- Three Keys Article
Fantasy Football Championships 101
Why am I not winning my fantasy football championship?
There can be many reasons why you're not winning your fantasy football championship. I'm going to touch on three very important factors that can help you win a championship. First let's take a look at how "patience", or the lack of can affect your championship hopes.
What are some of the mistakes made as a result of impatience? One problem is the coach gets hooked on the, "thrill of a deal". Trading has it's benefits if used wisely in fantasy sports but all to often many coaches just love trading players every week. Many players feel they have to make two, three, or four trades weekly. Their chances of winning a championship are very slim. At least for the current year (in keeper leagues). The same goes for coaches constantly dropping players into the waiver pool and picking up other free agents to replace the dropped players. Occasionally there might be a gem in the free agent pool but most certainly there won't be a gem for every team every week. Don't get hooked on the thrill of the deal. Always keep your real goal in front of you. A Fantasy Football Championship.
Another problem to be chalked up to impatience is, "chasing points". You might have drafted a player who only scored 5 points this week. There's a player in the waiver pool that scored 20. So you drop your player, who will produce 10 to 15 points per week over the course of the season, for a player that ended up playing one week. Guess what? The league champion picked up your dropped player and used him to beat you in the process. Oh, the embarrassment.
Think before you leap. If your team has some rough going in the beginning don't lose confidence in your team. Things can turn around on a dime in fantasy sports. Your team could go on a 7 or 8 game winning streak at any time. I know of a team in a league that had a 1-6 record after the first seven weeks. The owner didn't push the panic button and start making a bunch of trades. Patiently he kept playing his players as usual. His team won the next 6 head-to-head games, finished 7-6, got into the playoffs, and swept through three challengers to win the league championship. The 6 game run plus 3 more wins in the playoffs gave him 9 wins in a row after starting 1-6. By the way, he also won the championship the next year with the same team. His patience paid off by awarding him back to back championships.
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Do your "Research". Have you ever heard the saying, knowledge is power? Come to the competition prepared. Research everything to do with fantasy football. Here are some examples of things to research. Does the league award points per reception (PPR)? If it does then there are certain running backs that score more points because they are used in passing plays out of the backfield in addition to rushing the ball. How many players can you play at each position in your weekly lineup? Are you permitted to field one, two, or three running backs? How many receivers, two, three , or four? If you're limited on top tier running backs, you can stock up on the top tier wide receivers and build a winner. What about the NFL coaches? Did you ever think to research his coaching philosophy? Is he a coach that believes in pounding the football with a hard nosed running attack? That might be one place to consider when drafting a running back. Is the coach more of an air-it-out guy? Grab his wide receivers and maybe even the tight end if he gets involved in the air attack. Be open to using what ever strategy is revealed to you during your research.
One year I just decided to turn my whole fantasy football philosophy upside down. To my surprise I won our league. I just changed my thinking to take advantage of the players I had. I didn't try to force my philosophy of always having two running backs in my lineup at all cost. Recognizing I had some pretty good wide receivers I played the whole year with one mediocre running back, one average quarterback, and four wide receivers (one wide receiver backup for bye weeks). Plus the kicker, tight end, and defense.
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"Trust" your judgement. After you've exercised patience building your team and done your research it's time to trust your judgement. Perhaps you need to learn to trust your own decisions when it comes to submitting your weekly lineup. I hear of to many fantasy football coaches trusting the so called experts for their lineup decisions. I believe that's a BIG mistake. You can browse the fantasy football rankings provided each week by various sites but don't trust them to know any more about who to start and who not to start than you do. If you do your research you can trust your own judgement to set your lineup. When I first started playing fantasy football in 1993 I didn't know "Expert Advice" existed. Know what? I was winning championships regularly without them. But something happened and I found myself trusting strangers posing as "Experts." I trusted them when setting my fantasy football lineup each week. I had lost trust in myself. When I started trusting my own judgement again I started winning championships again. Player news services offer a wealth of content. They work hard to provide the best up to date information you can find. But they don't know your team, league scoring rules and all the important stuff that goes into setting your lineup. I think you should go with your gut feeling when making the tough lineup decision. After all, you paid for your team. Shouldn't you run it?
Top of PageArticle provided by: Jim Piatt
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