parno incorporates over 20 drill varieties that will give you and your athletes the essentials to maintain stick velocity around the track. Starting with low impact, highly repetitious drills and advancing to full speed, all-out practice, these drills instill the backbone for relay success.

Coach Parno's 4x100 Zone Running Drill without the stick allows for easy evaluation and establishment of "go" marks for the outgoing runner, while also identifying the outgoing runner's preferred technique to get to max velocity. This single drill will allow you and your athletes to evaluate the timing of the baton exchange to maintain "stick speed" throughout the race; the critical component for success.

Coach Parno's theory and drills will undoubtedly improve your team's relays by providing context to set-up, practical drill application, and simple cues that all of your athletes can use to maximize the speed of the stick throughout their relay event. This video is a must-have for all relays coaches!

88 minutes. 2020.

with Alec Holler,
Edwardsville High School (IL) Hurdles Coach (Track & Field) and Defensive Backs Coach (Football);
has coached 13 state qualifiers, nine All-State athletes, three state champions, and one state record holder in the hurdle events; son of 'Feed the Cats' guru, Tony Holler

The 'Feed the Cats' sprint training philosophy has been spreading like wildfire throughout the country. What many people don't know is it is applicable to, and can be utilized for, the hurdles as well.

In this video, Edwardsville High School hurdles coach Alec Holler, son of 'Feed the Cats' guru Tony Holler, presents his strategies and methodology for transitioning 'Feed the Cats' training specific to the hurdles.

'Feed the Cats' Hurdle Priorities

Coach Holler breaks down his priorities for the hurdles with an emphasis on speed above endurance, speed above technique, health above endurance, and full speed reps above drills. Hurdling can be brutal to the athlete and "happy and fast" will always produce better outcomes than "tired and injured."

Holler dissects his five rules of hurdling that promote the 'Feed the Cats' themes to producer faster, more confident hurdling. The "2 Hurdle" rule allows for diagnosis and correction of undesired effects while also identifying "upstream" causes; for example, if a hurdler is struggling in finishing a race (Hurdle 7-10), the cause (poor takeoff for example) can be fixed on hurdle 1 and 2, thus leading to the ability to train full speed and in a manner that promotes health over fatigue.

Coach Holler's 'Feed the Cats' hurdle approach is discussed for both the sprint hurdles and longer hurdle events (300/400 meter hurdles). The philosophy doesn't change - Holler always bases the development on speed, health and happiness to get success to follow.

Cues + Coaching Points

Next, Coach Holler diagnoses his cues and coaching points using a simple checklist that can be easily identified, but not obsessed over, by the hurdler. His checklists are broken down into the:

• Start and Approach
• Cut Step
• Takeoff
• Lead Leg
• Trail Leg
• Arms
• Landing

Holler identifies 3-4 cues to coach up in each of these technical areas that can be taught over the first two hurdles. Of them all, Coach Holler identifies the cut step as the most critical component and provides detailed video and picture analysis of what it should look like.

Lastly, programming and scheduling is provided to give you the ability to adapt your current hurdle program to the 'Feed the Cats' philosophy. Multiple scheduling aspects are included so you can make the necessary modifications to your current programming to fit your team's need to develop faster hurdlers.

The information provided in this video from Coach Holler can help you maximize your hurdlers' potential and drastically reduce their times this upcoming season. Don't wait any longer to start 'feeding the cats'!

61 minutes. 2020.

with Tony Holler,
Plainfield North High School (IL) Head Boys Track & Field Coach;
2015 ITCCCA Hall of Fame Inductee;
over 35 years of coaching experience at the high school level

Plainfield North High School track & field coach Tony Holler has revolutionized sprint training forever thanks to his 'Feed the Cats' training program. Countless track & field programs across the nation have begun to adopt the 'Feed the Cats' system and have quickly seen an immediate impact on their results.

In this video, Coach Holler zeroes in on what it takes to build speed on the track. You'll walk away with an understanding of what makes athletes faster, as well as the best mechanics to adopt for faster times.

What Makes Athletes Fast

Holler's clinic presentation starts with his philosophy regarding speed, and how to train to improve speed. He also explains that these concepts don't only apply to track coaches, but to football coaches as well.

