In Illinois, an alarming number of football coaches discourage participation in track. A sample conversation:
Sophomore football player sends a DM to his head football coach:
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Would it be a bad idea to run track this season? I was looking forward to running this year, but I talked to Coach ***** and all he said was “out of sight, out of mind.”
The Head Coach responds:
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Your call. I tell guys: “if it’s a passion you can’t live without, then you should go out.” I don’t subscribe to the adage that track makes you faster, if that’s why you go out. It’s a totally different type of speed than what is needed in football. The biggest reason why juniors don’t play in our program is a lack of strength, not speed!
And so it goes—another football coach convinces a sophomore in high school to lift weights in the spring with that coded warning, out of sight, out of mind. The guy who said that should be fired and never allowed to coach again.
Why? Since 2017, 1292 high schools in Illinois produced only 936 Division I football players. Only 44% of those athletes ran track. By comparison, since 2017, Texas produced 3209 Division I football players. 71.5% ran track. Texas had more football commits run track (2371) than Illinois had D-I players (936). And it’s not getting any better in Illinois—in the class of 2021 (131 D-1 football commits), only 39% ran track.
When you look at the combined rosters of Alabama and Ohio State, 88% of the DBs, 83% of the WRs, and 75% of the RBs ran track. 61% of all the players on both rosters had a track background.
When you look at the combined rosters of Alabama and Ohio State, 88% of the DBs, 83% of the WRs, and 75% of the RBs ran track. 61% of all the players on both rosters had a track background. Click To TweetFeed the Cats Meets the BCS
Like modern politics, football coaches live in echo chambers. Every football coach I know was a hard-working grinder as an athlete. The weight room was their sacred place. Most of them never won a race in their life, and when they think of running, they think of conditioning.
Every football coach loves fast players, but they see speed as a genetic trait. They love it…then neglect it. They hire big guys to serve as their strength and conditioning coaches. The University of Illinois just replaced their S&C coach. Their guy was a power lifter who would post pictures of his biceps while he bragged about the number of Illini football players who could bench 405 and clean 300 pounds. He also posted video clips of his athletes going through speed ladders with the hashtag #SlowFeetDontEat. The new Illini S&C guy goes by the name of “Tank.” Tank got married in a college weight room.
And so it goes.
Chris Korfist and I started the Track Football Consortium in 2015. Our mission was to bring track coaches and football coaches together for the benefit of athletes. The goal was to help football coaches to understand and prioritize speed and power. Too many football coaches see the game through the lens of hard work and high effort, not the lens of maximum velocity and high outputs. Track coaches need help too. The average track coach comes from a distance background or subscribes to a run-them-to-death, 10×200 program. Originally, the college S&C world was not even on our radar.
Now it is.
This article has been in my head throughout the fall season. While writing this, on the day after the NCAA National Championship Game, I tweeted: “It really seems like last night was a tipping point.” And it truly feels like something happened, where things will never be the same again. It’s like Julius Caesar crossing the Rubicon. Huh? Tipping point? Crossing the Rubicon?
People in our Feed the Cats and TFC-world have been acutely aware of those rebel talents of the strength and conditioning field who are making a break from the meathead approach to football. We watched with excitement as, in their prior positions at Indiana, David Ballou and Dr. Matt Rhea helped make the Hoosiers relevant as a football program.
Matt Rhea was quoted in a Stack article, How a Unique Speed Training Program Flipped the Fortunes of Indiana Football, saying what makes him revolutionary: “The old adage you can’t teach speed or you can’t develop speed in guys at this level is just highly inaccurate.” Also from the same Stack article: Rhea, along with IU Director of Football Performance Dave Ballou, arrived in Bloomington in January of 2018. Over the course of the next year, Indiana players saw their top running speed increase by an average of over 3 miles per hour.
For those of you new to the miles per hour game, DK Metcalf ran 1.37 mph faster than Budda Baker in the famous rundown back in October 2020.
College teams recruit fast athletes. I can’t imagine what an average speed increase of over 3 miles per hour would look like.
When Rhea and Ballou went to Alabama, I told people that Alabama may never lose another game. Especially given the Neanderthal state of affairs in many S&C programs.
When @MattRheaPhD and @UA_CoachBallou went to Alabama, I told people that Alabama may never lose another game, says @pntrack. Click To TweetYou see, Alabama has always recruited the best athletes in the country. Unlike the NFL, where the worst teams are awarded the top draft picks, the best college programs get multiple first round picks every year. There’s nothing fair about recruiting. The rich get richer. Filthy rich. Bad teams are screwed. Alabama has always been rich in talent.
