Great thread, here! Some really good suggestions from both Gail and Scott. I use ground casting as a teaching tool often. Hard to “mal track” when doing that. I recall one instructor doing what Scott does with the flat paint stuck but with a flat pizza box taped tight to a stick. In that case, the idea was that the caster could feel air resistance if the ersatz “fly rod” was moved out of plane as the arm was rotated around.
First, let’s have a description of MAL TRACKING.
Mal Tracking: Lack of parallel loop legs in the horizontal plane.
Putting it another way: Side to side separation of the legs of a loop yielding a loop which may appear to be small when seen from the side, but is very wide as seen from above or below or in front and in back.
At a Conclave several years ago, Jason Borger showed me another diagnostic trick. He was the instructor of the casting workshop. He had the participants arrange themselves in a large circle with a radius of about 40’.’ .Jason stood in the middle. He had all the students make 30’ false casts toward him. In about 2 minutes, he could pick out each one who was casting with poor back cast loops partly or largely caused by rotating the arm back and around, thus yielding gross mal tracking.
Then he proved his point by having each student do it again with instruction to make three false casts and let the third back cast fall to the ground. EACH MAL TRACKER HAD A BACK CAST LAYOUT WITH THE FLY LINE CURVING AROUND BEHIND HIM.
Easy to do on an individual basis. Simply stand just out of casting range either directly in front or directly behind the caster and observe: 1. What the line does. 2 What the rod tip did. 3 What the caster did (Body rotation, arm rotation or both).
Then confirm by having the caster allow the back cast to fall to the ground AND LEAVE IT THERE.
In keeping with Bruce Richards’ “Six Step Method”, you then reverse the process: 4. Have the caster avoid the arm and/or body rotation. 5. Note the rod tip going in a straiter line. 6. Observe the effect on the line (Hopefully good tracking of the loop) CONFIRM BY HAVING THE STUDENT DROP THE LINE ON THE “CORRECTED” BACK CAST.
Here is another trick I’ve used: I have a home in the Keys which is 13’ elevated on concrete pilings because of needed protection from rising water during hurricanes. I have stood on my deck and had my caster make casts as I stand above. Makes that rotation leading to mal tracking easy to see in a heartbeat.
Comments:
1 It can be very difficult or impossible to judge mal tracking in the horizontal plane by observing the cast from the side. Easy to see from in front or in back or from above or below.
2. Easier to avoid that mal tracking when the caster uses a vertical or almost vertical rod plane. Since many casters find that style doesn’t work well for them, I don’t see that as a “cure”.
3. For the majority of casters who use an off vertical or even an off horizontal rod plane style, I do several things:
a. For the caster who casts with the casting arm “up in the air and out to the side”, get that arm down.
b. I’ve found that Lefty Kreh’s concept of keeping the elbow on an imaginary inclined shelf helps a great deal for these casters.
c. I have had success by having the caster watch each back cast ‘till the problem is solved and go back to doing that often. I have him pick an object such as the edge of a building, a tree, a light pole, or even a cloud which is 180 degrees in line with the target line in front. The caster now has TWO TARGETS. ONE IN FRONT AND THE OTHER BEHIND. He’s instructed to make a back cast directly to the cloud or structure behind and then a forward cast to the target in front. By doing this repeatedly, those loops start tracking well.
Once the tracking problem is reduced or eliminated, then we get back to controlling the size of the loops by several maneuvers:
1. Correct any overuse of the wrist. (Many ways of doing this.)
2. Having the casting arc come closer to matching the rod bend.
3. Dealing with where the rod tip is with respect to the oncoming line at the point of loop formation.
4. Avoiding tearing the loop open with a wimpy stop and a dropping rod tip.
Here is a message I sent to a CCI candidate I’m mentoring ;-
“I first experienced the technique of watching my casting arm with a rod handle in a side mounted mirror when I took Joan Wulff’s course for casting instructors at her place at Lew Beach, N.Y. about 15 years ago. She was concentrating on wrist positions at the end of the back cast and at the conclusion of the forward cast.
Here is another one which I forgot to teach you:
Start the back cast pickup with the butt of your fly rod actually making a dent in the volar side of your forearm. You delay rotation of the rod a bit by not releasing it from that position until you are very close to the termination of your back cast just before the stop. This helps in keeping the rod tip from dipping down too far from the oncoming line. For some casters it works well for tightening up that back cast loop as seen in the vertical plane.
I use that, ”forearm dent pressure” when I want good back cast loops while fly casting with tarpon tackle in the pre-dawn dark. Gives me better presentations and fewer tangles and other screw-ups which are so common when casting in the dark. Also, gives me smoother pickups when I can’t see the line on the water in front of me.
Lots of self teaching tricks and techniques.
When you think about it, in the end, the student gets best results when she takes what she learned from her instructor and uses that information to teach herself with repetitive practice after each teaching session and beyond.
I still do that. When I make a bad cast or two, I go back to basics, shorten my line, and teach myself what I already have learned to self improve.”
“I first experienced the technique of watching my casting arm with a rod handle in a side mounted mirror when I took Joan Wulff’s course for casting instructors at her place at Lew Beach, N.Y. about 15 years ago. She was concentrating on wrist positions at the end of the back cast and at the conclusion of the forward cast.
Here is another one which I forgot to teach you:
Start the back cast pickup with the butt of your fly rod actually making a dent in the volar side of your forearm. You delay rotation of the rod a bit by not releasing it from that position until you are very close to the termination of your back cast just before the stop. This helps in keeping the rod tip from dipping down too far from the oncoming line. For some casters it works well for tightening up that back cast loop as seen in the vertical plane.
I use that, ”forearm dent pressure” when I want good back cast loops while fly casting with tarpon tackle in the pre-dawn dark. Gives me better presentations and fewer tangles and other screw-ups which are so common when casting in the dark. Also, gives me smoother pickups when I can’t see the line on the water in front of me.
Lots of self teaching tricks and techniques.
When you think about it, in the end, the student gets best results when she takes what she learned from her instructor and uses that information to teach herself with repetitive practice after each teaching session and beyond.
I still do that. When I make a bad cast or two, I go back to basics, shorten my line, and teach myself what I already have learned to self improve.”
Gordy