Do you work on plays or players???

[MplsTom]

Anything taken to the extreme becomes a charicature (insert name of favorite political party here).

No one said that "no" tweaking had to be done or that guys will show up with unopened bases and can whip everyone.

My point here is just to challenge the mindset of how you spend your time preparing. Are you spending time on the thing that will get you the W?

In my experience, an observation I've made over the years is that a lot of guys in this hobby spend a lot of time and money looking for that base that will make it "easy" on them by being the strongest or fastest. I've certainly paid $ for bases over the years and some would say "too much". I've also been tweaking a great deal in the past 6 months as it is an area I'm working to improve.

When I get on the board, though, I seldom see coaches looking at "what is the defense giving them?" I seldom see coaches have play #3 or play #4 in their repitoire after you've shut down 1&2 (their bread and butter).

At the Beltsville Bash, I strongly doubt Adrian had the fastest team or strongest team. It was a new team to him and they didn't look to overpower anyone.

Having spend 1.5 hours on the board with him scrimmaging Friday night, though, it was fun because he was trying different plays and formations as was I. Adrian is one of the best passers in the game today and you sure don't need the strongest or fastest when you can get open like him.

This past year, I took inventory of my weaknesses in EF and worked like crazy on my passing. It paid off as the perfect score in the skills challenge showed and also helped bring me the Columbus Day title.

I'm not knocking tweaking or tweakers...just challenging guys to think of the proportion of time spent and will ask you if it is, "diminshing returns" when you have guys that are good enough. Should you be spending the time working on your passing, working on having a kicker that doesn't miss...working on having 10 plays in your playbook.

I think that moving some of the time toward those activities will make a huge difference to a lot of guys in this hobby.

[Coach K-LO]

you make some good points Tom, but if your WR could not get open or off the line....then you have to scramble for other plays (or play selection) to go to.

One other note - if you HAD to use a moblie QB that could not lead block - how do you 'buy time'??

The overall point you were making, to begin with, is THE point of consideration. Yes, we can tweak 'til our fingers bleed and the pliers break. But that alone doesn't guarantee you have worked enough to get a string of W's. We can contract and buy all the fast, and/or strong bases we can (or can not) afford but that still doesn't mean we have purchased a guaranteed string of W's. It may overwhelm your local league mates, or not. But when you enter someone else's Big House you NEED more than that.

One can buy the fastest racing car ever made. Surely that doesn't make one a race car driver. One can buy a bulldozer. But that doesn't qualify one as a heavy equipment operator. One needs to be able to coach. And that means being able to organize a game winning plan, with moderate but consistent talent, while having success. The best I have ever witnessed or know about can/could do it on the fly.

There is nothing wrong or foul about having a team of upper tier players. I have nothing against that at all. But I will say, from my own personal experiences, using them too often can contribute to "killing the skills." I have learned and relearned so much more by consistently using a team that is sub par or "good enough." Plus, as you mentioned, it gets obnoxiously boring to out push and out run your opponents play after play, day after day. Even worse when you know what is going to happen before you hit the switch. Worse still when you get so bored that you let it slip out to an opponent during a match. :::Yawn! Picks up down marker and moves it +15 yds before hitting the switch::::

-Mike Pratt

[detroitchild]

Originally Posted by TheTweakFreak

The overall point you were making, to begin with, is THE point of consideration. Yes, we can tweak 'til our fingers bleed and the pliers break. But that alone doesn't guarantee you have worked enough to get a string of W's. We can contract and buy all the fast, and/or strong bases we can (or can not) afford but that still doesn't mean we have purchased a guaranteed string of W's. It may overwhelm your local league mates, or not. But when you enter someone else's Big House you NEED more than that.

One can buy the fastest racing car ever made. Surely that doesn't make one a race car driver. One can buy a bulldozer. But that doesn't qualify one as a heavy equipment operator. One needs to be able to coach. And that means being able to organize a game winning plan, with moderate but consistent talent, while having success. The best I have ever witnessed or know about can/could do it on the fly.

There is nothing wrong or foul about having a team of upper tier players. I have nothing against that at all. But I will say, from my own personal experiences, using them too often can contribute to "killing the skills." I have learned and relearned so much more by consistently using a team that is sub par or "good enough." Plus, as you mentioned, it gets obnoxiously boring to out push and out run your opponents play after play, day after day. Even worse when you know what is going to happen before you hit the switch. Worse still when you get so bored that you let it slip out to an opponent during a match. :::Yawn! Picks up down marker and moves it +15 yds before hitting the switch::::

-Mike Pratt

Tell ya what Mike, just uuuhhhhh....send me your play book and I will decide what most important, tweaking or coaching.

