Formations act as a template for plays providing a set of players in position and with the colors, shapes, labels, and notes specified by the formation. However, each of these player attributes can be changed when editing the play so you’re not locked in to the defaults specified by the formation when you create a play from it.
Once a play has been created from a formation that play is forever linked to the formation. When you update the formation in the formation designer you have the option of applying those changes to all plays that use the formation. So, for example, if you change the starting position or label of a player in the formation you can choose to apply that change to all plays that use the formation.
Formations are intentionally open ended allowing you to use them however you see fit. Here are a few examples of possible uses for formations.
Traditional Formations
Even though you create a play using a formation you can still change each player’s positioning in the play editor. But, you don’t have to. You can instead use formations in their traditional sense as fixed player start positions for a set of plays.
Updating Uniform Numbers
Instead of creating generic formations and plays with “WR”, “QB”, etc. as player labels you can personalize a formation with the uniform number of each player. When the player playing a position changes, simply change the uniform number in the formation and click the “Update Plays from Formation” button on the formation designer to apply those uniform number changes to all plays using that formation.
As a Generic Play Template
If you don’t use formations or only use one formation for your flag football plays you can create a generic formation and use it as the base for all your plays. This will give you a convenient template to use when creating a new play instead of the default new play template with all players in a line at the line of scrimmage. You’ll also have the flexibility to change player labels, colors, and shapes for all your flag football plays at once should you ever want to vs. having to make the change on each individual play.
To Reuse Player Notes
If you have a set of plays that require players or positions to perform specific tasks or make a choices based on the defense you can create a formation with player notes attached to the relevant positions explaining the tasks or choices. This saves you the time of having to add the instructions for every relevant play and the notes can be updated on a per-play basis if necessary.
Do you have any creative uses for formations? Let us know by commenting on this article!