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Walter & Group...
[GH] From John Van Dalen, on the "Now Power 'til Midnight" for teaching and practice. The * and highlighting are mine :
Good morning Gordy!
First let me start by letting you know I'm not the best at putting on paper my thoughts.
Secondly you have to understand I will try to reduce all my instruction to the simplest concepts and terms. That being said I firmly believe there are only two things necessary to cast. ( Smooth constant acceleration to a abrupt stop,while maintaining a straight line rod tip path!).
The no power before midnight came about as a tool to get beginners to achieve SLRTP.* Using a clock face I'll tell my students to rock the forward until the rod tip is at12:00 (midnight) Then smoothly apply the power forward and down. Any power before midnight only yields a more convex rod tip path and we all know what that does. It was simple and easy for the beginners to grasp and has worked very well for me.
My roll cast instruction goes as follows:
Only three things necessary to roll cast
1) Cant the rod to the side. (about 45 degrees)
2) D-loop one rod length behind
3) Rock the rod forward to midnight then apply the power
Using these three statements while demonstrating, I've had wonderful success.
Of course there is the draw the line back slowly and stop to insure the anchor is set but I find no need to dwell on this if shown and mentioned in the demonstration.
Hopefully this answers your questions and if a clearer explanation is needed let me know.
John Van Dalen
* Straight Line Rod Tip Path
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[GH] John,
Perfectly clear to me.
I think a seamless "rocking the rod forward" to smooth application of power (force) can be done in such a way as to achieve an (almost) constant acceleration.
Using plain, simple language as you do, gets the point across to the student whether or not correct from a physics standpoint.
If I told my student to cast with "constant acceleration", I'd get nowhere.
Thanks,
Gordy
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Some answers picked from Jonathan Walters' message:
3. Do you think there are some folks to whom fly casting comes so easily and "naturally" that they can be considered "born casters" who need little practice to become experts?
I think it comes more easily to some than others, usually those who have had some physical education---I.e. athletes. I really don't believe that there is a fly casting gene!
4. What do some fly casting instructors do to be as effective as possible in getting their students to actually go out and practice after teaching sessions?
I don't really know what others do. I encourage students to practice specific tasks for 15-45 min. the very next day after the lesson, that way they will not forget (or are less likely to!) Then try to practice at least once per week. I emphasize: 1) that fly fishing is all about line control and that casting is the first step in line control; 2) casting is a physical skill like any other and will improve with practice; 3) practicing only as you fish will provide a slow learning curve littered with many spooked fish. (In Colorado, where so many people nymph fish with lob casts, the importance of casting is underestimated in my opinion.) I also try to make sure my lesson plans seem relevant to the students, or in other words will help them catch more fish or at least have fewer tangles.
[GH] We've heard the statement, "fishing is not practice". I think it can sometimes be practice when we carefully plan and then execute a difficult presentation. Once in a while, I'll "practice" that tricky presentation a few times away from the fish I've spotted .... then go back and try to catch the critter.
6. Would you recommend the same periods of time for practice for a Master candidate to prepare for his/her exam?
Take any and every chance to practice you can get, even if it is only 15 min.! Generally though one will need to practice for longer periods to get through all the tasks in depth, especially with a casting partner.
[GH] Back when I was practicing for the Master exam, my brother and our wives and I were taking a 3 day auto trip. Each time we stopped at rest stops, for gas, or lodging, I got my outfit out of the car and made several practice casts. Each was made with a specific purpose or challenge in mind.
9. "There is practice which yields lasting results slowly if ever, and practice which is highly and more rapidly productive."
" HOW you practice is more important than how often or how long you practice"
What is meant by those statements ?
Practice that is focused on a specific task or outcome, one step at a time, tends to be more productive. I may tell my wife that I am going to practice casting, but I will really be going out to practice one or more skills and focus on those. For instance, today I spent most of my time with accuracy and therein getting better at hovering the fly.
[GH] Yes. More on this coming up, soon.
12. Should you, as a Master candidate, avoid practice when it is windy?
Absolutely not! What better time to practice casting in the wind for that particular task on the exam, and a Master level performance compensate for the wind, within reason. I'll never forget the lesson a student taught me after returning from a saltwater trip that I had helped him prepare for: The guide told him "if you want to get better in the wind, you should practice in the wind." That obvious statement hit me like a slap!
[GH] Yes. Do so with wind at all 4 quadrants. Do it with wind quartering in between, too.
16. If you answered YES to 15., tell us some of the things you would try to accomplish to help perfect your distance casts.
My "electronic mentor" said in one of his e-mails "good fly casting is a result." I don't know if he knows what effect that had on me. Whenever I am not happy with a cast I try to think what fundamental thing did I screw up. It all seems to come back to the fundamentals, carried out well and in the correct sequence. Specifically for a distance cast I would check the integrity of the back cast for horizontal bottom leg, appropriate loop speed, shape and size, adequate timing or pause, and delayed rotation. The forward cast will be a mirror image analysis plus appropriate trajectory.
[GH] "Actions and consequences ! "
20. Do you practice making faulty casts?
Absolutely! It helps me and my students! This way I can demonstrate to a student what is happening with their faulty cast. We must remember that there can be as much muscle memory with a faulty cast as a good one. How many times have any of us known we made a poor cast before we even stopped the rod? Per # 16 above, I will sometimes experiment by trying to reproduce the fault in my own cast to see if my error analysis is correct. Knowing this muscle memory of a poor execution is a bit like knowing where the bear lives in the woods so you can avoid it!
[GH] Yes. Since the faulty casts you have studied and practiced are in your repertoire of techniques, you have CONTROL over them. That way, you not only can avoid them, but can bring them out to demonstrate them when needed.
23. Do you practice using different casting styles?
Yes. I have a default style, but find alteration in style, especially stance and rod angle (vertical to horizontal) helpful to have in different fishing situations and for different students. I once had to teach a retired sheet metal worker who couldn't raise his hands above his shoulders anymore how to cast like Lefty Kreh (not my default style) for his dream trip to Alaska with his daughter and son-in-law. He was afraid he would be watching most of the time and would probably give up fishing in the future. The results were gratifying for me but especially for him!
[GH] I wish I could remember who said that style is "self optimization". Perhaps one of you can fill in that blank in my memory screen. (Could it have been Al Kyte???)
It does go further than that, however, when we switch styles to suite a fishing circumstance and find that the use of a different style will help make a difficult presentation.
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