About 5 years ago I did some training method testing for SL1. As the old forums are closing, I thought I would do my best to record the findings of the tests before they are lost forever:
Executive summary:
AWOL players do not receive any benefit from training.
You can train a player using the same training method for 8 sessions at a minimum (although we did report more at one point), so 4 days if you are playing friendlies, more if you are not.
Each box gives you 1/4 of the increase that using all 4 would, so if your Stamina of a player goes up by 0.12 if you use jogging*4 it will go up by 0.03 for each of the 4 sessions that are selected for jogging.
Each session must be changed for at least 1 training session. You can do things like:
2x Jogging / 2x Corners for 4 days
2x Corners / 2x Jogging for 4 days
and it will give you the same increases as
4x Jogging for 4 days
4x Corners for 4 days
5. I did not trial to see whether keeping one or more of the 4 training slots unchanged for an extended period decreased the benefits of just the unchanged ones or the entire lot.
Players stats will rise consistently by the same amount (+- 0.01). So, if your player rises by 0.12 if you use jogging*4 on the day that you buy him, he will rise by that amount every time you use jogging*4 until his stats start to decrease or he reaches a stamina of 99.
(The +-0.01 is because the player's increase is not to 2 decimal places, but that is all that is displayed. A rise of 0.12 may actually be between 0.11000001 and 12.99999999 - though I dont know how many decimal places it goes to - nor do I care)
All players, whilst training at different speeds, will train uniformly.
If you really want to work out what is the best for your players, you can monitor them all for a selection of training sessions, using 4x the same each time. Note the difference (by looking at the player info and hovering over the green bars it will tell you the % to next point). Then write a big spreadsheet to add up all the benefits for each player for each training session. Not even I have been to that extent though.
Below is a cut down version of the thread:
It is my belief that training is far more uniform on players than some others suggest. In order to establish how training affects a player, this is what I am going to do:-
*note. I am Australian, so when I say night, I mean Friendly/PL games and when I say day I mean division games.
I have selected a player from one of my teams:
I noted down his stats before last nights game:
Stat To Go Total
Keeping 24 54 24.46
Ball Control 96 54 96.46
Tackling 42 54 42.46
Pace 70 84 70.16
Passing 71 54 71.46
Heading 79 54 79.46
Shooting 96 54 96.46
Set Plays 95 100 95
Stamina 92 71 92.29
Overall 95
I am going to try the following training method:
2 sessions of 4xBall Skills
2 sessions of 4xJogging
2 Sessions of 4xCorners
2 Sessions of 4xAerobics
2 Sessions of 2xBall Skills / 2xJogging
2 Sessions of 2xCorners / 2xAerobics
2 Sessions of 1xBall Skills / 1xJogging / 1xCorners / 1xAerobics
I shall try and provide the figures for the increases for the nominated player on a session by session basis. Then repeat this training method on another player. (A session will only be counted where a player is not AWOL - as their stats should not increase for that session)
I believe that the results should be as follows:
(Each player's increases may and probably will be different, but looking at a player in isolation)
The increase on sessions 1&2 will be the same (+/- 0.01% per stat for rounding)
The increase on sessions 3&4 will be the same (+/- 0.01% per stat for rounding)
The increase on sessions 5&6 will be the same (+/- 0.01% per stat for rounding)
The increase on sessions 7&8 will be the same (+/- 0.01% per stat for rounding)
The increase on sessions 9&10 will be the same (+/- 0.01% per stat for rounding), and they will be:-
50% of the increase of sessions 1&2 +
50% of the increase of sessions 3&4
The increase on sessions 11&12 will be the same (+/- 0.01% per stat for rounding), and they will be:-
50% of the increase of sessions 5&6 +
50% of the increase of sessions 7&8
The increase on sessions 13&14 will be the same (+/- 0.01% per stat for rounding), and they will be:-
25% of the increase of sessions 1&2 +
25% of the increase of sessions 3&4 +
25% of the increase of sessions 5&6 +
25% of the increase of sessions 7&8
Training session 1
OK, I will just show the total % and the increase (the total % being the reported stat minus (1 + the percentage to go until next point)
After session 1, 4xBall Skills
Keeping 24.54 0.08
Ball Control 96.57 0.11
Tackling 42.54 0.08
Pace 70.16 0
Passing 71.57 0.11
Heading 79.57 0.11
Shooting 96.57 0.11
Set Plays 95 0
Stamina 92.29 0
Now, for training session 2, I believe that the RHS column will show the same increases in the same attributes, +/- 0.01 for rounding.
Oh yes, I should mention that there are only 3 friendlies left until the end of the season, so there will not be 2 sessions per day for some of this.
There may also be infrequent negative adjustments to the stats as an untrained player's stats reduce over time. It may be the same for trained players. I haven't explained that too well, but I will try and explain why I think it has happened if I notice it.
