The Official TBL Practice Thread

Post by **batdad** » Thu Aug 23, 2007 2:56 am

I vary it about every 2 months. 1 coach for awhile then 2. Keeps the guys fresh, and learning different things here and there. I vary my coaches in all areas if I can as well.

bruins72 · Post by **bruins72** » Thu Aug 23, 2007 1:48 pm

I usually use just 1 goaltending coach. Usually, you end up with a coach that specializes in coaching goalies but lacks in all other areas. You don't find too many of them that are good with say both goalies and defensemen. If you do, they're not that high, maybe a 15 or 16 in coaching goalies. Usually the goalie coach will have an 18 or higher in coaching goalies. So it seems like it would do more harm than good to have the guy with the 16 in coaching goalies assigned there too. I could be wrong though. Practice and tactics has always been left pretty vague by the developers. They've left it all up to us to figure out what works and all that.

Hypnotist · Post by **Hypnotist** » Thu Aug 23, 2007 2:28 pm

I typically only have 1 unless I have a coach I hired for another area that has a high CGt score then I may use 2.

rockinit · Post by **rockinit** » Sat Sep 08, 2007 10:54 pm

I put all of my players on a rigorous training scheme (all areas on intense) for the entire season. Typically, my young players would increase 1 point in most categories by the end of the season. Do you see the same kind of improvement with your training schedules? Can I do better?

Also, my players aren't getting tired from an "all-intense" training schedule. Is that normal or is my game buggy?

CrockerNHL · Post by **CrockerNHL** » Sat Sep 08, 2007 11:19 pm

rockinit wrote:I put all of my players on a rigorous training scheme (all areas on intense) for the entire season.

How about the injuries? And who are your coaches?

Post by **Tasku** » Sat Sep 08, 2007 11:59 pm

rockinit wrote: Also, my players aren't getting tired from an "all-intense" training schedule. Is that normal or is my game buggy?

If by "getting tired" you mean their condition isn't declining below 100%, then yes, I would say that's quite normal. But it's a whole another question if your players are at their best in the playoffs if you keep them training like maniacs all season.

Tiredness is not so much visible, other than in game results -- especially come play-off time.

jdh79 · Post by **jdh79** » Sun Nov 25, 2007 12:30 pm

Here is the practise system that I run that seems to work fairly well for me. To make this work, you will need an assistant with 18+ in coaching forwards, one with 18+ in coaching defensemen and another with 18+ in coaching goalies, but everyone should have that anyway.

During the season, all skaters go on the general regime:

Conditioning: Medium
Skating: Light
Tactics: Light
Shooting: Medium
Offensive Skills: Intensive
Defensive Skills: Intensive
Goaltending: Light

Goalies go on this regime:

Conditioning: Medium
Skating: Light
Tactics: Light
Shooting: Light
Offensive Skills: Intensive
Defensive Skills: Intensive
Goaltending: Intensive

Then as soon as my team is eliminated from the playoffs or (hopefully) wins the Cup, I immediately set all players including goalies to general and change the general regime to Intensive for all aspects including goaltending until setting it back to the in season practise settings around September 1. With EHM 2007, it appears that teams continue to practise into mid-June even when eliminated and start practising again around late July, so setting everything at intensive gives you a couple of months of major potential attribute boosting.

Mainly, this seems to be a very good way at increasing technical attributes, which I find are the most important element of overall performance. It doesn't do much for physical attributes, but I have never found much success in raising things like speed and skating ability anyway, so I don't really bother heavily. I don't have seperate setting for forwards, offensive and defensive defensemen either because I don't see the point. Training defensive skills for offensive forwards will help raise their Checking, Hitting, Pokecheck, etc, which can only help your overall defense, and training defensive defensemen to offensive skills will help gradually make them better offensively. I also like at least light goaltending practise for skaters, because it does impact the Positioning attribute.

For goalies, I want them in intensive offensive practise because most of the goalies out there have fairly low stickhandling and passing attributes, which can easily be raised over time, improving their overall skill set.

Does anyone have any suggestions or ideas as to whether there is anything wrong with this setup?

Post by **Tasku** » Sun Nov 25, 2007 12:50 pm

I've always had good success with quick skaters, and for that reason I could never imagine leaving my players on light skating practice. If you ever watch the 2D, you'll see that speed, agility and acceleration do play a big part in their performance. Often times you don't need alot of skill if you have a quick skater. He'll shoot right past the defence and take the puck inside, maybe even score a goal if the opposing defenders are left behind.

I give specific orders to quick skaters - skillful or not - to carry the puck.

