What areas of chess does blitz help you in?

I heard blitz was bad for your overall chess as you get impatient, don't learn much, and do get annoyed during games if your opponent takes time. If so why do people play it, are there actually any benefits to your chess or is it just great fun?

Blitz is the best training tool. You learn various openings, new ideas, move faster in long time controls, see tactics much more effectively, blunders less. What more can you ask for? I guess I missed up some points!!

I believe skotheim is being sarcastic (considering moving fast in long time controls is horrible, you're more prone to blunders because of that, and you miss tactics often).

Yes blitz is bad for an aspiring chess player of our strength... for the reasons you named. So why do people play it? People are inpatient anyway (shocking huh?). And I will admit it's a lot of fun...

This topic ended faster than I thought it would, Wow.

Acctually if you manage to control yourself, am I not being sarcastic at all. I believe that blitz are bad for people over 2700 and very good for people 500-2000

My coach says the exact opposite... by the time you're a master it's okay to play a little blitz but before then it can (and will) ruin your slow game.

Why is blitz bad for 2700+? I mean if your already 2700 then nothing is really bad for your chess (in reards to improving).

Blitz chess helps with pattern recognition and with working on specific openings. It's not good to play only blitz, but it's an important tool if used in moderation. The problem for most youngsters is that they get addicted to it and forget to do the hard work of slow analysis. 

Literally every top GM plays blitz. The only world champion who did not excel at blitz was Botvinnik, who claimed to have played only one game, on a train. 

If you play chess for fun, blitz is fantastic. If you want to really improve, play blitz in moderation and spend most of your study time on positions that require deep analysis. 

Thats because your coach is afraid that you will go past him.

Getting better at blitz will not help you get better at slow chess but getting better at slow chess will help your blitz .  

Could you please verify that as fact? Rhetorical question of course, because you can't.

No. For people below master level it is a huge help to play blitz.

Could you please verify that playing blitz does not help you?

I used to play blitz... it's taken me years to recover from the bad habits I formed doing it. I know someone personally who had the same experience. If you can't accept that as verification I can't give it to you.

For example, I learned about a new trap against my french defence. If I had not seen this in this blitz game I would of had to calculate and use a long time in a long time game. http://www.chess.com/livechess/game?id=1148733159

Why do you assume you would need to use a long time to find it in a slow game, since you were able to do it in blitz?

I often run across new ideas in blitz where I lose the game, look up the idea, and learn. If you play blitz with no intention of improving, then it's a fun way to spend time. But you won't improve much. If you use blitz as a learning tool, it's a fun way to improve!

Nakamura and Caruana both played tons of blitz long before they ever became masters and GMs. Just be sure to do the hard analysis too.

It could also help to improve your game in time trouble. Bronstein said once Botvinnik could have been a great blitz player, and probably he practiced it in secret since his play was very strong at time trouble. But basically are two differents approachs to chess. Bronstein himself, a fantastic blitz/bullet player, faced often time trouble in slow chess, despite of being equally strong at it... he was aware it was a different business.

Thanks for all your great comments!

It gives me humility.