Just as there is Maslow’s pyramid and the food pyramid, coach Tony Holler has developed his own pyramid aimed at performance in situational sports. Tony Holler is a track and field coach and a football and basketball physical trainer. He works at Plainfield North High School. He is also a member of the Illinois Track & Field Hall of Fame and co-director of the Track Football Consortium with Chris Korfist. But above all, Tony Holler is known for being the author of the “Feed the Cats” training methodology.
The old school pyramid is tons of strength and lots of conditioning. Basically you lift and then you get tired. Then a lot of toughness, crap and compliance. Then a lot of long hard practice that it’s not made for your enjoyment. And eventually you get to sports skills, strategy, and games, but it’s too late.
Coach Tony Holler believes that:
- Winning is more important than hard work.
- Performance is more important than effort.
Coaches are big effort people because they get their team so tired. They can’t perform. All they have left is effort. That’s why coaches focus on effort.
Winning > Hard work
Performance > Fatigue
“Feed the Cats” pyramid has a base of rest, recovery, sleep and nutrition. On the next level we’re just becoming better athletes: sprint, lift, jump, and bounce. It has to be built on that rest-recovery-sleep-nutrition foundation because you can’t get better at sprinting, lifting, jumping and bouncing unless you have a healthy body. Then we get to sport specific skills a lot earlier, and then in practice we perform in practice. We’re not trying to get them tired anymore. Matter of fact tired is the enemy, not the goal. Never let today ruin tomorrow. Don’t ever burn the steak. Send them home happy with gas in their tank. Take a day off once in a while which allows us to take a healthy team that loves a sport, teach them strategy and then win games.
“Sprint as fast as possible, as often as possible, staying as fresh as possible.”
Tony Holler
“Rest, recovery, sleep.”
“Tired is the enemy, not the goal.”
“Do less, achieve more.”
“Never let today ruin tomorrow. Never burn the steak.”
“You don´t plant beans and grow corn.”
“Speed grows like a tree.”
“Speed is the tide that lifts all boats.”
“Speed is the best barometer of health.”
Bibliographic references:
- Holler T. [Coach Tony Holler]. (2024). Lacrosse Training for Speed | Creating Better Athletes in LAX [Video]. Recovered from https://youtu.be/hnxHp2upuBM?si=taIrfF1U7XWZSahS
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