Hi All
I have enjoyed and have learned from the responses to the video exercise.
Lewis Hinks and I are making plans to do more of these in the spring. Casting in the snow and cold winds of Eastern Canada is not something we are up too. The next time we video we will plan to do it in segments and we can all watch as the student progresses.
Our FFF community of casting instructors CI's, MCI's and THCI's are a group of friends that are important to me, even if we have never met. We are not only the teachers but the learners and the communicators that the program needs. Thanks to Gordy who facilitates, edits, corrects, comments and who is willing to contribute hours each day to the study group.
I couldn't express it better than Jim Valle "I certainly found some new perspectives. I find it really impressive to see how much Passion and Professionalism we as instructors invest in our casting instruction. There is no doubt that the FFF CI program attracts the very best in the industry. Thanks to each and every one of you in the group" [JV]
Now the video wrap: During my many years of teaching I have found one of the most difficult casting problems for any instructor to pick up on, is 'creep', and it can be a very subtle move . Our student in the video exercise is a creeper. Creep: any forward motion of the body, or rod hand prior to the back cast loading constitutes creep (my definition). Our student needs a correction here very early in the exercise, we can fix the line control, wrist movement even the 'pause' but if he continues to move his body forward too early he will never get the proper 'rod load' or 'stroke'. In particular note the premature forward body motion at seconds .06 .12 .36 and .43.
Strangely, when we held the body back the student cast pretty good ! To do this we had the student move to the back foot then to the front foot, first without line, just the rod, then with line. . Also, standing just to the line hand side of the student, I put my hand on his shoulder easing him back, then not letting him move to the front foot until he came with the cast, not ahead of it.
Bruce Richards makes this point very clear:
"The six steps analyze the cause of the problem from "top to bottom", then the cure of the problem from "bottom to top". The first step of the CAUSE is describing to the student what is wrong with the (1)LINE. The next step is to explain what the (2)ROD is doing to cause the line problem. The last step of the cause analysis is to explain what the (3)BODY (usually hand/wrist/arm) is doing to make the rod and line misbehave.
The CURE part of the process tackles the same steps, but in reverse, "bottom to top" order. First, explain what to do differently with the (4)BODY. Next describe what this makes the (5)ROD do differently, and then how that affects the (6)LINE to get the desired results." [BR].
I'm sure Bruce would not object with my expansion of the 'cure' process. CURE should begin at the feet, legs, upper body, arm, wrist, then hand. Many of us start a new caster with stance !! Well go figure !
We left our student with a few exercises and notes for his practice reference. When he returns in the spring we will see how our 2 hour lesson and practice plan worked ! AND we will solicit comments from the student as to what worked best for him and when and if the 'light bulb' lit up.
To our American friends 'Happy Thanksgiving' (we have ours in early October, before the turkey freezes)
Dennis
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[GH] Dennis,
My personal thanks for coming up with a masterful teaching exercise !
We'll all look forward to Spring and your warmer weather followup.
Gordy
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