Formations let pro subscribers create reusable starting points for their plays. In addition to being used to position players, formations can be used to give players different colors, shapes, and numbers/labels.
For example, as a basketball coach you might want to create a set of plays targeting the small forward (position “3” for non-basketball fans). Rather than setting the player colors and labels for each play individually you can create a formation with the colors and labels you want, save it, then use it to create all your small forward plays.
The formation designer offers the same functionality as the play designer except that you can only change a player’s position and the waypoint menu is limited to alignment and options to change player/team shape, color, and number/label.