It's not just about a Training Schedule

[Major Raver]

HOW TO DO THE TRAINING & GET THE BEST FROM THE RAVER SETS

I’ve always used other peoples training in the past, never in truth been something that I wanted to get into. With FM2011 I have seen plenty of chatter about training, but very few schedules, especially ones that look like they are working, so I decided to address both situations. One thing that became obvious straight away is that you are not going to find a super set of training regimes that leave you with world class players within a season. The training module is just part of the equation. The rest is maybe more about you thinking things through, managing if you like.

One of the games I started at was with Ajax (although this has also been tried with Barcelona, Torquay and Portsmouth, they are a team with decent training facilities, but the coaching stuff lacked (and I will explain why in a moment). Next up you need to find the players that you can work on, no point in picking a 17 year old centre back with Tackling, Heading and Marking at 5. He will never do a job for you. Then being in preseason it’s about your players learning your tactics but also getting fit enough to do so, not get injured and hit the ground running for improving.

To achieve all this you need the following things.

1. Know your facilities and adjust your expectations accordingly. If you have poor training facilities, don’t expect big jumps. If you have fantastic facilities then make sure you hit your potential.

2. Get the right coaches in, no point in having a fantastic set up and then have rubbish coaches, or coaches coaching the wrong things.

3. Don’t have to many or two few coaches. If you have too few you are spreading them out and one Goalkeeping coach with 10 goalies slows things down. If you are at a big club and are allowed a lot of coaching staff then don’t have them all as Coach’s, but have First Team coaches and Youth Coaches for each segment.

4. Players need to play, they learn so much more on the field of play.

5. Players need tutoring, but the right type of tutor, not someone to teach them bad habits.

6. Keep them happy; people learn more when they are happy.

All makes common sense you say and I have seen it all before. Well what I have learnt that I have seen regularly but doesn’t work, is training schedules over training the players, leaving them tired and slowing down their progress. My schedules are not over intensive, but they do contain “Lite” versions for those players who like a little moan or two.

COACHES

These are so important, especially the right ones. For coaches training goalkeepers you need someone with a high Goalkeeper rating, but that isn’t all. Motivating your players, teach them some discipline and also see how Determined they are. So you are looking for a Goalkeeper coach that is great on Goalkeeping ratings but also in Motivating, Discipline and Determination.

Example, who is better?

Alan Knight

Goalkeeping – 20

Motivating -2

Determination – 4

Discipline – 5

OR

Billy the Fish

Goalkeeping – 16

Motivating – 14

Determination – 12

Discipline – 16

I would rather have Mr Fish, because he is pushing his players, but also is very knowledgeable as a Goalkeeper. If you’re lucky to find a GK Coach with 18+ as a Goalkeeper, with 16+ in Motivating, Determination and Discipline, with a player with High Work Rate and Determination, then you are on to a winner.

So what do those coaches do? Well in my reading of the game they do the following for each training category. (Written in order of what is most important for each one). You will also see that Fitness and aerobics are listed with the same bits. To get the most out of these two you need 2 coaches, one for each. So have a coach concentrating on Fitness, and another on Aerobics.

Gk = Goalkeeping, Motivating, Determination, Discipline.

Def = Defend, Tactical, Motivating, Determination and Discipline.

Att = Attacking, Tactical, Motivating, Determination and Discipline.

Shooting = Technical (most important here), Attack, Motivating, Determination and Discipline.

Strength = Fitness, Motivating, Determination and Discipline.

Aerobics = Fitness, Motivating, Determination and Discipline.

Tactics = Tactics, Motivating, Determination and Discipline.

Ball Control = Technical, Motivating, Determination and Discipline.

Set Pieces = Attack, Mentality, Technical, Motivating, Determination and Discipline.

If you have a lot of coaching staff allowed you should need only one coach for each category, but two for Set Pieces as it is very hard to get the stats high enough for all those.

Remember if you can, then have separate coaches for the first team and youth team. If your lower league, then you want a coach who can do Fitness and Aerobics together, one to do Goalkeeping and then those that cover what is left. At Torquay I was only allowed 3 coach’s, so I had on focused on the Fitness/Aerobics, one good at Goalkeeping, and then made sure the final coach and Asst Manager covered the stats left as best as possible.