Training session 2:
Keeping 24.61 0.07
Ball Control 96.68 0.11
Tackling 42.61 0.07
Pace 70.16 0
Passing 71.68 0.11
Heading 79.68 0.11
Shooting 96.68 0.11
Set Plays 95 0
Stamina 92.29 0
OK, so as I suggested would happen, each statistic went up by the same amount as the other training session (+/- 0.01)
This would suggest that for 4xBall Skills for this player, he will increase by approx:-
Keeping 0.075
Ball Control 0.11
Tackling 0.075
Pace 0
Passing 0.11
Heading 0.11
Shooting 0.11
Set Plays 0
Stamina 0
Training Session 3
Stats increase after 4xjogging
Keeping 24.61 0
Ball Control 96.68 0
Tackling 42.61 0
Pace 70.24 0.08
Passing 71.68 0
Heading 79.68 0
Shooting 96.68 0
Set Plays 95 0
Stamina 92.36 0.07
Training Session 4:
Keeping 24.61 0
Ball Control 96.68 0
Tackling 42.61 0
Pace 70.31 0.07
Passing 71.68 0
Heading 79.68 0
Shooting 96.68 0
Set Plays 95 0
Stamina 92.44 0.08
again, as we see, the increases are the same (+/- 0.01) as the training for last night.
This would indicate that for this player on 4xjogging, the increases are approx:-
Keeping 0
Ball Control 0
Tackling 0
Pace 0.075
Passing 0
Heading 0
Shooting 0
Set Plays 0
Stamina 0.075
I am now going to change the order in which I said I was going to test. Now that I have the results for 2 sessions for Ball Skills and 2 sessions for Jogging, I will change the training to 2xball skills and 2x Jogging.
If the results are consistent with my theory that a player will get a set amount per training session for each of the 4 boxes, then the increases for 2xball skills and 2x Jogging should be somewhere in the order of
Keeping 0.04
Ball Control 0.06
Tackling 0.04
Pace 0.04
Passing 0.06
Heading 0.06
Shooting 0.06
Set Plays 0
Stamina 0.04
(+/- 0.01)
Training session 5
Keeping 24.65 0.04
Ball Control 96.74 0.06
Tackling 42.65 0.04
Pace 70.35 0.04
Passing 71.74 0.06
Heading 79.74 0.06
Shooting 96.74 0.06
Set Plays 95 0
Stamina 92.47 0.03
Precisely as I predicted. This would indicate that the effects on attributes of variable training are exactly the same as that of training 4x the same type. You do 50% of the training, you get 50% of the benefit.
Training session 6
Keeping 24.68 0.03
Ball Control 96.79 0.05
Tackling 42.68 0.03
Pace 70.38 0.03
Passing 71.79 0.05
Heading 79.79 0.05
Shooting 96.79 0.05
Set Plays 95 0
Stamina 92.51 0.04
Again, we have the results I predicted.
Unfortunately my player is now AWOL. I shall check his stats, but do not expect them to increase. With tonight being my last Friendly of the season, there should be no further increases for 2 days.
Training session 7 (Player is AWOL)
Checked stats. There are no changes after AWOL for friendly
Training session 8 (Player is AWOL)
No change again. Player is no longer AWOL, so training testing is back on
.
Training session 9
After 4xcorners in my Champs Shield Final win (not bad with my B team)the increase are:
Keeping 24.68 0
Ball Control 96.9 0.11
Tackling 42.75 0.07
Pace 70.38 0
Passing 71.9 0.11
Heading 79.9 0.11
Shooting 96.86 0.07
Set Plays 95.11 0.11
Stamina 92.51 0
No friendlies until next season, but tomorrows division slot should see the same increase (+/- 0.01) as today.
It is also interesting to note that this player's increases on 4x the same always seem to be 0.075ish or 0.11.
Training session 10
Attributes after todays 2nd session of 4x corners
Keeping 24.68 0
Ball Control 97.01 0.11
Tackling 42.83 0.08
Pace 70.38 0
Passing 72.01 0.11
Heading 80.01 0.11
Shooting 96.94 0.08
Set Plays 95.22 0.11
Stamina 92.51 0
Consistent with previous results, indicating that for this player increase for 4x corners are in the order of:
Keeping 24.68 0
Ball Control 97.01 0.11
Tackling 42.83 0.075
Pace 70.38 0
Passing 72.01 0.11
Heading 80.01 0.11
Shooting 96.94 0.075
Set Plays 95.22 0.11
Stamina 92.51 0
Training session 11
After 4x aerobics :-
Keeping 24.68 0
Ball Control 97.01 0
Tackling 42.83 0
Pace 70.38 0
Passing 72.01 0
Heading 80.01 0
Shooting 96.94 0
Set Plays 95.22 0
Stamina 92.58 0.07
Training session 12:
After 2nd session of 4x Aerobics:
Keeping 24.68 0
Ball Control 97.01 0
Tackling 42.83 0
Pace 70.38 0
Passing 72.01 0
Heading 80.01 0
Shooting 96.94 0
Set Plays 95.22 0
Stamina 92.65 0.07
exactly the same increases.
Next we move on to 2xcorners, 2xAerobics
which by my reckoning should give increases of:
Keeping 0.055
Ball Control 0.04
Tackling 0
Pace 0.055
Passing 0.055
Heading 0.04
Shooting 0.055
Set Plays 0.035
Stamina 0
After a few more tests I concluded:
1. If training is unaltered, a player's stats will increase at a uniform rate per training session for 4 days.
2. There is no advantage or disadvantage to training 4x the same or a mixture of training methods, you just get 1/4 of the increases per training session for each of the 4 blocks whether they are the same or different.
3. I was completely correct in everything I said at the start of this test.
Not proven in this is whether or not this is true for every player (which it has been for every player I have ever tested - so you will just have to take my word for it for now).
Finally, each player may increase by different amounts depending on the training method, but it will always be uniform for 4 3:00am UK time slots and any friendly sessions that fall on those days.