My practice system for each player is determined on wether the player is D or F or defencive F. I train my youngsters (age below 26) hard all season, apart from a little break in the summer, while older players I give a little slack - I expect them to take charge of the playoffs.

This system is in it's testing phase, so it might not work as intended...

Post by **Shadd666** » Mon Nov 26, 2007 12:20 am

I never set something to light. It's just too...light

Especially for skating, i usually set it to intensive, using the well-known 3 intensive / 3 medium practice regimes.

All on intensive during the off-season works well. I also tend to slow down the intensity during the playoffs, setting the skating back to normal, while tactics is up to intensive, with one technical training on intensive too, going 2 intensive / 4 medium. Between rounds, when the boys are back at 100% in form, i focus harder on conditioning and skating for a few days, just so that they keep their level in those areas. Other than that, there should be a little decrease as playoffs advance, and you may end with a slower and weaker team arriving to the Finals, which is not really the best way to win

Other details are secret, the challenge is still going on

Post by **Tasku** » Mon Nov 26, 2007 1:56 am

I'm just too lazy to be constantly changing my practice schedules. That's why I'm trying to find a good practice regime that I won't have to do too much micromanagement over, and yet would give good results, as shown by Bruins fabulous excel sheet. That's why I focus my training on youngsters, leaving the older gents on a little easier system. This way if my lazyness to make changes has a negative effect on the players' energy level, while atleast their skills are increasing, then my older players will win games for me.

Like I said, still testing, not sure if this'll work...

Post by **Shadd666** » Mon Nov 26, 2007 9:58 am

I'm still on testing too... Done it the Tasku/lazy way before the challenge, but tried to micromanage practice a bit more for the challenge. Works well so far, even if i'm sure better results are possible.

harmonica · Post by **harmonica** » Mon Nov 26, 2007 4:45 pm

It is better to over-train than to under-train your players, trust me on this.

Remember, this is not real life, so players can put up with a lot of training they wouldn't be able to take in real life.

Here is how I currently run my training. As soon as the season is over, I place all of my players on Intensive for everything. I also bring up all the players I can to the NHL level so they are getting training from the best coaches they can.

I leave this on until around mid way through August until they are all tired, I will even train if they get tired early. All players come off training until they are >90% conditioning. Some players will take longer, but you really need to work those guys hard on conditioning.

Also, during the offseason, I switch my training 60% normal with 20% in PK/PP. This is changed to 50/25/25 in September and 40/30/30 in October.

I start off with intensive skating/conditioning and medium for everything else for my skaters. I will do the same for my goalies, but take off shooting. Just before training camp starts, I bump tactics up to Intensive as well and keep them on that for the remainder of the season.

When it comes to pre-season games, I do not except any offers from other teams and set up my own. I base them on when my training camp scrimmages take place, because I don't want to kill my players. I also do not play games back to back, so they are spread out for a longer period of time and continue until the late 20s of September.

IMPORTANT: Teaching your skaters goaltending is very important!

Now there are a few ways I handle my players from this point. The key is to push them as much as possible, while keeping them at just about 100% conditioning for each game. For example, if your 4th line players are at 100% after a game, then you should be putting them on more intensive training sessions. Some of my best players will shoot down to 84% after certain games and they can hit up to 30 minutes, depending on PP/PK time. This means you need to rest the guy and cut his training down, which is not a good thing and he needs to be balanced.

While I started out using the 3 intensive, 3 medium and 1 off schedule, I have now changed it into one based on how much game time players get and how much training they can take. I believe ice time has a lot more to do with tiring out your player than training does, so I suggest working with players based on what they can handle, instead of generic schedules.

I switch what they are 'learning' based on who is in each group and I switch this up every 2-4 weeks. I only reduce goalie training for skaters near the end of the season and goalies never train in shooting.

When giving a player days off to get better, be sure to also reduce his time on the ice, this will help players who become exhausted during the middle of the season.

hyyung · Post by **hyyung** » Wed Feb 06, 2008 3:12 am

I find that there are two attributes that my player never develops, Anticipation and Positioning. What training/practice do you suggest?

Post by **batdad** » Wed Feb 06, 2008 6:01 am

Positioning- Believe it or not, what works really well for this is the "goaltending" skill. Put it on intensive.

Also, defensive skills on intensive helps it too.

Anticipation--Changes/develops very slowly. VERY SLOWLY. I consider it an attribute that does not even change. It may be one that only changes with ice time/success in games.

Now..Great questions, welcome aboard, and THANKS FOR NOT creating a new thread for this question.

Please introduce yourself in the intro thread and stick around.

