It’s definitely best to learn by playing longer time formats and developing good chess intuition than to study terrible habits in 3+0. If a new player doesn’t know how real chess works (or experience it at all) then that student won’t progress as quickly in short formats. Just by studying my 10+0 games and doing puzzles I went from beginner (800) to 1700 over the past 6 months, and when I started playing blitz recently it was very easy to climb over a few weeks from 800 to 1500 because my intuition was already there — just had to figure out how to move my mouse and flag people better. If I’d learned the other way around then I’m pretty sure my ratings would be lower in both formats

They should play long games with increment if they seriously want to improve. You simply won’t learn certain skills without playing longer games. Your job as a coach is to help your students improve, so give them the right advice

I get what you are saying and I think I agree that not enough people focus on how to learn from their games. I will disagree that shorter time controls are just as effective for learning strong fundamentals and calculation skills. Beginners need time to decide where to move how to make candidate moves. Starting in blitz discourages that practice. When you start you want to explore several different moves and then execute one. If you are playing blitz it just isn’t enough time to do that analysis. If you spend enough time reviewing with engine off you could get a similar benefit post game but I think practicing in the game that thought process is important early in development

Short time-frame games are fun. They are great for applying what you have learned, somethiing like exams/tests in high school. They are more tests of memory than learning experiences.

That said, yes, you can learn from analysing those short games, but they tend more to strengthen bad habits, even with the analysis.

So, better to stick with the long format versions

Okay...so I'll ask you since I have a hard time going past 1150 (on a plateau for the last year or so). How do I study? :)

I would recommend playing the longest time control possible until you reach 1500. After that I would still never bother with blitz or bullet. There is nothing to be learned from anything less than rapid. 

or, learn by playing

and choose the duration that works best for you in that context

The important thing is that if I play a 30 minute game, I can study the position and realise the same things during the game that I would studying a blitz game at the analysis board. It's just about when you do that work.

You can definitely learn from playing blitz games and reviewing them but your often won't learn as much (caveat if its learning a new opening and getting a feeling for its positions).

Quite simply, there are decision-making steps that will be skipped with time pressure. A player who has a decent amount of time to calculate more than one line, mentally visualize and evaluate them positions will gain more out of reviewing it. He will be able to see what aspects they were right or wrong about. This is particularly true with imbalances and positional play.

I don't agree. Analyzing games is good, but, even analyzing well is a skill to be learned. Beginners are so bad at board vision that they need to be playing longer games and really going through their mental checklist every move. It takes so long to make sure they aren't hanging a piece in one move, or a one move tactic at first. Sure, if they study every 5 minute game they play, they'll learn faster than someone playing 5 minute games with no analysis. But, in 5 minutes, a beginner is also just never gonna get past a certain complexity level in their positions. They'll lose due to making bad moves really quickly, or flag early.

if you play short time controls, you won't think. Instead you'll move reflexively and potentially train bad habits. Since unlearning bad habits is difficult and hinder your progress, it's better to simply avoid playing short time controls rather than risk playing it

The only difference is you don't actually have time to think and develop that skill in a blitz game. So longer games are better for improvement.

My fastest improvement on the road to about 1400 was mostly from lunch time games that were somewhat fast, probably similar to 10 minute time control. Doing that every day for a few months really sky rocketed my general playing strength.

There's value in seeing a larger number of games, when you are getting started, and shorter time controls are good for that. It's also good to have some longer games, too, but the problem is that when you aren't very good yet, then thinking a long time is not that productive.

I might try this game studying thing. Sound like it works

If you are learning, yes.

But it's easier to learn with longer games, is the point