Feed the Cats Podcast

Coach Danny Schaechter joins the Feed the Cats Podcast to talk about speed development, performance training, and what it takes to develop elite football players.

Coach Schaechter is the current Offensive Coordinator and Speed/Performance Coach at Loyola Academy, one of the top high school football programs in the country. Over the years, he has worked with some of the best young football talent in the game, including NFL quarterback Caleb Williams.

Danny also shares how his approach to training has evolved over the past 8+ years. After initially being skeptical of some of the ideas behind Feed the Cats and Sprint-Based Football, he began incorporating many of those principles into his own training and coaching.

In this episode, we discuss:

• Speed development and maximizing athletic performance
• Why football players don't need to be constantly conditioned
• Training for maximum outputs instead of accumulating fatigue
• Developing elite football talent
• The importance of sprinting, speed, recovery, and performance
• Building a high-performance culture within top-tier programs
• Danny's evolution from skepticism to incorporating Feed the Cats principles
• Coaching and developing players at the highest levels of high school football
• Lessons learned from working with elite athletes, including Caleb Williams

This is a great conversation for coaches, athletes, parents, and anyone interested in developing faster, healthier, and better-performing football players.

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In this episode of the Feed the Cats Podcast, we sit down with Jake Cohen, a speed and performance coach and the founder of Jake Cohen Performance.

Jake has coached collegiate track & field, including stops at Louisiana Tech and the University of Illinois, and brings a wealth of experience when it comes to developing faster, more powerful athletes.

We dive deep into speed and power development, including why speed should be a priority, how to train the central nervous system, and how the weight room can be used to make athletes faster and more explosive.

We also discuss:

• Speed and power development
• Developing faster, more explosive athletes
• Training the central nervous system
• The role of lifting in speed development
• Leg training and lower-body strength
• Ballistic lifting and power development
• Velocity-Based Training (VBT)
• How strength and power training should complement speed
• Common mistakes when training athletes
• Jake's experience coaching collegiate track & field
• The current state of college track & field
• How coaches can better develop athletes

Whether you're a track coach, strength coach, athlete, or simply interested in speed and athletic performance, this conversation provides plenty of practical ideas for developing speed, strength, and explosiveness.

Follow Jake Cohen Performance for more speed & performance content.

Subscribe to the Feed the Cats Podcast for more conversations about speed, athletic development, training, and performance.

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What if speed training—not conditioning, grinding, or simply getting tired—should be the foundation of athletic development?

In this episode of Feed the Cats, we sit down with elite speed and performance coach Brian Kula to discuss speed development, maximal outputs, power, athleticism, and what it really takes to build high-performance athletes.

Brian has trained some of the world's best athletes, including NFL superstar Christian McCaffrey, and we dive into why developing speed was such a priority for Christian—and why speed should be a priority for athletes at every level.

We discuss:
- Why speed development should be the foundation of athletic training
- How speed training can make athletes faster, stronger, and healthier
- Why sprint-based football teams can outperform teams focused heavily on conditioning
- The connection between speed and long-term health
- Why maximal outputs are more valuable than simply making athletes tired
- The importance of adequate rest and recovery for high-performance training
- Eccentric training and force absorption
- Brian Kula's Bounce Fire series
- How athletes can improve their ability to produce and absorb force
- Why constantly training tired can make athletes slower and more sluggish
- The role of sprinting, power, and maximal output in athletic development
- How coaches can rethink traditional conditioning and training methods

The goal isn't to see how exhausted you can make an athlete. The goal is to develop athletes who can produce high levels of speed, power, and force—and recover well enough to do it again.

If you're an athlete, coach, strength coach, or anyone interested in speed training, sprinting, athletic performance, and high-performance training, this episode is packed with ideas worth considering.

Follow Feed the Cats for more conversations about speed, athletic development, coaching, and high performance.

#SpeedTraining #SpeedDevelopment #AthleticPerformance #FeedTheCats #BrianKula 

What happens when a high school football program stops training like everyone else and puts speed first?