But what happens when you train those future NFL players the right way? What happens when you stop doing s**t that makes players slow? What happens when speed becomes the priority and the weight room becomes a part of the plan, not the plan?
“When you stop viewing the weight room as a place to break athletes down and start viewing it as a place to build them, your perspective on stress shifts from excess to optimal.” ~ Matt Rhea
The prioritization of speed can be seen in this tweet by Dr.Matt Rhea from last May:
The greatest sprint coach in the country, Boo Schexnayder, recognized the significance of Matt Rhea.
Alabama Recruits Multi-Sport Athletes
Matt Rhea’s work is brilliant and will forever change football in America. However, don’t underestimate the talent he gets to work with.
Tyler Leising at Tracking Football provided me with some of Tracking Football’s data showing the multi-sport connection to Alabama recruiting:
- 73% of Alabama’s roster were multi-sport athletes in high school and 64% ran high school track.
- This year’s Heisman Trophy winner, DeVonta Smith, was a track athlete and played high school basketball. 10.67 in the 100m. Also solid in the 400: 49.34. Smith is projected as a top ten pick in the NFL Draft.
- The other projected top ten pick in the draft is Patrick Surtain II, who ran 10.87 in the 100m at American Heritage H.S. in Fort Lauderdale.
- Jaylen Waddle missed most of the season with an ankle injury, but still projects as a first round pick. Waddle ran 10.84 in the 100m, and like many wide receivers, excelled as a long jumper (22’9”). Waddle also played basketball.
- Quarterback Mac Jones will also likely get picked in the first round. Jones was not a multi-sport athlete in high school.
- The fifth potential first-round pick coming out of Alabama this year will be 6’4” 310 pound DE Christian Barmore. Barmore was not a multi-sport athlete in high school.
- At 226 pounds, Najee Harris played basketball and ran track in high school. 11.19 in the 100m.
- Wide receiver John Metchie III played lacrosse at a high school in New Jersey.
- Wide receiver Slade Bolden played baseball in high school.
- 6’6” 320 pound offensive tackle Alex Leatherwood threw the shot put 49’3” in high school.
- Center Chris Owens threw the shot 46’10” in high school.
- 6’3” 327 pound Emil Ekiyor Jr. played basketball in high school.
- 6’5” 242 pound tight end Miller Forristall ran a 52.53 400m in high school.
- 6’4” 222 pound linebacker Christian Harris ran 11.53 in the 100m.
- Starting CB Josh Jobe ran 10.90 in the 100m, 21.56 in the 200m, and ran on a super-fast 4×1: 40.97.
- Safety Daniel Wright ran the 400m in 48.60, high jumped 6’4”, and long jumped 22’6”.
- Safety Jordan Battle played basketball and ran the 200 in 22.21.
Alabama’s Pipeline to the NFL
Since 2010, Alabama has sent 143 players to the NFL. That’s an average of 14.3 per year, meaning that on any given Alabama roster, there’s probably 57 future NFL players.
60% ran high school track. (The #1 best sport for building athleticism!)
50% played high school basketball. (The second-best sport for building athleticism!)
19 ran under 10.99 in the 100m.
18 long jumped over 20 feet.
10 threw the shot over 50 feet.
The Future of Speed-Based Football
Alabama will continue to recruit the best athletes in the country. Those participating in track and field will have verified athleticism and will have special value.
But, everyone recruits the best athletes. Everyone recruits track athletes. Ohio State’s roster featured an incredible 78% multi-sport athletes. 57% of their roster ran track in high school.
LSU’s Ed Orgeron went on the recruiting trail looking for track athletes as soon as they won last year’s national title. He had lots of work to do after FOURTEEN of LSU’s players were drafted by the NFL.
With everyone beating the bushes to find the fastest high school football players, the difference will become the training of those athletes at the college level. Will multi-million dollar football programs continue to turn their athletes over to bodybuilders, powerlifters, and cheerleaders?
With everyone beating the bushes to find the fastest high school football players, the difference will become *the training of those athletes at the college level,* says @pntrack. Click To TweetWill NCAA college football teams continue to recruit speed…then neglect it?
Will the S&C world continue to celebrate the number of players benching 405, cleaning 300, and then publish embarrassing videos of the world’s best athletes going through speed ladders?
Or will we find people who can make those athletes faster and more powerful?
The Rubicon has been crossed.
The rest of college football will adapt or get left in the dust.
