Coach Shawn

Use a timer. We use 1 minute but usually it doesn’t go that long. The minute sounds long but it mainly stops the “I can’t decide” incidents. You could also make a rule that you must pick your receiver before any measuring is done. Or just allow measuring QB to Receivers, then you must select your receiver before laying down the target ball placement stick.

No dice for me, I love stick passing. To me it offers a chance to “read” the defense in order to find a gap in coverage, it forces me to get better at tweaking bases, it lets me actively defend against the pass, and I have to constantly up my strategy on both offense and defense to succeed. Adding the pressure rule on the QB adds more strategy as a good looper shortens the run time for receivers to get down field and then makes the catch harder by increasing the target ball distance from the receiver.

I think these are reasonable percentages. I think that with interceptions the defender distances you list; 2,4, and 6 bases, align well with the distances you listed above.

First I will say what I currently do, and then I will give some of the thoughts I have. I do not set up my receivers with the intention of running a traditional pass route. Basically I set the receivers up to try to get open. Once the receiver is open we allow the target ball to be placed anywhere 360 degrees around the passer. You then pivot the receiver to move to the target ball. We consider this is the receiver making his pass pattern move…a cut, pivot, turn, etc. so if the target ball is placed behind his base so he pivots to turn back to get the ball then it is a button hook or comeback pass. We do not allow the receiver or the defenders to pivot after the catch. So we don’t call a specific pass pattern before the play. But I have considered the following Pass Pattern Simulation: Unless you are using multi-stop I think running actual patterns is impractical. But perhaps you could simulate them by pre-selecting a reception area on the field. This would be a small circle that indicates where the receiver hopes to catch, ie. Run into, the ball target. If you stop the board and lay down the appropriate ball placement stick and if this places target ball within the reception area, then you are good to finish the play as is. If your target ball is outside the reception circle then you must add a length to the ball placement thus making it a harder catch (as the ball was not where the receiver anticipated it would be). I’ve never really tested this yet. You would have to determine how far the target ball is adjusted when the “pass is off”. hopefully i’ve made clear what my intent is. For those of you that stick pass it probably makes sense.

LOL. Love these teams. You did a great job painting them!

Hers another trap I did earlier. This is a trap run to the right (the 4 hole). IMG_2842.MOV

Here is my attempt at using a TTC base on my Lineman to create a trap run. Rutgers is in a T Formation from the shotgun. Yale is defending. The Right Guard is pivoted to pull off the line and curl over to help block on the left side of the O-Line. The RHB is setup to block up the gap created by the pulling RG. The LHB is pivoted to run thru the 3 hole (he is the ball carrier). The FB is setup to run wide to the right as a decoy. This play goes pretty good with the LHB gaining 3 yards for any touch tackle. He got 7 yards using stop momentum tackling. The weak spot was Rutger’s left tackle, he failed to push the defensive linemen enough which caused the O Line to have gaps. Still not bad. IMG_2844.MOV

I have found with my competition team that I have to practice them before each week’s game as the performance of the bases changes. This seems especially true for my Strength bases. I test my strongmen and adjust My lines weekly based on who is currently stronger. Often the figures will be strong, then weak, then back to strong in the 3rd week. And as stated in previous posts above, I have noted the figures which are more consistently at the top. I have long planned to test how temperatures effect the bases.

I also use the “Maui” Moonsharks and the “British Columbia” Union Jacks in my solitaire league.

Really enjoying your season. I love your photos of those beloved hand painted Tudor teams. As a kid I spent all my money earned as a paperboy to purchase all 28 of the then NFL teams. Sadly they were somehow all lost in a move years ago. I have now rebuilt my new collection up to 50 teams (College, NFL, and Fantasy) but I still miss those old hand painted Tudor ones.

In case anyone is interested: Smallville Crows Known Players Brett Anderson Brent Trevor Chapell Danny Cormay (Unknown - 2005) — starting quarterback (later removed) Danny Crozier (Unknown - 2005) Doug Thomas "Fitz" Fitzpatrick[1] — quarterback Whitney Fordman (Unknown - 2002) — starting quarterback Sean Kelvin (Unknown - 2001) Clark Kent (2004 - 2005) — starting quarterback Nate Pratt (Unknown - 2005) Pete Ross (2001 - 2004) Mark Verheiden (Unknown - 2005)

You got it!! The Smallville Crows! And yes the player pictured is none other than Clark Kent.

Cool to see that. They run good enough to play. You have a very cool novelty there.

11 views but no guesses. Hint #2: The player pictured previously almost never got to join the team as his father feared that other players would be seriously injured.

Oh nice. Thats another good idea to add to the list. We’ve built up a nice number of options to choose from.

Yes the box and the team look great. I have one metal base, on my metal QB/kicker. It doesn’t run well but being on the clunky QB you can’t expect a good run (see video). IMG_2823.MOV How do yours run?

Maybe too obscure so heres a hint. This is a pic of the teams more famous player.

I did a rough paint job on this figure to see if it looked decent before deciding whether or not to make a the whole team. Can anyone guess what team it is?

Great point. This cannot be understated. Try a base on multiple figure types before risking further tweeking that could destroy a base. I have even had bases run differently for figures with the same pose.

In my 8 team solitaire league my teams are all two platoon. Each team was assigned new bases and I began tweeking. The team was stuck with the result unless I totally ruined the base, in which case they got a replacement. After each season teams are awarded a certain number of new bases based upon their final standing for the season. • Champion gets zero new bases. • 2nd place gets one base. • 3rd and 4th place get 2 bases. • 5th and 6th place get 3 bases. • 7th and 8th place get 4 bases. I then tweek their new bases and they must end up being clearly superior to the base they are replacing. If not I keep tweeking bases till I get one that is. This system makes sure my teams improve and prevents one team from dominating year after year.

I think you did great.

Wow that’s quite a setup!! I love it.

Beautiful play. A lot of good blocking by the o-line. But as you said the nose tackle makes a great play, fighting around the block to prevent a bigger gain.

My “wide” runs are usually off tackle runs that utilizes a strong TE to block and setting up the WR very wide to spread the defense. (See video). I do use wide runs but they depend on the speed and dependable run arc of the runner more than blocking (see video). 55AFC70A-3418-445D-A599-FC8A2279E753.MOV 30B162CE-4D98-4764-A340-06533012E240.MOV

Great videos. To duplicate the play in your videos into the rules I use would mean giving the offense 1 shift (the o-guard) and three pivots. My rules don’t allow the defense to respond to pivots but they can shift 1 player if the offense uses a shift. My rules currently only allow two pivots but you are allowed to setup at any angle, so one back could be “pre-pivoted”. My rules don’t currently allow offensive linemen to shift but watching your video has got me rethinking that restriction.