hattrick FAQ : Coach

What coach to start with?
Start with a solid coach with poor leadership if you can afford him. If you cannot afford that, get a passable coach with poor leadership.

What characteristics are important for the coach?

1. Coaching skill. This determines speed of training and also has have an affect on the form of your players. The better the coach the more it helps form.
2. Leadership. This affects the speed at which which the team spirit returns to the medium value (composed, 4.5). The higher the leadership, the slower the team spirit falls if above composed and the faster it rises if below composed.
3. Orientation. Neutral coach's will give a small boost to both attack and defense ratings, while a defensive coach increases defense ratings, an offensive coach will increase attack ratings. Orientation has no effect on training speed.
4. Experience\Temperament Do NOT have any effect at all.

When to convert a coach from existing player?

When you want a new coach with high leadership (passable or solid). This is more important in higher divisions and especially for teams that stay in the cup longer.
You can only convert a player that has been on your squad for at least 16 weeks. You can still use the player on the field, too!
Only two player characteristics matter in coach conversion - leadership and experience.
The coach will retain the player's leadership. His experience level determines maximum coaching skill (you cannot make a solid coach from a player with lower than Solid experience) and the conversion cost.

Conversion price
The conversion price decreases with increasing experience (including sub levels). A tool that will show you the price ranges can be found here:
(http://www.databased.at/hattrick/x-ray/index....coach).
To determine the player experience fairly accurately (for players that can be converted to coaches), follow the instructions here: (http://www.manager.brygge.dk/Hattrick/experienc...)

Coach and injuries/bookings
Since a converted player can be used in matches, he may get injured or booked. This has absolutely no effect on his function as a coach.

Leadership loss
The leadership skill of any coach slowly decreases, approximately one level each one and half seasons, but never during his first 16 weeks as a coach. When the leadership reaches disastrous, the coaching skill begins to decrease.

Coaching skill
When you convert or recruit a new coach, he will always have mid-sub level in his coaching skill. Every passable coach trains exactly as fast as any other passable coach. This explains the price difference for converted coaches - when the player's experience is passable (low), it is more expensive to make a passable (mid) coach, than when his experience is passable (high).
Leadership for external recruited coaches should be the same, converted players come with a normal hidden sub level.
Keep in mind that an excellent coach (converted or recruited) is an exception - his skill is excellent (very low) - 8.0, exactly half a level above solid coach. Since excellent coaches are very expensive, only a few managers (mainly those training present or future NT stars) will invest in excellent coaches.