TRAINING CATEGORIES

In Football Manager 2011 they have changed the way these are, so the successful training routines of the past are no longer working. I also have no proof but I am left wondering after playing around a bit (and shall research further) that the physio’s maybe having a helping hand on the Strength category, which looks after Stamina, Strength and Natural Fitness.

With my schedules I had to break down positions of the players and then work on the categories that matter. So what’s the point on Goalkeeper have lots of shooting training? It is obvious I know, but then why not give him a tiny bit of training on Shooting? Why you ask? Well you don’t want him to be your new star forward but as shooting covers Composure you don’t want him to have those stats dropping like a stone, so making sure non important stats don’t plummet away, it’s important to cover that as well.

Training now isn’t about a player plays in a position so let’s stick him in that training category. For example a “winger” is seen as someone who plays left or right of midfield in many people’s books. Players who play on the right side of the pitch aren’t bracketed the same though. For me Aaron Lennon is a winger, a guy who gallops forward attacking, but not blessed with too many defensive duties. He is a player who fits the winger description to a tee. Then you have David Beckham who in his day marshaled the right flank for England and Man Utd with Gary Neville, both overlapping and working together. Is he a winger? In my book not at all.

This is where people need to look at schedules, using that as an example I would put Lennon on a Wingers schedules, but Beckham is more box to box type, so I would put him on that schedule even though he is playing wide. So do you leave Lennon on Wingers for the rest of career? No is the answer to that. In time you may see his role changing a bit, you may want him tracking back and want him to improve some of his defending stats. Well you then need to put him on the schedule for fullbacks for a few months. You see the schedules are for the areas of the pitch, they are not for the players, so you need to move your players around them to do what you want the player to do.

Also its the same for Shearer and Sheringham in their England days. Shearer would be better on striker training, whilst Sheringham would suit the forw/mid setting, for a forward player although not an out and out striker, who drops back in to midfield occasionally.

WHAT I HAVE DONE

I decided to join Ajax; firstly I mutually terminated all the deadwood of staff and went hunting for new guys and gals that followed as closely as I can the stats detailed above. I didn’t care if he was unproven or world class in rep; it was what his stats were that mattered to me.

Next up I set up Pre-season Training, these for Goalkeeping, Defenders, Midfields and Attackers, and then the same again for youth players. I put all the players in these. These concentrated heavily on Aerobics and Strength, as I wanted to get their physical stats up together. I wanted to work them to a strong level, but I didn’t want them running the risk of being knackered for friendlies and also not picking up those all important injuries. They were to stay on these until they were in Superb Condition. I also planned to use these pre-season programmes when they are injured so they go straight in to them when they start training again and to help them recover. I also plan to use them for a week if we have a midseason break.

I then set up my training programmes ready for them to move over to when match fit. I did one for Goalkeeping, Centre Backs, Full Backs, Defensive Midfielders, Attacking Midfielders, Wingers or wide attackers, and Strikers. I also did the same for youth players.

The Pre-season routines concentrate on getting people fit, and the results were fantastic. After just a week many of the players were in superb condition and had moved out of pre-season training and in to full training. Within this week they had played a friendly and a half, and were 10 days after the start game ready for the next friendly at 95% plus and in superb condition.

An example of the preseason schedule I put together for my Goalies was:

High for Strength and Aerobics

Medium for Shot Stopping

Light but in different degrees for Handling, Tactics and Ball Control. Work Load was one notch in to Heavy in total.

In the actual main schedules themselves I concentrated on what I felt was important for my players. A Goalie needs to be good in shot stopping and handling, so they were knocked up to the highest setting, same for my Strikers needed shooting at the same level. Below is a list of what I did and why for each category.

Goalkeepers – Intensive Shot Stopping and Handling, Medium Tactics for the likes of anticipation and Positioning, decent Ball Control for First Touch, and light defending for concentration.

Full Backs – High Tactics and Ball control, Intensive defending, and medium attacking as I want them to be able to cross and pass a ball. Light shooting for composure.

Centre Backs – Intensive Defending, High Tactics for team work and positioning, good ball control for First touch and heading, light attacking and shooting for the likes of passing and composure, as I explained earlier on I don’t want some stats to go down.

Defensive Mid – Intensive defending, but lower than a defender, Higher than defenders on the other sections though.

Attack Mid – Tactics, Ball Control, all at high, shooting at Medium. Defending low as I don’t want to forget about his concentrating, and attacking at intensive as I want him to unlock those defences.

