Practice: Roll casts / Teaching language

Shortly after we launched this Study Group, those of you who have been with us for years will remember that we had many sessions on casting practice tips and methods. I'm thinking of updating that information in the near future by having our many members of recent years offer their ideas and experiences.

Gordy

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OK.... Let's run with the ball.

Question: Tell us your method(s) of practicing ROLL CASTS.

1.) For loop control .

2.) Accuracy.

3.) Distance.

4.) Change of direction.

5.) Keeping tight roll cast loops LOW. (As in placing tight loops below a branch no higher than 5' above the ground.)

Gordy

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Language for teaching

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Lefty Kreh is well known for teaching fly casting with the use of plain language. This comment from him:-

Gordy--More than 25 years ago I stopped using the word POWER---I found with novice and pretty good casters that when asked to apply more power--they over-powered the cast. Instead I asked them for more speed--and their cast becomes immediately smoother.

I think how we say things is important and the less technical the better.

I also stopped using the word PLANE--some thought I was talking about an airplane. Instead telling them during the stroke to keep the rod hand level or at the same height--makes more sense to everyone--plane not so.

I really think a good project would be to list the names we use in teaching and then see if we can come up with better ones EVERY student understands. I am sure one reason youngster don't grasp things as quickly is we don't use easy to understand expressions. On example is that we teach a principle that say you must get slack out of the line before you can cast. Sure works better for me to tell the student he has to move the end of the line before he can cast--that he can see.

Lefty

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There's a challenge. Let's start with the words to describe "LINE PLANE" and see what word or word combo. might be best when teaching fly casting to non scientific students. I'll start with a couple of suggestions:

# TRAJECTORY.

# LAUNCH ANGLE.

# AIM IT HIGH / AIM IT LOW.

# GO FOR THE SKY / GO FOR THE WATER.

# KEEP A STRAIGHT LINE BETWEEN YOUR BACK CAST AND YOUR FORWARD CAST.

# CAST BACK AND UP.

(I'll bet some of you can come up with some better simple terms.)

Gordy