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I absolutely love this article. Thank you.
I had to email THE Dan John to make sure it was him! Thank’s for reading, Dan. I’m a huge fan.
Tony
Are they fast because they run track, or do they run track because they are fast?
Those 16 words could inspire a 5000-word article. Those 16 words are used in anti-track echo chambers everywhere. Sometimes it’s not as anti-track as it is weight room centric. Owners of private gyms in our area constantly tell kids that track “reveals speed” and does not “improve speed”. If the kid rejects track, they sign up for the weight room. $$$
Same with many football coaches. Like the guy in the article (an actual football coach in Chicago suburbs), “I don’t subscribe to the adage that track makes you faster, if that’s why you go out. It’s a totally different type of speed than what is needed in football. The biggest reason why juniors don’t play in our program is a lack of strength, not speed!”
I can’t forgive these meatheads because they are speaking against educational school-based sports. Their selfishness hurts kids.
As a sprint-based track coach (not a run-them-to-death track coach), I see my typical track athlete improve by 1.0 mph in any given block of training. I’ve had kids improve by 6.0 mph in four years. Elites improve the least, but if you take a 23.0 mph kid (super-fast) and help him to run 24. 0 mph, you’ve accomplished a ton (not many 24 mph guys on Alabama’s roster).
Your statement can be made about anything. Are they good football players because they are good athletes or are they good athletes because they play football.
As the son of a coach (my father coached 47 years) and a veteran of 40 years of coaching football, basketball, and track, I believe that football, basketball, and track are incredible athlete-builders. Nothing in the weight room comes close.
So, even though there is some truth in your statement, I guarantee you that generic kids become pretty damn fast and powerful in my track program. Elite kids become more elite. There is no debate.
Both. More importantly, if you train them properly, you can make fast players faster. Dr Rhea has shown that.
It’s refreshing to know I don’t need to shave my head, wear a shirt that’s too small, wave a towel and pull the head coach back from the field to the sideline to be considered a quality S&C coach. Great article!
My son went to Tennessee and remains a Vols fan. Check out the pic of their new S&C guy. Shaved head, caveman beard, tight shirt, powerlifter. Maybe the guy has incredible insights on sprinting. I hope so. Regardless, Rhea and Ballou will change the stereotype.
Actually the guy I’m describing is the new *assistant* S&C guy at UT, came from SMU.
Thanks for the article. I totally agree. Is there any merit in doing the “speed” ladder at all?
Speed ladders might be good as a rehab exercise. The light force production makes the speed ladder extremely safe. The light force production makes it laughable as speed developer. Speed ladders are to speed as the piano is to pitching.
It is interesting to me that many refuse to raise the issue concerning the track v football debate! The root of that issue is about money and the control of athletes. Many football coaches have this I gotta have them in my spring football program for the illusion of the numbers game, and to make enboldened statements such as “we have 125 kids in our program.” These ideaologies are useless to their respective programs and harmful to the kids. I went to the high school who has put the most players in the NFL and all through H.S. the track coach begged me to run track, my response was ” I play football.” I ran 1 year of JC track and hated the fact that I didnt run track in high school. And here is the bad part: my football coaches tried to push me out to run track. My 40yd time in high school 4.6 @ 129 lbs. My 40yd after one year of track in JC 4.4. Need I say anymore. I live in SoCal and I can echo the article most of the top players in this state all run track or play another sport. Everywhere I have coached from high school to JC, the most talented players ran track! For an example, while was at my 1st JC I had a young man that played football and ran track in H.S. He ran 10.8 in H.S. with 1yr under me he ran 10.4 and 20.8! I rest my case. And coach that says “out of sight, out of mind,” is not a very good coach at developing talent. And I did say developing, not coaching talent, which is 2 different things!
Very interesting article Tony, which funnily enough I was put onto after seeing Dan talk about it on his email list. I also loved a previous article you posted here about reducing weekly practice volume for high school football; I picked up lots of good insights from that one.
This may be a loaded question, but if you had to choose one track principle to institute in developing football players, what would that be? And this coming from a football, basketball and baseball coach so I have very little background knowledge on correct anything track related.
As on offensive coordinator myself, it was so fun to see what Coach Sarkesian drew up for many of the athletes you mentioned above. It will definitely be interesting to see how the college football landscape continues to change with these nuclear powered offenses becoming the norm.