Coyote of the Sea · Post by **Coyote of the Sea** » Sat Feb 23, 2008 2:16 am

how long will it take during pre-season for my guys to get to full strength, i don't want to give them a break yet in August, but most are >30%

also, how can you offset grumblings about training? i remember one time trying to do Goal tending training and my enter roster became upset with the practice

Post by **batdad** » Sun Feb 24, 2008 9:26 pm

After the first day of camp I find mine hit back to close to 100% if not 100%. I quite often start giving them days off occasionally towards the end of August as well, say the 21st or so. Never more than 1 though...2 in a row can cause me to have attributes drop.

Hmm..I have never had an issue with the goaltender training. Maybe your guy who teaches it is no good? Or too strict and demanding for them? Not sure.

russman · Post by **russman** » Mon Feb 25, 2008 8:24 pm

batdad wrote:Never more than 1 though...2 in a row can cause me to have attributes drop.

I sometimes give players up to a week off if their condition is too bad, and their attributes usually hold steady. I push them pretty hard most of the time though. Right now im trying

Conditioning - medium
Skating - medium
Shooting- intensive
Offensive- intensive
Defensive- intensive
Goaltending- none

Maybe ill try goaltender training at some point, but right now my youngsters seem to be progressing very nicely. Benoit Pouliot is becoming an offensive threat and Matt Foy is turning into a stellar two-way player who can fill in on the 2nd line if i
need him too, among others. No one really seems to be regressing, and the goalies are coming along too. I think im using the deafult goalie training setup, havent touvhed it for a while.

bruins72 · Post by **bruins72** » Mon Feb 25, 2008 8:41 pm

Goaltending training really is key for all players. I would have it set to at least medium for your forwards and defensemen during the season. In the offseason, push everything to intense. I tracked player development in a spreadsheet over the course of a couple seasons. In one of those seasons I had goaltending set to none and in the other season I had it set to medium all season and then intense in the off-season. The difference was dramatic!

russman · Post by **russman** » Mon Feb 25, 2008 10:08 pm

bruins72 wrote:Goaltending training really is key for all players. I would have it set to at least medium for your forwards and defensemen during the season. In the offseason, push everything to intense. I tracked player development in a spreadsheet over the course of a couple seasons. In one of those seasons I had goaltending set to none and in the other season I had it set to medium all season and then intense in the off-season. The difference was dramatic!

Yeah I put everything intense in the offseason too but my current setup is working great, i will try goaltender training though and see how it goes.

Coyote of the Sea · Post by **Coyote of the Sea** » Mon Feb 25, 2008 10:53 pm

batdad wrote: Hmm..I have never had an issue with the goaltender training. Maybe your guy who teaches it is no good? Or too strict and demanding for them? Not sure.

It wasn't his youth or goal tending training stats, as those were high, but it was one like my first game. i'll try it in a bit on my current game and see if they whine, and post the stats of my goal tending trainers if they do.

Loosie · Post by **Loosie** » Sat Apr 19, 2008 12:21 am

I know older versions of EHM have show stats changes (in red for decrese and green for increase) I haven't noticed anything like this in EHM 2007...am I just looking in the wrong place?

Post by **CatchUp** » Sat Apr 19, 2008 12:26 am

The place to find that is in the Practice Screen. Click the View menu. You have 2 choices - General, or Attributes. Select Attributes.

They do indeed turn green for a positive change and red for a negative.

V4ND3RP00L · Post by **V4ND3RP00L** » Sun Apr 20, 2008 1:24 am

I am sure that this has already been said in previous posts in this exact thread, but I am just too lazy to go back and read through all of them right now.

Trying to fill some stuff out online.

Anyway, when you are practicing your players and their attributes go up as the season goes on and on, do they actually stay with the player forever that exact way or will they dip and dive through the years that you train them?

I have never kept a close eye on this to know what it does exactly. I figure that someone or anyone around here might have done that already.

Post by **batdad** » Sun Apr 20, 2008 1:25 am

Dip and dive. Move all around up and down depending on your practices. Some respond better to being taught defense stuff on intensive than others. Some hate it, and other stats drop. Different players need different regimes set to intensive, and to medium.

Generally...young guys need some d-practice, and goaltending practice is actually awesome and miraculous for positioning esp with young guys. Toews went from 7 to 12 for me in one summer.

V4ND3RP00L · Post by **V4ND3RP00L** » Sun Apr 20, 2008 1:27 am

Maybe not the best choice of words, but it is what came to mind.

I was just curious to know if you did get them up into the green attributes. If they stay there completely or if they go back down into the yellow here and there.

It seems that if you can start them young, they will stay that way for quite sometime, but I know that with age comes wearing down of the attributes.