Chasing the Tweak

[The Major]

Amazing amounts of information on this subject has been generated over the years.  Adjusting EF bases so they consistently run as you wish them to (AKA Tweaking) is probably the single most important skill you will develop in order to "improve" your game.  Why the quotes?  No one HAS to tweak anything.  However, a lot of us would like to have players that consistently run in a desired fashion.

Lynn "Weirdwolf" Schmidt said it best during one of his interviews (and I paraphrase)--once you can get reliable movement on the field, you can now develop strategy.  Voila!  You are playing EF at another level.  I have sat at the feet of many coaches and watched and listened.  Many videos have been put forth.  For me, personally, I point to the legendary Electric Coach as the single biggest influence on my knowledge of tweaking.  This in no way suggests other videos are inferior.  Rather, Moe is simply the guy that I learned the most from.  Check him out here! https://tudorgames.com/how-to-play/electric-football-nation.html

Also, I've attached the famous Wally Jabs tutorial as edited and compiled by TOEPRO Coach Kit Kinchen.

Gold mines of information.  No get those pliers ready and get to squeezing. 😎

 

Wally Jabs tweaking tutorial.pdf

[Simes549]

I am learning a lot from this guide. Thank you. Still a long way to go for me but I will get there.

 

One question, what is boiling a base all about?

[nefgm.org]

Adding baby oil to boiling water. It alters the chemical composition of the plastic the base is made of. Banned by most  leagues and tournaments. I would not recommend doing this at all!!! it is a quick way to remove flash but the base retains the oil for a very long time and you still have to tweak the prongs. The reason they were banned is they would leave an oily residue on game boards. I have some examples given me by a coach from California over 20 years ago. Vince Petros was the master of this technique.  Pic is some examples of boiled bases next to some regular tweaked bases.        

[Simes549]

Thank you. I will stick to the guide.

[wbj]

Wow, I wrote that post 20 years ago that Kit put into a pdf format.  It great to see that it still being used.

Wally

 

[nefgm.org]

Wally, I have a copy of the original "Base Manipulation 101" that you wrote years ago in my files and a newspaper article that you are featued in Don't have them on the website yet. But will try to do so soon. 

[wbj]

Hi, If you are interested I have the newsletters that I wrote a while back.  I used to send them out to anyone that requested a copy.  They were well received with copies going out to over 100 coaches.  Plus I think I have the 102 version of base manipulation.  There's also a three page spread I have from New York Newsday.  Feel free to reach me at wallyjabs@verizon.net.

All the best,

Wally

[nefgm.org]

14 hours ago, wbj said:

Hi, If you are interested I have the newsletters that I wrote a while back.  I used to send them out to anyone that requested a copy.  They were well received with copies going out to over 100 coaches.  Plus I think I have the 102 version of base manipulation.  There's also a three page spread I have from New York Newsday.  Feel free to reach me at wallyjabs@verizon.net.

All the best,

Wally

Thanks, Sent you an email. 

[blue32]

Instead of, "Chasing the tweak," shouldn't this thread be called, "Chasing consistency?"

Tweaking a base for strength doesn't mean the base will consistently be stronger than every other base. It means the base is consistently stronger than bases that are not tweaked.

Also, tweaking a base for speed doesn't mean the base will consistently be faster than every other base. It means the base is consistently faster than bases that are not tweaked.

This may seem obvious but I've spent hours tweaking bases and ultimately throwing the bases in the garbage.

Most of the time consistency means discovering how the plastic man/base combination wants to perform (curve, straight, fast, strong) and then tweaking the base to consistently perform that way. In this way we figure out which position on the team the plastic man/base combination should be playing. 😃

If a plastic man/base combination consistently turns right and the coach attempts to tweak the plastic man/base combination into turning left, then the coach is heading for game time heartache and disappointment. 😒

[TOEPRO Football Kit]

@blue32

If you put a spacer on your pliers you will get consistent results provided you record the results.  I have three pliers:

one with a piece of led tape .22mm of space between them. 

one with .10mm

one with none

Certain one at the right location gives somewhat consistent results.  When warm the pliers do the trick.