Next, Holler explains that through experience as an athlete, and trial and error as a coach, he learned that less is actually more for speed athletes. For the last 20 years, Coach Holler has implemented a system for training speed in which athletes sprint as fast as possible, as often as possible, while staying as fresh as possible. He covers:

• The common pitfalls most coaches cannot avoid when training for speed.
• Avoiding injuries and burnout.
• Why long, grueling conditioning sessions are like poison for speed development.

Correcting Mechanics

Coach Holler spends time giving an overview of sprint mechanics. You'll learn proper sprint mechanics that make athletes more efficient when they run, as well as how to teach and drill those mechanics. Additionally, Holler explains that the selection of drills is not nearly as important as how they are done.

This presentation of speed development from Coach Holler is sure to give you a blueprint for building speed in your own athletes! His theories make for a comprehensive program that is designed to get your athletes faster, while keeping them happy and healthy!

58 minutes. 2020.

with Tony Holler,
Plainfield North High School (IL) Head Boys Track & Field Coach;
2015 ITCCCA Hall of Fame Inductee;
over 35 years of coaching experience at the high school level

This video from 'Feed the Cats' guru Tony Holler revolutionizes the concepts and ideas of his approach to speed development and coaching the sprints. Coach Holler discusses his approach and philosophies in how to make track & field fun for student-athletes. By keeping athletes happy and healthy, and using speed as the essential component to training, you can quickly turn your sprint program into a program that makes it easy to run 18 miles per hour because you are training at 20 miles per hour.

10 'Feed the Cats' Commandments

The principles of Holler's 'Feed the Cats' philosophy are broken down into 10 critical components that will ultimately lead to program development through methods to attract the best athletes in your school. You'll hear Coach Holler detail the steps and mindset that he has adopted over his last 20 years of coaching to enable the development of happy, healthy and fast athletes in the sprint-based events.

Less Grind, More Results

Holler's desire to avoid "the grind" has led to a style of coaching that embraces a "Do Less, Achieve More" attitude through prescribing the minimum effective dose to maximize training today without ruining tomorrow's session. With a focus on having all activities complement one another and work in the same direction, one can accomplish substantially more results in much less time.

The pillars of speed, sprint mechanics, max speed sprinting, and jumping are used in combination to build the foundation of Coach Holler's 'Feed the Cats' sprint program. His approach can be implemented and utilized by coaches of all levels to keep one's 'cats' happy and healthy!

62 minutes. 2020.

with Tony Holler,
Plainfield North High School (IL) Head Boys Track & Field Coach;
2015 ITCCCA Hall of Fame Inductee;
over 35 years of coaching experience at the high school level

What do cats and track & field sprinters have in common? Both are incredibly fast and powerful. Sprinters need a healthy dose of speed development and other explosive movements to maximize their potential. However, the biggest challenge coaches face is determining how much training is needed and what types of training will have the biggest impact with the smallest risk.

Enter Tony Holler and his 'Feed the Cats' philosophy! In this 60-minute presentation, Coach Holler goes into detail about how best to sequence training plans to get the most from this type of programming. For coaches new to the philosophy, Holler breaks down why this method has produced state champions, collegiate, and professional athletes in both track and football.

Lactate Development

Lactate development is a critical component of training for sprinters, especially long sprinters, who rely on it to help power longer races and training efforts. With this type of training, a little can go a long way. But how much is too much? In this segment, Coach Holler talks about the specific volumes he uses in workouts, including maximum distances and time used per rep, total volume of reps per session, and the proper rest required to get the most from these intervals with the least amount of detriment to the athlete.

Organizing the Training Week

How many times should sprinters do lactate development workouts? How often should they sprint in practice? Coach Holler takes the guess work out of these common scheduling questions and more. For coaches dealing with multiple meets per week on various days, Holler breaks down the most critical components of each week and what he values most, in order to help you successfully navigate even the most chaotic competition schedules.

Alactic Development

Alactic development is the backbone of any good speed and power program. In this segment, Holler explains why it's critical to his athletes' success and how he structures these sessions to help them get the most from these workouts. Carefully measuring power outputs during these workouts is critical. As a result, Coach Holler discusses why timing these exercises is important and how you can incorporate that data into building better practices.

Coaching track & field produces many obstacles to overcome, from scheduling to facility issues, while working with teams of varying sizes and athletes of different abilities. Coach Holler takes the guess work out of all of this and provides a simple, clear programming model that will help you create a fast-paced and fun environment to develop electrically fast sprinters. This video is a must-have for any track coach looking to gain an edge in creating fast, powerful sprinters!

62 minutes. 2020.