Hi Cam. As I said in the article, I can’t speak for all track coaches. The majority of track coaches in our country are not football people, they are from the cross country world. Many of the others come from the Clyde Hart camp, where track athletes are trained with ridiculous volumes. Feed the Cats is speed-focused. Feed the Cats is performance-focused. So, to answer question, if I could give you one principle, it would be a FTC principle, not a “track” principle. I would say this… stop being a fatigue-seeker, stop subscribing to power-lifting, stop grinding. Instead, prioritize extreme movement (speed). Allow the weight room to be a *part* of the process, not *the process*. And, stop doing shit that makes players slow! No grinding. No conditioning. Tired is the enemy not the goal. Never let today ruin tomorrow. DO LESS, ACHIEVE MORE.
Coach Holler,
I agree with the value of encouraging high school athletes to play multiple sports, and certainly many successful college football players ran track in high school. But for football players looking to earn a scholarship, track may not be the best choice.
In the early years of Air Force Academy football (before strength coaching became a profession), during the off-season, the “skill” players would play basketball and the linemen would wrestle. This approach makes a lot of sense.
Whereas track focuses on positional speed (i.e., going from “Point A to Point B” in a straight line, except for wide turns), basketball focuses on other qualities needed by the skill football players, such as change of direction and reacting to the movements of an opponent. Likewise with soccer (great for kickers!) and lacrosse.
Wrestling (along with other martial arts such as judo) develops body awareness and upper body strength, along with being better able to react to an opponent’s movements — qualities not worked in sprinting. I know of college and pro football teams who have hired martial artists to help their linemen with techniques to improve their ability to block or break through blocks. As for sprinting, is there any correlation between the 100m dash and the ability of an offensive lineman to hold off the charge of a defensive lineman? Would a college football coach who works with lineman be more interested in a high school nose guard who won the state championships in wrestling or one who has a spectacular 100m time? Having a lineman throw the discus or put the shot would be a better choice, but the athlete is not reacting to the movements of an opponent.
Another advantage that basketball and wrestling have over track is the pressure of going head-to-head with an opponent. In track, you certainly have to perform your best at a precise time, but you’re competing against yourself and it’s easy to bail out. In basketball, if you slack off, your teammates will quickly get on your case. In wrestling, let your guard down for a second and your opponent will faceplant you into the mat!
One concern football coaches have in dealing with track coaches is that some track coaches are anti-weight training, believing these athletes need to stay on a maintenance cycle all season to avoid being sore for their speed workouts or track meets. (As strength coaches are fond of saying, “Seven days without weight training makes one weak!”) Translated, your promising sophomore fullback on the JV team who was used for blocking and short-yardage situations will be, after track season, at the same bodyweight going into his junior year on the varsity team facing much larger defensive players. Without the muscle, they will bounce off their opponents and watch them turn to their teammates and say, “Cute kid!”
A compromise would be for the football coach to ask the track coach to include some drills for lateral speed or change of direction in their workouts, but then you run into a cultural problem. What happens is that the track coach will often refuse to modify their program, saying they need all their practice time to focus on their track events — you’re all in, or not in at all! Also, is a track coach going to put all the football players in the 100m sprint, or will they have them in slower running events such as the 400m or longer distances to earn more team points? Or maybe have them do the high jump or throw the javelin, two wonderful sports but sports that have little transfer to football. The pressure to win leads me to believe the track coach will do what’s best for the team, not for the athlete looking for a football scholarship.
Yes, I’ve read your arguments about strength vs. speed, and I get that you are not a fan of bodybuilders and powerlifters (and now, apparently, cheerleaders). As the former editor of a youth sports fitness magazine for nearly two decades, I’ve interviewed over a hundred successful head high school football coaches from all over the country. I can’t recall any of them telling me that their strength coaches often consulted their copy of Arnold’s “The New Encyclopedia of Modern Bodybuilding” when designing workouts for their athletes. But this begs the question, “If strength isn’t important for speed, why do so many elite sprinters continue to get caught for taking steroids?” (And consider that some sprinters have taken steroids but avoided getting caught. One famous “steroid consultant” who has had tremendous success in getting athletes to pass doping control said to the effect, “Doping control is an intelligence test – if you fail it, you’re an idiot!”)
Finally, there is the fear shared by some football coaches that sprint coaches will injure their star players. They may have a point. In one research study published in the “American Journal of Sports Medicine” involving 17 high school track teams over a season (77 days), one injury occurred for every 5.8 males and the average number of days missed for males was 8.7 — ouch! For both male and female athletes in this study, sprinting accounted for 46 percent of all injuries, and 83 percent of the injuries involved the lower extremities. With these odds, a football coach should not be shocked when their star receiver comes out of the track season with knee tendinitis that requires weeks of rest or rehab until they can squat again to add the muscle he needs for football. In contrast, what often attracts football coaches to weightlifting (not partial movements such as power cleans but the full lifts) is the low injury rate — and note that I said weightlifting, not powerlifting or bodybuilding.
