Sprint Based Football - Feed the Cats

FTC is all about speed. From what I know Holler is willing to sacrifice lifting lower body due to the recovery time that is required to get back to 100%. Thus it’s eating up days that could be used on sprint work.

Now he’s not saying never lift, he knows lifting helps kids get stronger etc which helps get faster. But he’s saying at some point it comes down to do you want to be fast or strong? And if you’re focusing on speed you can’t be breaking kids bodies down in the weight room like a traditional strength coach does.

That is the entire philosophy of the program. Do not let today ruin tomorrow.


Which by that they mean... Do not let non sprint days ruin sprint days (Days that you are actually working to get faster and improve top end speed.) Which again, speed is 100% priority of the program. Everything else comes in second or will fall into place.

Does it make you faster? Yes, do it. No, don't do it.


It's all about pareto principle.

I feel faster naked...

That statement alone would make me skeptical about anything he had to say regarding training football players.

I believe I’ve heard Holler and others talk about Carl Deitz and Triphasic Training as kind of the model of lifting they prefer. I would also think the 1x20 approach would fit. You see discussions all the time and the relationship between strength and speed.

Is FTC the best method or the best method for your (your being general here) that’s up to you. Like many have said a lot of us already do many of the ideas. I see it like a lot of other programs with strength and conditioning. There are a bunch of methods out there that will get you very good results as long as you or your players don’t do anything stupid.

One thing that was mentioned in a clinic they did recently was about timing the kids on Mondays. They also used the information to monitor their players. So if a kid comes in and is running slower than normal they take it as the kid needs more time to recover during the week to be ready on Friday. I think a lot of us use the eye test for stuff like that and some guys don’t even look/think about it.

Actually, I should clarify this remark.

I don't think Holler is necessarily anti-lifting as much as he disagrees with the idea that being lean and strong is the foundation of speed. I replied to one of his Twitter posts last year saying that I have had athletes who would lift but not run or jump all winter and still improved their 40 times and VJs by the spring. His response was essentially that I was mistaken because it is impossible to get faster without sprinting.

Summarizing all my research
-It has some great principles that can be applied easily to any program
-I think it still has to be modified to FIT YOU, my program isnt going to be Camp Point Central HS in Illinois but for the demographics we had (one of the physically smallest teams in the league with rosters of 23-25 kids) I felt that it fit us
-To be honest, I watched the clinics and read the articles by Holler but I was more interested in hearing what Brad Dixon, Dan Casey, silkyice on here, and other coaches who have implemented parts or all of most of his methods tried and true
-Its not so much that there is discouragement of lifting, but one of the coaches even stated that majority of his players do their lifting in school and they don't max out, they don't do X & Z, which is fine, to each his own. I don't claim to be a S&C expert but I have a friend who is a Head NFL strength coach and I have worked with some really good coaches who are good strength coaches and each of them has their own philosophies towards everything. Personally my plan was to use the speed training/volume aspects of FTC and tie it into our practice plans and also utilize Jim Wendler's 5-3-1 program.

For anyone on here getting offended by the responses you get by asking about this, sorry but thats coaching. You are going to get criticized, questioned (Which I think is a good thing), and the fact that Holler alienates alot of people by the way he talks, you're going to get some "virtual eye rolling".

As far as the RPR, which is a small component of all this, I attended the Level 1 "certification" myself and I personally have noticed the benefits. But I am 33 years old, 2 back surgeries and out of eligibility. Does it help healthy high school student-athletes already in shape? I think so but In between my time of off-season workouts, resigning, and accepting a new position, I can't sit here and type that I have enough data to validate that claim. With RPR, I relied on those I know in the S&C world who are experts on the body and every single one of them felt it has merits but since they didn't use it themselves,

I have several of the clinic videos that I learned from, and theres 3-4 coaches on here that were a great resource for me as well. When I was at my previous school I also met with the head track coach, and one of our science faculty members who I greatly respect to try to understand it more from a scientific point of view cause thats just not my background. Knowing who some of the coaches on here and the success they have had, the whole "sprint based practice planning" approach must not be a complete snake oil sale but the key is to know enough about it to adapt and modify it to you and your program.

If anyone wants the notes I gathered feel free to IM me and I will send them to you.

here is a copy of the sample practice plans I put together "slowly transitioning" to this philosophy: docs.google.com/document/d/1XoriPgdLYQzoJOUwpAEUCF_-uJNEgQMC_WYohQWCK2U/edit?usp=sharing

I think really each individual program is going to look different if you go all in with this approach just based on the logistics of your day.

This is FTC philosophy

I don't hate the ideas, I hate the people who worship it as a religion and walk around smelling their own farts.

It's also a bit of salesmanship, setting up some straw men and knocking them down to make your point.

I would argue conventional football wisdom says you should practice hard so games are easy.

Yes. I agree with this.

I think the BEST thing the FTC philosophy has done is to question the grinder approach and show that you DON'T need long, grueling practices and weekend coaches meetings to be competitive. 

And I think this is still true and why a ton of people are turned off by Holler. There are a ton of coaches out there that wish football could be a "paramilitary boot camp" where they make kids tougher. See evidence on this board all the time, college coaches, social media, etc. 

There is a real visceral conflict there. 

Football is safer not softer. I ask kids to do way more than we were asked to do in the 80's and 90's. It's not even close.