I just read and responded to Gordy's more recent E-mail because I'm
going through recent E-mails in a backwards timeline. That message
will explain the delay. I don't//won't feel bad about you explaining
things. For myself, since I am very informed on these matters, I feel
your phrasing in the message is excellent and will eventually borrow from
it. Go ahead and jump in because you are exactly right in the
information below and it is, in my mind, hard to stand by with inaccurate
descriptions and explanations being employed in teaching. I feel bad
about not being able to find the time to write. By the way, I agree
completely with your ideas on how students benefit from instruction in spite
of the instruction not being accurate. The body is a marvelous
feedback control system, especially for the more athletically gifted
individuals. The eyes know when things are improved and the
body acknowledges the improvement.
I understand your desire to explain and I say go ahead and do
it.
Server,
Any progress on your paper?
I don't want to be a pain but the more I think about it the more I
realize that a great deal of casting
dogma is based on the erroneous concept that you must stop the rod or
else energy stored in the rod
will be lost. I've seen/heard a lot of discussion that tries to
reinforce this concept and it impedes our
understanding of other areas of casting mechanics.
I remember taking a class that Jason Borger gave at a conclave a
few years ago. As you probably
know Jason allows his rod to unload and then follows through very
smoothly to where the rod is nearly
horizontal. A beginner trying to see where Jason has "stopped"
his rod during his stroke is left very
confused. Jason's explanation was that advanced casters are able to
stop the rod so that it unloads
and then carry on into drift or lay back so quickly and smoothly that
the untrained eye is unable to see
the stop but that it was clearly visible to a high speed camera.
I realize now that Jason's stroke (and that of many other advanced
casters) consists of accelerating to peak
speed and rod load and then the "stop" really means "stop
accelerating" at which time the rod unloads even
though the caster's hand never stops until much later (often when the
rod has reached horizontal). A beginner
or intermediate caster trying to emulate the stroke can't understand
why when they stop the rod in an
almost horizontal position they just get a large inefficient loop and
the wrong trajectory. Unfortunately, what I
see is that the instructor then takes one of two approaches. If they
are what I would call a "Sexylooper" they
tell the student about the stopless cast along with a lot of bad
theory to explain it but the truth is that the
gut busting acceleration these guys use just means they have an
almost slp over an extreme casting arc.
If the instructor is more of a traditionalist they get the student to
narrow their casting arc forcing them to
a complete stop and then drift. The student will either develop a
style with a distinct stop followed by drift
which will probably result in shock waves in the line and
shoulder injuries as they strive for greater distance
or they will unconsciously reach a point where they stop accelerating
rather than dead stopping the rod
as it unloads and then continue smoothly to
drift.
I think a lot of casters instinctively understand what is happening
and it shows in their instruction. Bruce
Richards, for example, gets the student to use less
and less effort to cast the same distance. Instinctively
I think this gets the student to develop a smooth stroke in
which the rod unload happens naturally and
the caster can then follow through with a nice effortless drift. The
Sexyloops guys keep talking about the
stopless cast which is partly correct but then they try to
minimize the importance of rod unloading and
have started to develop all kinds of wierd theories about loop
formation.
What it all boils down to is that I feel it's important that this
discussion gets out the greater fly casting
community. I also want to make sure you get credit
for bringing this out so I've personally been holding
back from some discussions that might lead to discussions about the
stop.
So, again, if there is anything I can do to help, please let me
know.
Thanks
Walter
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Saturday, April 04, 2009 1:43
PM
Subject: Re: Casting
Equations
In a message dated 4/3/2009 12:53:48 P.M. Mountain Daylight Time,
simbirsw@xxxxxxx writes:
Walter,
I haven't had any opportunity to work with my notes - put them into
coherent language and such. But I hope to get on that soon.
I hope you don't mind me using the phraseology in your message below
because it captures the essence of what I was trying to say.
Always helpful to have someone's statement of points that are trying to
be articulated.
We have been visiting our daughter for several weeks and still
haven't put things back together around our own home.
Best regards- Server
,
Eagerly awaiting your paper here. Hope it's going well.
The idea that there is nothing that the caster can do nothing to
prevent the rod from
unloading should make for some interesting conversation.
I really don't know why I didn't see that before since the only
thing that is going to stop
the rod from unloading is continued acceleration and since
there are physical limits to how long a
person can continue to apply acceleration the rod is going to
unload and there is no way to prevent
it. The only things we can do at that point is to control the
path of the rod tip and maintain a firm grip.
Cheers
Walter