Practice / Analyzer / Bamboo

Walter & Group........

From Rick Whorwood:

Hi Gordy

Happy /08.

I was just on a guitar site reading a post about a book, This is Your Brain on Music, by Danial Levitin.

The post states that he writes in his book, to become a master at any given (music, sport etc.) it takes 10.000 hours. That I believe is three hours a day for ten years. Levitin is a scientist. It would be an interesting read.

 

He also found in his studies, that practice out weighed talent every time, in study groups the people who spent more time practicing end up better in their chosen field.

 

Rick Whorwood's
Fly Casting School
www.flycastingschool.com
(905)-662-8999

 

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Rick...   Well if you were to add all the experience fly casting, teaching, coaching and practice of past years to the concentrated efforts between gaining CCI status and MCCI achievement, perhaps it would add up to 10,000 hours ! 

In general, I think he may be correct in stating that practice out weighed talent.  That is not always true.  I'll bet that if I practiced 10 times as much and as often as Steve Rajeff, he'd still out cast me by a wide margin !

Despite this, I remember fishing with Steve one day, years ago, when he told me about a tournament in which he disappointed himself ..... said,  "I hadn't practiced enough and wasn't in the buff."

Gordy

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From Jerry Puckett :    (I've highlighted what I feel is an important statement in his text))

Gordy,

 

A couple of thoughts on the analyzer.  DR. Sid of Mississippi helped me more than any other to benefit from the casting analyzer.   He could interrupt the results as well as anyone I have seen to date.  He pointed out some real subtle information that improved my cast, to name one, my stop on the back cast was weak when compared to the forward cast.  Nothing profound here in the discovery but enough to help me improved my cast and make it more balanced.   So my point is the one doing the interpreting has a lot to do with the success of the C.A.  There is no doubt in my mind that this is a good teaching tool for the cast for which it is designed, namely around a 40 foot cast.

 

Down the road it shall be interesting to see if one can be developed that helps with all the different styles of a long cast.  Knowing Bruce and Noel that will come in time!

 

Not meaning to change the topic but Dr. Robert Shigley and I were having a discussion and was wondering if you knew if anyone who had taken a CCI or Masters test with a Bamboo Rod?  My experience with a Bamboo rod is limited to one rod with a silk line.  How would you describe rod action of a Bamboo rod,  Do they have the range where soft, medium or stiff would apply?  In other words, just how useful would a Bamboo Rod be for testing purposes?  Again, thanks for your efforts on this study group and have a great year!

 

Jerry Puckett

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Jerry:  Your point about the interpretation of the Casting Analyzer data is well taken, and fits with what we learned from Ally Gowens experiences.  No instrument alone can make a good surgeon and none can make an expert teacher.  The best tools don't make an expert carpenter, either.

I know of no one who has taken either test using a bamboo rod.  I'll bet someone has done it, however.

Bamboo rods are usually of soft action.  Some have a parabolic profile.  I have one which was made for me by Bob Sholiton (Chicago Fishing Club) for catching baby tarpon .... a 7 1/2'  ONE PIECE (no ferrule) 5 Wt. bamboo rod with surprisingly fast action.  Tom White used it one day and passed every MCCI task just fine ....... so it CAN be done.

As you read THE LIFE OF A FLY FISHER, by Charles Ritz and the voluminous writings on bamboo rod actions in Ernie Schwiebert's, TROUT you can see that a great deal of effort was placed on designing bamboo rods with different flexion profiles.

Having said that, I'll tell you that even though we used nothing but bamboo rods in the salt back in the '30's and '40's, I cannnot claim to be an expert on these rods.  (I remember very well, however, that the salt ruined every ferrule and often changed the stiffness of those rods.)

I'll defer to those, including  Al Crise, who know a world more than I do about bamboo to answer your question.

Gordy