Are the settings I put in for practice final, or can I adjust through the season?

When do they have to be in by - when does practice begin?

The players' guide refers to a chart for practice time - something by Iquana1 or something like that - but the link doesn't work for me.    Does anyone have a link to page that discusses the effect of practice in detail?

In particular, how many minutes of FT does it take just to maintain?   In various posts I have read 7,8, and 12

Lastly, the chart in the players' guide for allocation of study hall minutes - is that accurate?   The author says that in 60 seasons he has never had an issue which is great, but that could be a sign that it is too much - thoughts?

You can adjust your practice times as often as you like.  You should check them regularly. As a player drops from black to red, you'll want to decrease his practice times.   To maintain, I use '4' for PER and LP;  '8' for FT;  and  7 for the other categories.  If it's a less important category, like PER for a center, I'll use '0' practice. 

Practice begins with the first exhibition day. 

I'll let other coaches answer your other concerns. 

the effects of practice will interact with a players WE  and his potential.  Also will be affected by ratings - a rating of 90 or 10 improves slower than a rating of 50.  So there are no hard and fast answers to any of the rating/stat questions - nor should there be

I tend to use 11 mins of FT practice to maintain.  A guy with awful WE may decline some at that level.  Others likely use other numbers.

Most of the charts on study hall are pretty accurate.  You can use a lower number if you are ready to up it at midterms.  Experiemnt and watch the effects

Posted by fd343ny on 4/4/2015 8:04:00 AM (view original):
the effects of practice will interact with a players WE  and his potential.  Also will be affected by ratings - a rating of 90 or 10 improves slower than a rating of 50.  So there are no hard and fast answers to any of the rating/stat questions - nor should there be

I tend to use 11 mins of FT practice to maintain.  A guy with awful WE may decline some at that level.  Others likely use other numbers.

Most of the charts on study hall are pretty accurate.  You can use a lower number if you are ready to up it at midterms.  Experiemnt and watch the effects

Eleven minutes does more than simply maintain in FT -- I never go above 10 minutes in that category (unless players are maxed in other categories and I have extra minutes to allot) and my players grow and improve throughout the season, usually one step at a minimum (from C- to a C, for instance), but bigger gains aren't unheard of...my red shirt last season went from F to D at 10 minutes, I had another player go from D to C-.. I've always treated it like any other category (other than PER and LP) and used 7 as the hold value and have never had a kid slip a letter grade during the year (for the record, since mention was made of awful WE, I will add that I never grab players with sub-30 WE's)

actually, rednu is right - 11 on FT will, I think get slow improvement for most WE

at 11 a guy with awful - single digit WE - may decline

some number in the 7-10 range likely maintains most guys - keep in mind, there can be a decline or increase without a letter grade movement.  

FT seems to behave somewhat differently than other skills in that regard.  Try this.  For most skills if you get a max our message, cut the guy to zero and ten games later restore him to practice at 11 or 12 you will not get a second max out message,  With FT you otfen will.  He dropped a smidge and maxed out again.  Not that any of these decimal differences matter to anything.