Walter & Group...
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TEACHING KIDS
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From David Lambert :
Gordy-
Regarding the fly fishing in the schools program:
One of
the better researched of those programs is First Cast, assembled and
published complete by Phil Genova. Phil's is a full classroom curriculum and
text -- everything you need to present to your board of education, including
handouts, and (inexpensive) equipment order form. Cortland underwrote this
program for years and took Phil on as a PR guy and education spec. This is
customizable from elementary school through community college.
I had the
pleasure of talking about this program with Phil when he was doing it at
Cornell; I employed parts of it in my 10 or so years as FFF-SEC Youth Chair.
Gary LaFountaine often highly praised Phil's program. Unfortunately, Phil
Genova died unexpectedly in 2002 after a day of fishing (in the Keys I
think!).
But his wonder, well conceived, useful program lives on thanks
to TU and Cortland and it's all available as free downloads from TU, or I have
the original complete syllabus and curriculum from Phil I'd pass along in
pdf. The TU web address is: http://www.tu.org/about-us/education/youth-education/first-cast-program
Merry
Christmas and fine holidays to all you princes of the casting
universe.
David
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David...
Many thanks. I did scan it via the TU web address.
I'll review it in detail after my new order for the book comes in.
More info, for those interested in purchasing this book:
FIRST CAST - Teaching Kids To Fly Cast, Phil Genova, 1998, 320 pp., Stackpole Books. ISBN 13: 978-0811727617. (Available through Amazon, Google Books, Barnes & Noble .....& others. )
I'll also review another :
A KID'S GUIDE TO FLYFISHING, Tyler Befus, ISBN 155566394X.
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TEACHING THE STOP
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Good question from Mark Surtees :
Hi
Gordy
Re
Teaching the stop.
If
a student is struggling with stops, tracking and drift whilst they are using
their dominant hand why would you take them over to the non dominant hand to
rectify their problem ?
My
understanding , so far, has been that non-dominant hand casting is a very useful
tool for instructor to instructor understanding of the bio-mechanical
difficulties encountered by students when dealing with stops etc. but is a
potentially demoralizing mental step backwards for the student if you were to
ask them to do this during a lesson.
Mark
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Mark:
One reason is this:
Students will oft have "built in" faulty muscle memory as they cast while repeatedly making the same errors . Almost as thought they are casting on "autopilot".
By having them switch temporarily to the non-dominent hand, it makes them think about each and every move. There is no "autopilot" so to speak leading them to repeat the error they have had when casting with the dominent hand.
Once the correct casting moves are made that way, they can sometimes transfer the newly aquired moves back to the dominent hand.
Just one more tool in the bag of tricks. As with any tool, it doesn't always work.
You raise a good point about the demoralizing effect. For some students it might well be seen as a "step backward" .... but sometimes this is helpful as a move back to basics since it is brief and for a stated purpose.
You are also correct in stating that this is best used as an instructor to instructor tool. Taking it one step further, it is valuable as a knowledgable instructor uses it as a tool for self improvement in teaching himself. As I make faulty casts I use various means of self improvement almost all of them including some form of shortening my cast and going back to basics.
Others who use this tool may have more to say.
Gordy
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