Walter & Group....
From Troy Miller My comments in his text in red :-
Agree with most of this thread, Gordy. One thing I would challenge is the concept that the major benefit of the early translational movement is to remove slack. I would contend that the main benefit is to gain some velocity in the line and load in the rod before employing the rotation. It’s precisely the reason that the microsecond wrist cast will NEVER be able to achieve 100 ft cast with a 5-wt. No human wrist can impart that much energy using rotation only. Even on the very longest casts with a single hand rod, you would (hopefully) not have more than 6 inches to a foot of slack to remove. The translational movement will likely result in 4 or more feet of linear displacement, meaning the slack has long since tightened up by the time rotation kicks in.
That was my impression, too. Bruce Richards, however, felt strongly that the major effect of translation was the removal of slack. Might well depend upon how much slack is present. I looked at it as part of the loading move as well.
As I watch the back casts of some of the best distance casters, I see a sag in the line which may represent more slack than I formerly thought. I can actually see this being taken up as the loading move is performed with translational movement. Looks to me as though both loading and slack removal are happening at the same time.
For illustration, let’s say we have 50 feet of flyline out of the tip. To do the required work (causing the loop to unroll fully and deliver the fly to the target), a certain minimum input energy will be required. You can say that since energy is a function of mass and velocity, that the variable is velocity (constant mass). So at the time the loop is launched, say we need the line speed to be XX mph. If it’s moving that fast, and the loop shape is adequately efficient, the loop will unroll. If we only use rotational motion, the flyline has to go from 0 mph to XX mph from purely pivoting about the fulcrum (wrist).
Agree. Rotational movement alone works OK only for short casts. Even so, some translational movement helps. Looking at it simply, it's easier to gain greater tip speed if you start the rotation having already gained some speed.
Now say we use a combination of translational and rotational movements. If we initiate flyline movement by first translating the rod (arc not changing appreciably), we can go from 0 mph to maybe ¼ XX mph BEFORE beginning the major rotational phase. Then we smoothly transition from translating the rod to rotating the rod, increasing the line speed with the best linear acceleration we can achieve. The transition phase may take us from ¼ XX mph to ½ XX mph, and then the purely rotational phase (very little translation left) would give us that final burst of speed from ½ XX mph to XX mph. The smoothest, most graceful casters DO NOT limit any joints, bones, or muscles from contributing to the cast. They simply CONTROL the movements very precisely, learned through critical observation and cause/effect analysis.
Yes. That helps smooth out the cast and points out that translational movememt can contribute to ultimate tip speed which translates to greater line speed.
It seems to me that the most important function of translational movement (at least when casting longer distances) is to break the inertia of the static flyline that’s hanging in the air. Getting it moving in the right direction at some velocity is valuable in allowing the caster to gain maximum benefit of the rotational phase while maintaining SLP.
Well....any movement of the rod tip in the direction of the cast whether rotational or translational will break that inertia . Won't do it well in either case if slack remains, however. Using translation to gain more benefit from the rotational phase is a plus, I think. Longer translation before rotation has also been observed to yield more consistantly tight loops. I think it does that by maintaining better control of SLP.
Gordy
Regards -- TAM
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Gordon Hill
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