What can Swimming Learn from Tony Holler's Feed the Cats Sprint Program?

Tony Holler is the track coach at Plainfield North High School and creator of the "Feed the Cats" training philosophy.
After an impressive 38 years in the chemistry classroom, he gracefully retired and moved on to conquer the world of coaching consulting with several other sports and professional teams.
His remarkable contributions have earned him a well-deserved spot in the prestigious Illinois Track & Field Hall of Fame. Tony is also the proud co-director of the Track Football Consortium, joining forces with the renowned Chris Korfist. Together, they continue to revolutionize the world of track and field.
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#swimming #feedthecats #sprinting

[@dznyc]

I trined my son USRPT mostly when he was younger (12-15), now that he is 16 and ready for college, and on a normal swim team. I find it very hard to find a good academic school with this type of speed training in mind. I really believe the way college swimming with 4 hours a day, getting up at 4:45 am or 5 am in the morning with another hour of weights is not the right way to train and will just burn kids out and makes them drop out.

[@yonatanSelby]

Same concern here

[@mcdawge4886]

Unfortunately that’s what my highschool does. Including drylands I’m doing 10 practices a week, 3 of which I wake up a 4:40 for. I’m taking the risk starting next week and skipping the long swim practices I’ve been doing for club in order to swim on my own and improve my sprinting abilities

[@renzbenton4756]

@16:00 "Never work on endurance untill you learn to run fast" also @18:00 ...kids want to walk off the pool deck wanting to come back....I always loved when my coach ended practice early (usually on Friday or a day or two before a meet) and had us take a crack at our events. When My practice time was close or better than my PR I couldnt wait to come back because I knew I would do well in the meet. If I could I would end every practice that way. @29:00 "If it doesn’t look like performance, it will detrain performance".

[@dimitargeorgiev5732]

Extremely interesting conversation. Thank you for providing us access to this professional content about swimming.

[@mariomcdonald4727]

Been waiting for this collaboration for a while 💯💯

[@by_fis8434]

Hey brett, you defend the sprint training with your life, could you bring someone who may be considered the opposite of you, in therms of planification and volume. I love hearing two ppl talk about spring training, but also would love to hear a discution of why they think is not good

[@coffmans3]

Great info - so many similarities in track and swimming speed work effectiveness!

[@peteretzold9925]

one of your best podcasts yet!

[@InsidewithBrettHawke]

Glad you think so!

[@domthebfg]

This is life changing

[@yaga2796]

Gotta be the best podcast in a while, maybe ever

[@InsidewithBrettHawke]

🙏🏻 I agree

[@yaga2796]

Such an exciting time to be a swim coach. Im 26 and just started 2 years ago. Learning so much from this channel about keeping the kids engaged... Something I also want in my program. So powerful to be able to listen to podcasts like this. Very grateful ❤️

[@BillyandMiguel]

Awesome! Thank you for sharing!

This wss awesome. Thanks Brett, thanks Tony

[@renzbenton1]

@7:45 Huge base of slow stuff "Hard work, miserable work, work that doe's not look like performance." = Excellent way to run good athletic kids right out of the sport in my opinion. ...."Every school had a good track and field team they just don't come out."

[@user-cv2jg2ob1e]

Amazing interview. Love so many of the concepts. One question...what kind of training are your athletes doing with their cross country coach during the Fall?

[@shaunflood5066]

This was amazing talk. I’m going to look into it more. I’m a high school swim coach in the states and most of our swims are 50,100 and some 200. I can see how to work this for my 50 and 100 swimmers. Any ideas how to do this for my 200 swimmers?!?!?

[@terrybiles]

Didn't know I needed this

[@stijnverbist5999]

Do you think that USRPT is a good training method ?

[@TheKapor10]

One thing i hear often when it comes to "sprint training" is that it makes your heart do a lot more work since the intensity is higher, therefore heart related problems will occur more frequiently compared to the "endurance" approach (more miles with less effort). I see so many people taking one part out (for example speed or endurance in this case) of the whole and are trying to push it to the extremes. If you have a big group, young kids for example, some will find speed training boring and too short, and some will find endurance training too long. Why cant we have both ends together in a balanced program, focusing on race specificity, short anaerobic work during meet season, and making an aerobic base during offseason. In the end, you still have to do your very best at one meet in a year (Olympics or Worlds) and you need a plan to make sure that you dont break world records at january and finish 4th in the world championsips final like Summer Mcintosh. If you want to accomplish that, taking your program to either extremities will result in faliure or inconsistent results. If you want the perfect program, you have to have individualization and variability. Making it fun depends on your communication and social skills, your humor and your everyday good mood. It doesnt matter what program you are doing, it can be either sprint or endurance focused, you can make it both fun or boring, depending on your behaviour as a coach. I understand that swimming was (and still is) a sport where swimmers are more overtrained than they should be, but flipping it on its head is not a solution either. The closer you are to your main event, the more race specific and anaerobic your trainings should be, and the further away you are from your main event, the more endurance focused it should be. Just my 2 cents.

[@InsidewithBrettHawke]

Fair points. We are just asking to find that balance

[@benjamins.tollundgaard9954]

I wholeheartedly support the premise. It seems to me that swim coaches worldwide are as polarized as the political landscape. Some advocate for sprint training, dismissing aerobic base building as foolish, while others champion a volume-centric approach, warning against the long-term consequences of sprint focus. I'm exhausted by the incessant demonization of opposing methodologies by coaches and individuals alike. This is precisely why I resonate with this comment. It's not about vilifying one approach over another but rather about cultivating engaging and enjoyable workouts. Whether high-volume or sprint-oriented, both can be enjoyable experiences for swimmers. The atmosphere on the pool deck, team camaraderie, and the personal rapport coaches establish with their swimmers are pivotal. It's about instilling belief in the training regimen and fostering a sense of ownership in the plan. In my experience, half of my swimmers despise sprint training while the other half loathe traditional methods. I make it my priority to accommodate each swimmer's preferences to ensure they find joy in practice. Personally, I lean towards sprint training, but I acknowledge the efficacy of aerobic base building. The key lies in identifying your coaching philosophy-your "why," "what," and "how." Embracing your approach wholeheartedly breeds enthusiasm and enhances planning, ultimately benefiting the athletes you mentor.

[@intn14]

Would be nice to see example swim practices of this.

[@InsidewithBrettHawke]

I’m posting a new 1 month speed program today on BrettHawke.com

[@adnanzaheeer]

Hi, Does high aerobic base benefits sprinters?

[@InsidewithBrettHawke]

Watch the podcast.

[@user-qw5ej3yy3r]

39:00

[@matiaswilliamcosta7207]

in the end i hear always the same arguments in favour of fast swimming which i consider Sprint training and all these people talking at some point the come to the conclusion that training that way you need a LOT of rest. So what do you do with all this time your athlete need to rest , send them home and let them play Playstation the whole time until recovered to the point they can Sprint properly again? Of corse not, you get them back to practice and do some work which doesn’t mean mindless yardage swimming but also not sprinting hard to harm your athlete . I am firm believer that athletes leaving the Sport do for different reasons than because of yardage.

[@InsidewithBrettHawke]

Not the vast majority of

[@renzbenton4756]

So if an athlete wanted to swim a 400im what would a program look like?

[@InsidewithBrettHawke]

Like every age group program in America