How important is it to practice formations?

There is debate but it has some impact on how your team does but in regards to how much... no one really knows

Posted by hookemhorns7 on 1/20/2013 7:41:00 PM (view original):
There is debate but it has some impact on how your team does but in regards to how much... no one really knows

+1  This is the best answer you could hope for, unfortunately

From what I understand the better a player is in a formation the closer he is to using all (or even more) of his % of attributes. Something like a 25 at a formation means the player is at 90%, 50 means he is using 100%, 70 he is at 110%...the %'s are probably off but I believe this is the general idea. 25 is usually the minimum I shoot for in starter in a formation that I use consistently, 40-50 by the time the player is a SR.

Not to contradict coach_deen, but I have lost D3 playoff games to teams with equal or marginally better talent and formation IQs of 10-12 where mine were 35-40.

I will be interested to see if the new game engine brings a more definitive answer to this question.

According to WIS, the adjustment is +/-4% to "some" of the players stats, whatever that means. The question you have to answer is, "At what point are the positive effects of formation practice worth more than the positive effects of the individual practice that I'm sacrificing?". Personally,  I haven't seen any perceptible advantage related to formation practice, so I spend little or no time on formation practice, and put most or all of my practice time into individual practice. No way to know for sure, though, because even WIS doesn't fully understand how the stats are applied to get a certain result. Just a guess, though, would be that since as you go up in division your rate of stat improvement decreases, formation practice becomes more important as your division goes up. Exactly how important is anyone's guess.

Then the question is, how much is too much on an individual skill to practice? 30 mins? 35?

Posted by radkison on 1/21/2013 3:49:00 PM (view original):
Then the question is, how much is too much on an individual skill to practice? 30 mins? 35?

"diminishing" returns after the 20 minute mark or so......run a season with it set at 30 and one at 20 and you may see a 1 ponit difference between the two depending on WE and potential of the recruits, this may increase with a deep playoff run with a team.

Posted by radkison on 1/21/2013 3:49:00 PM (view original):
Then the question is, how much is too much on an individual skill to practice? 30 mins? 35?

This also depends on what division you are playing at, IMO.  While I do practice formations at all levels, it "appears" that FIQ would have more impact at D1A, because the players individual skills are already at such a high level, its hard to get big improvements in the individual skills.

At the lower levels, individual attributes are clearly the most important aspects, therefore, FIQ plays a lesser role, IMO.

So, one has to consider, the so called "diminishing returns" of individual skills practice, vs any potential gains in FIQ.

There is no single answer that is correct.  Each coach needs to determine his own "right answer" through experimentation and analysis.