Famous Track Coach

Tony Holler is a teacher and coach at Plainfield North High School. Holler has 35 years experience coaching football, basketball, and track. Holler is a member of Illinois Track & Field Hall of Fame and Co-director of Football-Track Activation Consortium.

‍I find that although sprinters only run in straight lines, it is a helpful angle to look at their training and coaches to see the more obvious effects of improper training when tenths of a second make the difference between winning and losing. This casts a brighter light on poor choices in the weight room and lifestyle.

The first bullet point opened up my mind a lot. You have to raise the ceiling on top output before thinking about being extremely agile or quick. A look at hormone levels is another interesting field that I will tap on in the future. Being in the sunlight more often directly raises dopamine.

Notes:

• Max acceleration is dependent on top speed
• 4 days a week on the track is optimum
• Dopamine is essential for being fast
• The weightroom teaches long massive contractions. The bar doesn't move faster than a meter or two a second. Too slow.
• The ability to have a massive contraction in a split second and then the muscle to go fully slack. That is an elite athlete.
• "My non-football players don’t lift after practice, but I tell them to do 100 pushups a day. Looking frail is no way to live your life."
• "I do like strength, I just don’t see a difference in between kids who lift in their sprinting, and kids who don’t lift in their sprinting, if there was a difference, I would change my mind."
• "When we micro-dose in the weight room, we would lift, but we would not lift to soreness… Charlie Francis said you should never be sore from training"
• “I think slow guys run with their muscles more than fast guys (who utilize more from their tendons, bones, joints)”
• “Whoever decided that planks are something everyone should do should maybe think if that’s something that is causing hip flexor problems”
• “Dopamine allows you to move your limbs faster and gives you reckless confidence; two elements that make kids fast”
• “Prioritize speed #1, prioritize rest #2, those are the two fundamental principles of feed the cats”
• “To me, track and field is all about performance, it’s not about keeping kids until 5pm”
• “We never practice more than 40 minutes”
• "I have timed over 150 thousand 40’s since I began data-based speed training in 1998. Run fast to get fast. You don’t get fast by running slow. You don’t get fast in the weight room. You don’t get fast by running with a parachute on your back. You don’t get fast by running up or down hills or pushing sleds or running stairs or wearing ankle weights. Run fast to get fast. It’s all so simple."
• "Speed training is a process. Speed grows like a tree."
• "It’s strange but when you go to a clinic, you see presentations by coaches who were blessed with a freaky sprinter or two. We all want to know how coaches create such an athlete. The presenter hides behind a sophisticated and complex PowerPoint that overwhelms the crowd and makes everyone feel inferior. Remember, the presenter is the beneficiary of genetic talent and deep down, he knows it. It’s like shuffling a deck of cards and playing solitaire. Winning and losing is predetermined after the shuffling. College coaches don’t create speed, they find speed."
• "Sprint training should never happen more than three or four days per week. Sprinters need to play multiple sports."
• "My program values rest and growth with the same enthusiasm as we value training. Coaches who grind kids do not allow time for growth."
• "High dopamine levels provide many benefits to a sprinter including confidence, resistance to fatigue, and the ability to move fast."
• "Sprinters in the north are no match for sprinters in the southern states. Why does Florida produce twice as many elite sprinters as Illinois? I think this speed differential has to do with sunshine and dopamine."
• "Accomplishments make people feel good. Dopamine levels increase when we are rewarded. We like the way we feel so we seek more rewards. Yes, winning increases dopamine and then fuels the urge to win again. Success breeds success."

"How Do You Increase Dopamine Levels?

Actions

• Sleep, Sleep, Sleep. Nothing you do will improve dopamine levels more than sleep.
• Sunshine. Minimum exposure to sunlight should be 30-60 minutes, but the more, the better. Sunlight also increases the skin’s production of vitamin D, boosts testosterone levels, and improves the ability to sleep. We evolved for 35 thousand years living in the natural light. Too many people now spend their lives in artificial light.
• Meditation
• Massage
• Avoid junk food, especially sugar.
• Avoid excessive caffeine, including energy drinks.
• Limit exposure to blue light (bright screens including cell phones, computers, and televisions).
• Limit fluorescent light (go outside!).
• Avoid anything that provides instant gratification without effort or discipline. Instant gratification causes an initial spike in dopamine followed by a crash. Addictive substances like cocaine, nicotine, and alcohol spike and crash dopamine levels. Even behavioral addictions like gambling and pornography spike dopamine levels for the short term but have a negative long-term effect."

Tony Holler: Bigger Faster Stronger Meets "Feed the Cats": Just Fly Performance Podcast #135 - Just Fly Sports Performance

Tony Holler on "Feed the Cats" - Just Fly Sports Performance

3 Simple Ways to Transform Slow to Fast - SimpliFaster

Sunshine, Dopamine, and Sprinting - SimpliFaster

I hope you enjoyed these notes and research! Let me know if any of this was helpful.