Weightlifting is not just about producing force, as the sport helps athletes deal with disruptive forces that cause athletes in other sports to suffer injuries. It’s estimated that 70 percent of all ankle, Achilles, knee, and hamstring injuries are non-contact. Go to the USA Weightlifting website and find the contact information for national-level and above coaches, as they will often have been lifters themselves and have another 10+ years coaching. Ask them how many ankle, hamstring, ACL, Achilles, or knee injuries they have seen in their career? Success leaves clues.
Again, I’m all for encouraging high school athletes to play multiple sports. But if an athlete’s focus is football, especially for linemen, there may be better options than track.
Thank you,
Kim Goss, MS, CSCS
Excellent reply Kim as you know having worked with one of if not the greatest sprint coach, I have had to make modifications to the program when athletes other than sprinters came to train with us.
Hi Kim. I’m honored that someone of your status would write such a lengthy response.
Just a question here and I’m not trying to be a smart ass… I see you have masters degree in human movement, but have you ever coached track? Tons of coaches have strong opinions on sprinting and track, yet they have no track cred. For example, I would never debate RDLs vs Bulgarian Split Squats because my weight room background is not that of an expert. I’ve been in the weight room as a lifter for 47 years and as a coach for 40, but I would never debate Michael Boyle on his turf. If you do have a strong sprint and track background, good for you. I get challenged daily by people who don’t.
Your take on the track-football connection flies in the face of NCAA recruiting and the NFL Draft. Metrics expressed in track and field are now the gold standard for the verification of speed and explosion. In addition, track specifically *improves* these traits. Track is a sport of extremes, and when you train the extreme, you train the entire range.
Many (most?) S&C coaches and ball coaches with no experience in track and field are certain that track and field simply *reveals* athleticism. I’m embarrassed for these people. Remember, these are the same people who believe the weight room turns boys in into men and losers in champions, but see no value in track other than the genetic expression of athleticism.
Many people share your take on the benefits of wrestling for football players. I love wrestling but if it was really that important, more college football players would have wrestling backgrounds.
According to Tracking Football… since 2014 NCAA Football (FBS)
Football Recruits- 9,018
Multisport- 79%
Track&Field- 55%
Basketball- 34%
Baseball- 9%
Wrestling- 4%
Say what you want, but 96 of every 100 NCAA football players did NOT wrestle. Just because you want it to be true, doesn’t make it true.
The “track just reveals speed” crowd would be fighting mad if someone with no weight room cred said “The weight room simply *reveals* strength.” Even though that statement is partially true, we know the weight room also *improves* strength. Whether or not all strength improvement translates to improvement on the field is debatable, and I would think you’d agree.
When arguing agility, speed is the tide that lifts all boats. Among the offensive tackles attending the NFL Combine, straight line speed will punch their ticket to the first round, not the three cone drill. The ability to run the 40 fast somehow translates to a probable long and successful NFL career. 6’5″ 320 and run the 40 in 4.85 = first rounder. 6’5″ 320 and run the 40 in 5.45 = undrafted free agent.
BTW, my X-Factor workouts look just like NFL combine training minus the sprinting. We are multi-directional, multi-planer, we accelerate, we decelerate, tons of force absorption, etc. Sprinters who “just sprint” don’t stay healthy.
Every sprint coach I know values strength and values the weight room. It may not be prioritized to the liking of muscled-up football coaches, but sprinters are strong and get stronger. Sprinting is the world’s must underestimated strength exercise. Alabama doesn’t ask a 10.50 sprinter, what do you bench?
I’ve timed 210,000 max speed sprints in 21 years. Two soft-tissue injuries.
I would never discourage any high school sport. The scholarship chase sickens me. Every season, a different sport offers an amazing educational opportunity for athletes good enough to play.
My take on steroids for sprinters: Steroids improve training capacity and training frequency. Lean elastic sprinters benefit from steroids. They don’t all look like Ben Johnson. Pitchers in baseball aren’t doing steroids to get jacked, they just want to improve capacity, frequency, and recovery.
Thanks for taking time to share your ideas. Agreement never leads to new truths!
Well done article. It is clear you are concise about the lack of speed development within high school and collegiate programs.