As many know I saw my first head to head competition, detailed figures, tweaked bases, loopers and passing of a felt football, real time, w/my own eyes the 1st or 2nd week of January at the DSEFL playoffs/super bowl.
My intent when I went there, after being invited, was to just hang an hour or so and admire the figures, boards and talent I had read about for a couple weeks or so and then go back to working on getting my solitaire leagues of Miggle stamped helmet teams on a 620 board going.
That never happened, since that day I have bought bases and figs (unpainted) from Miggle, FF and BB, worked on tweaking, detailing a college team (my son's college, Valdosta State Univ), passing w/TDQ (I had never thrown a pass before in EF), heating limbs on players, etc, etc.
To your point, I seriously believe I spend about at least 14 hrs a day practicing, including, passing, tweaking, trying to learn the "angles" and time spent speaking w/coachs around the country( I feel sorry for Geno H) and locally to pick their brains. My facemasks, painted leg stripe's, glove's are not done yet on my team, not even all my helmet logo's are on yet. That is because I feel I should spend my time "scripting" my plays, selecting the correctly tweaked bases for an O or D positions.
Man, you wanted detail so I'm laying it out...I have watched ALL the youtube video's, JIMBO 32 trap, Reg, lateral movement, screen play, electric coach's "training camp" video's.
I could keep going, but, I'll let ya off the hook cause I gotta get back to practice
I sit ~24 hours from my first league game EVER that COUNTS against the DSEFL super bowl runner up and I must concede to the fact that I put the time in to do the best that I can do in this short period of time. I now have some knowledge gleaned from others and formed into my own style. Now it's time the gain the intangible and ever so important experience.
I have realized in MF the equivalent of the physical and mental intensity I possessed in the many competitive sports I played in my younger years and into my mid forty's (corporate leagues) is not going to help me here. An adrenaline rush which gets one to hit harder, run harder/faster in football or drive to the basket and "hang" in the air and triple pump just does not apply, therefore it MUST be replaced w/mental preparation and practice.
No matter what the final scores are for my two games on Sunday, I will learn a lot , I'm sure, and be back at the "drawing" board until the next meet.
Like anything else, you MUST practice !!!
You asked for detail and honesty, hope I stayed on point...
Joe Ram