Wingers – Ball Control intensive for dribbling, first touch and technique. Same for attacking, whilst medium for shooting and tactics, and very light for defending.

Strikers – Intensive shooting, very high attacking, medium Tactics and ball control but no defensive training.

All of these are on the highest notch for medium overall, so for example you improve anything by one click you will be heading into heavy. I don’t want to be heavy, I think this causes injuries, unhappiness and is too intensive. If the player isn’t improving enough to your standards, then call him up for a private chat, and tell him to train harder. Seems to work as he doesn’t feel you’re asking the impossible.

Some players though refuse to train harder, this is down to the fact they are lazy. If you have 10 players happily working on a schedule, but 1 one moaning its to much, it isn’t the schedule that’s at fault but the player. I have made a Lite version, put him in that for a while, before returning him at a later date to the full schedule. If he still moans then get rid of the player, he is lazy and not a team member. Would you work in a company and do 8 hours a day, but one person moans it’s too much and is allowed to do 6 hours, two less than the rest of you? No you wouldn’t, and it affects the team morale that one gets special treatment.

OTHER BITS

Match Preparation will help your team gel and give you emphasis on getting your team together. Team Blending is always your starting point here and once that has been achieved I tend to be moving on to Defensive Positioning for teams stronger than me, especially away from home and Attacking Movement for teams that I’m miles better at, as I want to try and unlock their defences and avoid any super goalkeepers. Problem with match preparation is it eats in to your player improving. I have found that once all those blue bars in the preparation screen are at full you only need to spend 10 – 20% of the week working on Preparation. Drop that bar down, your team remains fully prepared for the match but now you working on improving your players.

You can get your players to concentrate on individual bits, like improving their speed and the like. Don’t waste your time trying to turn Peter Crouch into Defoe, isn’t going to happen. But if your Defender is brilliant at Tackling, Marking and heading, but slightly lacking in positioning by a couple of points, then give it a whirl as it will help just tweak that up. I believe this is very important in eking out the most from each category. Youth players are a must on this and it works brilliantly. Nicolai Boilson at Ajax started off with Acceleration of 8 and speed of 8. After two seasons of training, most part being 10% match prep, 10% working on quickness and 80% Centre Back Training, his quickness was 11, Acceleration 10, and his other stats left him as in and around the first team. One of the first things to do when taking over is look at your players and work out what individual training they are in need of first. Set them on that and leave them to your happy, you may not be happy for 3 seasons, but so be it, polishing a rough diamond isn’t a short term thing.

Training in the past had you seeing a great schedule meaning your players improved massively. As you see above micro-management is now needed, and also patience. I have other 3 seasons seen fantastic improvements on my players using the above. Also for one season, stick your young players out on loan, the youngsters benefit from this, but make sure the team you are sending them to have half decent coaches, facilities and are doing well. No point in sending your star youth player to a team rooted bottom of the conference with poor facilities and one coach, and then expect him to improve. In fact he will come back worse! Also some rubbish is likely to improve a little, but don’t expect to train every player of yours in to a star, most just aren’t good enough. Remove the deadwood and work on those worth it.

Young players need to play first team games, but star players also need to be looked after. I have seen a number of people moan about schedules leaving their players knackered. Right if you do not play a game for 7 days, your player is not knackered. It isn’t the schedule tiring them out, it’s the tactic. Telling a player to run up and down a week for 90 minutes will knacker them, it isn’t the training it’s your tactics. It’s simple. These schedules do not knacker my players. Most injuries I have had are match related, not happening in training, in fact the only training injuries I saw at Ajax were 3, and all caused by the same player injuring others. That isn’t the training that’s the said player with a problem of being over the top. Your tactics and leaving players on too long or with knocks will cause most the injuries on these schedules. No matter what player and tactics you have, players will get tired and need days off, squad rotation is now a way of football.

I have tested and tested the above micro managed to the extreme at times, and I have found the above works a treat for me. Run it over a few seasons and see where you get.

Just remember they are mine and are working for me, if they don’t for you then hopefully they will form a base for you to improve and use. No hissy fits and spitting dummies out, if you don’t like then move on to someone else’s, or have a go yourselves.

Schedule 4 is what you want, and you can find this in the Raver Sets thread, hope you enjoy.

[Cleon]

This is a good post....but it's on about your training sets that you've posted so this post belongs in there and not it's own thread. Sorry.

EDIT - In fact I see you have posted it in the thread all ready, which means this is a duplicate post.