[Shabby J]

Originally Posted by FrustratedFinFan

Don't let them fool you Shabby. They say it's ALL about coaching, but you can bet your butt that their players are tweaked for strength and speed too! Have them match up their strongest man on man versus some of yours....and run some speed contests as well. You will quickly find that the winners also have some of the best athletes. Not to denigrate their coaching skills at all, but don't let them think that their athletes aren't special too. If some folks can do it with untweaked bases and players, maybe they should show up to the tournaments with nothing more than an unopened pack of Miggle players and bases? They do that at the Miggle tourney, but not at any of the other tournaments. Wonder why? Yep....some folks can tweak quickly and easily....that's swell. It doesn't mean they aren't spending time tweaking...they are just spending less time than others . You can be the best coach in the world, but if your players suck....you ain't winning too many games. I think that applies in EF as well.

I build my team first. I select players and tweak bases to match the player's duties. I then design some plays utilizing what I perceive to be my strengths. However, it doesn't take long in a game to realize you have to make adjustments. I do the best I can to adjust to my opponent. After the game, I keep in mind what my weaknesses were and I try to address those...both through tweaking....and through some thought to plays that will eliminate or minimize my weaknesses, as well as take advantage of my strengths. Sometimes I realize I need some new recruits....both bases and players.....and then it is time to play mad scientist again and create a monster!

Amen brother, amen!

I guess it the level of tweaking vs the level of strategy, sort of a ratio of tweaking to strategy. I agree to tweaking for consistency, of course ytou need to know what to expect from every player, you have to have some strength and speed though, have to.

It goes to show the different approaches we use to play MF. Now I have to figure out if this is an individual choice or more of a regional,"this is how we do it out here kind of thing".

Good stuff, let's keep it going.

DC - Will do. I will have to cut my head off and mail it to you though. Play book is in there..... somewhere... It's the only copy and it is fairly extensive. Once you extract the play book, feel free to toss the rest of that useless stuff in the waste basket. :p On a more serious note, I would be happy to sit down w/you and show you every thing I know whenever we have the opportunity. I'm sure you could teach me as well. Not a single one of us knows everything and we can always learn from one another.

Shabby J - If whatever you're doing is working for your regional venue then you're already coaching brother! It's pretty simple. Different venues require different tools and techniques. Adjusting/Adapting and being successful while doing so is not generally an easy task. I look at it a lot like this.... Same basic structure (a game restricted to electro magnetic dynamics) - A house for instance, but a different floor plan. So even though it will be constructed of a lot of the same basic materials and w/a lot of the same tools (though some will vary), it will require assembly in a different manner. Constructed in a manner so it passes the local codes (meets that venues requirements) and functions properly as a completed unit (players are consistent and work together as a team). The rest is all about how one chooses to use it. Not everybody wants or needs the thermostat set to 90 degrees 24/7. Nor do most prefer it set to 50 degrees. Somewhere in the middle seems to be "just right?" that is another aspect we can all learn from each other. We all do or see at least some things slightly different.

Another thing I like to bring up when strength and speed topics are on the table is.... both are strictly subjective. That meaning "strong" is only strong w/regards to what you're comparing it to. Same w/speed. One person's strongest base can and has proven to be another person's cannon fodder. Again, same w/speed. One thing seems to continue to rewind though. If I put a "very strong/fast" team on the field at a major venue tomorrow, next time I see some cats who were there, my strong/fast stuff isn't going to be as strong or as fast as it was before. It's not that my bases have lost their stuff. It's because some cats are going to go home and make sure they catch up or surpass. Admittedly, I have and will do the same if I feel competitive enough to worry over it.

Though these days I'm much more into helping others and teaching than I am worrying over trying to grab another piece of hardware. For me, the quality time spent w/quality people is far more rewarding than anything else I have to gain or lose. My motto to live by in this hobby for the past several years is and has been "Don't put plastic over people." Or short version "People, not plastic." At the end of the day, the rest is so very unimportant. At least to me. It's the lil demon I fight that is obviously inside most of us in this hobby. We are VERY competitive by nature. I assure you, I am one of the most fiercely competitive people you will run across on the entire planet. And under certain circumstances (usually for the wrong reasons) I am not above stomping a mud hole in someone's keister (if i'm pushed to the brink). Even then, I get no real satisfaction from it. It's meaningless. The time it took to do it coulda been spent hanging w/peeps I actually give a rats rump about. I'm much more mellowed overall. I'd rather hand the dog the bone and go eat the meat w/their owners, metaphorically speaking.

Yet, I digress... off topic. Bad netiquette. Sorry. My Bad!

-Mike Pratt

[Coach K-LO]

welcome back Prattski!

K-LO