Jan 13, 2019
Tony Holler is the boy's track coach at Plainfield North H.S. (IL). In 2018 Coach Holler's team swept the sprints - 4x100m, 4x200m, 100m, 200m - at the IHSA State Meet, setting two state records. He’s been coaching high school athletes for 38 years.
Tony is the owner of “Feed the Cats,” a system for training sprinters that is being implemented throughout the United States by high school track coaches. He is also the co-owner of Track Football Consortium, a site where he not only writes on the topic of sprinting, but he’s also written articles on distance running, such as the profile of John O’Malley (episode 002), which you can read it here.
In this interview we go into detail about the elements Coach Holler uses with his sprinters that he believes distance coaches should be implementing. There are some specific questions, such as how he views someone like Peter Snell doing 20-mile long runs as part of middle distance training. He’s got a great answer to that question.
Tony and I discuss what needs to be done to improve track and field in the United States - a subject that may well deserve a follow-up episode.
Thank you, Tony, for your time and energy.
You can find Coach Holler on Twitter at @pntrack