Natural Fitness

I just need some more explanation of what Natural fitness actually defines.

I always thought it was like a "genetic" level of fitness a player can achieve. But I just noticed recently in can actually improve with training, aerobic i think.

So it doesn't seem quite right to me.

ie. I personally may have a Natural fitness which is say average for a normal person. I can achieve a certain level of fitness with training but probably couldn't be an iron man. They have much more Natural fitness. If they sat on their bums and played FM (and posted on forums) and drank beer for a while, their fitness would decline, but it wouldn't change their natural fitness, which is iron man level.

Thats my logic which is obviously flawed. What is it and how does it influence a player and why can it improve?

The time it takes for a player to recover.

Natural fitness helps determine how long it takes a player to recover his fitness from previous games. Higher natural fitness, the better he'll be able to recover from the previous match, and the better he'll be able to perform during periods of fixture congestion.

Natural fitness also helps determine how fast a player will lose physical attributes once he's on the downward side of his career (early-to-mid-30s for outfield players, mid-to-late-30s for GKs).

What the above guys said, but I just wanted to add how big the impact is. I have a guy with 17 NF and 12 Stam. He can play every match that has at least 3 days rest, no matter how tired he was at the end of the last game. Compared to players with 14-15 stamina and 11-12 NF who need regular breaks during congested schedules.

Ah i always assumed Stamina was for how fast a player recovered, aswell as getting tired during matches.

I always looked at players Stamina when signing them, they come in handy for the fixture congestion. I always assumed Natural Fitness was just for how likely a player is to get injured etc.

All this time i've been looking at the wrong attribute.

Stamina is useful too-- it means he won't get fatigued as much in a match, thereby resulting in less of a drop in his condition, which means less recovery time.

I would consider stamina more important, but if you expect a player to play a lot o games natural fitness is vital.

Thanks all.

High natural fitness is great to have for rotation players too, as they can maintain match fitness longer. For instance I have a stat striker with only 4 for Natural fitness, it takes him 2-4 games to get match fit and if not playing regulary he quickly declines to "severly lacking match fitness".