Learn more about the Feed the Cats Academy powered by Universal Speed Rating:

https://feedthecatsacademy.com/

In this episode of Feed the Cats, we sit down with Coach Cale Sanders of Carlsbad High School in New Mexico to talk about the transformation of his football program after adopting a sprint-based, speed-first approach to training.

Carlsbad enrolled in the Feed the Cats Academy powered by Universal Speed Rating, giving their coaches a way to regularly test and track speed, jumping ability, power, and other performance metrics. Those results create an overall performance score that allows athletes to measure their progress against teammates and other athletes in programs participating in the Academy.

But the biggest changes aren't just happening on the testing numbers.

Coach Sanders shares how this approach has helped his athletes become faster, healthier, and more explosive, while reducing the emphasis on traditional conditioning and the constant grind that can leave athletes fatigued and more susceptible to injury.

And the results on the field have followed.

Carlsbad has seen major improvements in athlete performance, fewer injuries, and more success—including the program's first playoff win in 16 years last season. Now, the program enters the upcoming season highly ranked and looking to build on that momentum.

In this conversation, we discuss:

• Why Carlsbad made the shift to sprint-based football
• The philosophy behind putting speed before conditioning
• How regularly testing speed and power changes the way athletes train
• Why training athletes to perform at a higher level may be more effective than simply doing more work
• The impact on injuries and athlete health
• How Carlsbad's athletes have improved their top-end speed
• The connection between speed development and winning football games
• What other high school coaches can learn from Carlsbad's transformation
• Why the traditional approach to football conditioning may be changing

Could a speed-first approach be the future of high school football?

#FeedTheCats #FootballTraining #SpeedTraining #HighSchoolFootball #SprintTraining #FootballSpeed #FootballConditioning #AthleteDevelopment

Steve Jones was one of the most successful high school football coaches in America, leading Kimberly High School to 70 consecutive wins, five state championships, and a remarkable 129-9 record. But as you'll hear in this conversation, sustained success isn't about X's and O's—it's about building a championship culture through intentional leadership.

- Link to The Twin Thieves - https://amzn.to/4f4kymA

In this episode of the Feed the Cats Podcast, Steve shares the leadership principles that helped transform athletes into leaders and teams into champions. Whether you're a coach, teacher, business leader, entrepreneur, or parent, these lessons will help you build stronger relationships, create buy-in, and develop a culture where people thrive.

In this episode:
- The leadership secrets behind 70 straight wins
- How to build a championship culture
- Creating trust and accountability within a team
- Developing leaders at every level
- Coaching beyond wins and losses
- Leadership lessons that apply to sports, business, and life

🎙️ About Steve Jones

Steve Jones is a leadership coach, keynote speaker, consultant, and best-selling author. As head football coach at Kimberly High School (WI), he led his program to a 129-9 record, 70 consecutive victories, and five state championships. Today, he works with Fortune 500 companies, professional sports organizations, and leaders around the world to help build connected, resilient, high-performing cultures.

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How do you develop athletic kids in today’s youth sports environment? In this episode, Jeremy Frisch joins the podcast to discuss youth speed training, movement skill development, multi-sport athletes, and long-term athletic development.

Find more from Jeremy here: 
- https://www.instagram.com/jeremy_frisch17
- https://x.com/JeremyFrisch

Jeremy specializes in youth athletic development, strength & conditioning, and the Speed Demons program, helping young athletes build athleticism through movement, play, skill development, and smart training practices.

We discuss why movement skills and physical literacy should come before early specialization, how multi-sport athletes often develop broader athletic abilities, and why gamification of practice and training can be one of the most effective ways to improve learning, speed, coordination, and athletic performance.

In this episode, we cover:
- How to develop athletic kids
- Youth speed training principles
- Movement skills and physical literacy
- Multi-sport athletes and athletic development
- The problem with early sports specialization
- Gamification in practice and sports training
- Strength and conditioning for young athletes
- Building speed, coordination, and athleticism
- Coaching youth athletes for long-term development

Whether you’re a coach, parent, trainer, PE teacher, or sports performance professional, this conversation offers practical insights into developing faster, more skilled, and more athletic young athletes.

