The Official TBL Practice Thread

[timmy_t]

To answer both of you about Off-Season practice, I use Batdad's warmers program and it absolutely rocks!

My off season sched is nasty nasty.


I call it "warmers" for bench warmers. The boys are not playing...but they need to work out. I see dramatic increases on this sched which I run pretty much the hole off season, tired or not. I give em a day off once they get the little orange tired thingy...but then back at it.

All categories are on intensive. Tis mean I know. Usually around 2nd week of August guys start getting tired...but not injured very often.

Goalies have all their areas on intensive as well. Cond, Skat, OSkill,Dskill,Goalie, Tactic. I never even bother teaching them shooting.

I start it 1 week after playoffs end.

I once saw Gilbert Brule go from 13 to 15 in faceoffs, and Rick Nash from 17 to 20 in wrist shot in the summer. All other atty's were up too.

[umwoz]

I'll ask again, sorry if this is against policy, but do you guys alter this at all for ehm 2005?

[timmy_t]

If I remember correctly, the main practice "philosophy" is the same in either game. I don't have EHM 2005 anymore, but I believe you would see just as much improvement.

To be more specific, if I had EHM 2005 I would set up the practices the same way.

[MKoivuFan]

Here's my full list: (Listed by conditioning, Skating, Tactical, Shooting, Off. Skill, Def. Skill, Goaltending)

General: All Medium, Goaltending = None.

Goalkeepers: M, I, L, N, N, N, I.

Fitness: I, I, others = None.

Defense: M, M, I, L, L, I, N.

Centers: M, M, M, M, I, I, N.

Forwards(Wingers): M, M, M, I, I, L, N.

Academy: I, I, I, L , L , L, N.

NOTE... I often switch things around a little bit to keep my players on their toes... so the above settings are only my own default, or "core," settings.

obviously u put forward coach for forwards and centers and dman coach to def and goalie to goalie but what do u put for academy? as fitness would be the higher conditioned coach

[MKoivuFan]

when hiring a coach for practice what is condition and skating? Motivation?

[bruins72]

Hire a coach with a "Conditioning" style to run your conditioning practice. I usually have him work on skating as well. I like Motivation and Discipline for coaches that run these areas.

Also, in regards to B.Stinson's practice setup that you quoted above... I'd be very careful about setting any areas of practice to "None". Your attributes will drop when you do that. The same thing happens when you set things to "Light". I never leave anything set to lower than "Medium".

[timmy_t]

Also, that practice schedule is really old. If you read this whole topic you'll find where people talk about the 3 intense / 4 medium plan that is pretty much the standard now.

[MKoivuFan]

during the off-season so say if u dont make the playoffs end of regular season till august or soon as u get eliminated till August whats better putting them on rest or putting them on general training?

[bruins72]

As soon as they're done for the season, whether it's April and they didn't make the playoffs or it's June and they won the Stanley Cup, I switch them to my "Offseason" practice which is EVERYTHING set to Intensive. I don't take them off of that until their condition starts to really drop steadily in August.

[philou21]

Same for me. I got that advice here. Sometimes when I don't make the playoffs I put them on rest or on general medium training until June 1st, then I put everything on intensive like Bs.

[timmy_t]

Not me Philou21! If I don't make the playoffs I PUNISH them with an all-intense workout until training camp starts!

[philou21]

Not me Philou21! If I don't make the playoffs I PUNISH them with an all-intense workout until training camp starts!

That's another way too.

[MKoivuFan]

I'm playing in OHL and i want to have a prospect camp in the summer but was wondering when do players start having their cond lowered? beginning of august?

[philou21]

Near the start of September is mostly the time where they start to be tired.

[cazzman]

Hi

Im a little curious how many days/ weeks you guys who knows a little more practice your team before changing to another schedule?
Im using three different schedules, Goalies, Generell, Off, Def (sometimes I practice a player on shooting, skating, tactics if I think he needs that) But I been changing once a month, but should I change more often?

[philou21]

I, personnally, put my guys in the training camp schedule until end of October then switch them to Defence for the rest of the season. That always worked ok for me.

[Weasel]

Hmm, you guys have me wondering. I have noticed the UNUSED practice option but every time I try to assign it to a player nothing happens.

Questions:

1. how do you assign UNUSED to a player? Putting a check mark beside his name and selecting UNUSED does not assign it for me
2. from reading above it seems that you guys can create your own custom practices with varying intensities, is this possible and if so how?
3. last: late in the season (March) is it best to reduce players to general practice so they are not going all out after months of play, or is it better to reduce the practice %? Right now I reduce the % to 20% general, and 5% PP/PK and leave them practicing skills like offense and such?

[philou21]

I can quite remember how you can put a player on unused.... For your practice though, I never reduce the time or % of pratice during the season and the playoffs at all. If you got rpoblem with some tired players, this is maybe 1. Old guys or 2: They don't have a good stamina and aren't in good shape.

Making a custom practice schedule is pretty simple. When you are in the Pratice section you put, as an exemple, 10 players on defensive and 10 players on condition. Well at the upper right of the screen just bellow the option menu you got a "schedule case". when clicking on it, you can see how much player you put in defensive (10) and condition (10). Close on one of those will brought you to the list of the 10 players assigned to that practice. At the bottom of the screen you have all the different parts of a training. It's there that you can choose the intensity you want to give. I hope it's clear.

PS: If you want a "custom practice" for a player, you don't have a custom section so when I want to assign just one player to something special, I put him in a section unused then change everything to what I want. It's not because it's called defensive that you need to have a defensive schedule.

[watts555]

rename unused and you can use it.

[Weasel]

I can quite remember how you can put a player on unused.... For your practice though, I never reduce the time or % of pratice during the season and the playoffs at all. If you got rpoblem with some tired players, this is maybe 1. Old guys or 2: They don't have a good stamina and aren't in good shape.

Making a custom practice schedule is pretty simple. When you are in the Pratice section you put, as an exemple, 10 players on defensive and 10 players on condition. Well at the upper right of the screen just bellow the option menu you got a "schedule case". when clicking on it, you can see how much player you put in defensive (10) and condition (10). Close on one of those will brought you to the list of the 10 players assigned to that practice. At the bottom of the screen you have all the different parts of a training. It's there that you can choose the intensity you want to give. I hope it's clear.

PS: If you want a "custom practice" for a player, you don't have a custom section so when I want to assign just one player to something special, I put him in a section unused then change everything to what I want. It's not because it's called defensive that you need to have a defensive schedule.

Will check it out and let you know, thanks for the reply.

[Weasel]

rename unused and you can use it.

And where would you do that, in the practice folder of the game folder structure?

[philou21]

No problem buddy.

[Weasel]

Ahhhh Ok, it all worked out, setting custom practices and renaming the UNUSED. SWEET!!

As for players getting tired, it is normally the first line boys and I think it is my coach. I let the coach run the games and my current coach likes a flashy style of play, so I think my first line is being worn out.

[philou21]

Ok, that could be it. Do they have alot of icetime each game? If they get tired too many time you should maybe change your tactics a little, like reduce the # of minutes their line play in a game. If they are tired too often they can get injured often too.

[Weasel]

I leave all of that to the coach, so everything is set to default. Unless I tell the coach not to ignore my settings (like hard back checking for example) whatever I put the settings to are ignored anyway, are they not? I think they are averaging about 28 minutes, not over the top for a #1 IMO.

If not, then DOH!, that stupid manual!