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What if speed isn’t genetic… and can actually be taught?

In this episode, we sit down with Dillon Martinez, author of Breaking The Speed Barrier, to discuss the science and coaching methods behind real speed development.

- Link to Dillon's book: https://amzn.to/3P4OPc8

We dive into why most coaches struggle to teach speed effectively, the biggest mistakes in traditional conditioning programs, and how elite coaches develop faster athletes through proper sprint mechanics, teaching progressions, and evidence-based training.

Topics include:
- The “7 UPs” of sprint mechanics
- The Three T’s of speed training
- Maximum velocity development
- Teaching acceleration and change of direction
- Multi-sport athlete programming
- Recovery and injury prevention
- Why speed is a skill — not just genetics

Dr. Martinez also shares insights from the largest research study ever conducted on speed coaching pedagogy and explains what separates great speed coaches from average ones.

If you’re a coach, athlete, parent, or sports performance enthusiast, this episode will completely change how you think about speed training.

In this episode of the Feed the Cats Podcast, I talk with strength and speed coach Zac Goodman about how to properly combine strength training and speed development for maximum performance. 

Too many athletes fall into the trap of doing too much—too much volume, too much conditioning, and not enough intent. Zac shares how the most effective programs focus on high intensity, maximum output, and full recovery. 

We break down why strength training should mirror speed training principles, and how simplifying your program can actually lead to better results, healthier athletes, and higher performance. 

In this episode: 

• How to combine strength and speed training effectively
• Why high intensity beats high volume
• The role of rest and recovery in performance
• Common mistakes in the weight room
• How to train athletes to be faster, stronger, and healthier

If you’re a coach or athlete looking to get more out of your training without burning out, this episode will give you a clear framework to follow.
 

In this episode of the Feed the Cats Podcast, I sit down with my son Alec Holler to talk about his journey through sports and coaching.

Alec shares his experiences as a high school athlete, his college years, and how those experiences ultimately shaped the coach he is today. Along the way, we discuss how his athletic career influenced the development of the Feed the Cats speed training philosophy.

Coach Tony Holler originally began searching for a better training experience for Alec when he was an athlete. That pursuit eventually led to the creation of Feed the Cats — a high-performance approach that prioritizes speed, health, recovery, and joy in training.

Today, Alec has become a successful coach in his own right. He has coached the Illinois state record holder in the 110m hurdles and has been part of an incredible run at Edwardsville High School as an assistant track coach, helping the program earn:

• 3 Illinois State Championships
• 4 State Runner-Up Finishes
• 7 Total State Trophies

We talk about lessons learned from athletics, the evolution of Feed the Cats, and how the philosophy is applied today to build a championship program year after year.

If you're a coach, athlete, or sports parent interested in speed development, high performance training, and building a positive sports culture, this episode is for you.

What happens when an entire athletic department decides to prioritize speed, eliminate mindless conditioning, and pursue the disciplined pursuit of less?

In this Feed The Cats Podcast episode, Bill Brindley, Tyler Thielges, and Brent Strickland share why Augusta Christian (Georgia) is becoming the first premier K–12 school to implement Feed The Cats principles across all sports and P.E. classes.

This isn’t just a football change.

This is a complete athletic culture shift.

We discuss:
- Why they’re eliminating traditional conditioning
- The disciplined pursuit of less
- Prioritizing speed in all things
- High performance practice design
- Recording, ranking, and publishing results
- Building buy-in across coaches and staff
- What it takes to implement Feed The Cats school-wide
- The risks, pushback, and long-term vision

This could be the first full-scale K–12 implementation of Feed The Cats principles in the country.

This episode is for athletic directors, head coaches, PE teachers, and school leaders who believe speed is trainable and culture is intentional.

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