Category: Teaching

Practice with a purpose

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We’ve talked about training rather than straining in order to avoid becoming injured. The next advice in the area of practice is learning to practice with a purpose. The goal is to make the most of your training sessions by continuing to avoid injury and to practice the things you need to practice in order to advance your skills. The things to keep in mind when practicing with a purpose are:

  • Set up a plan and stick to it. If you are going to practice your accuracy casts regularly then don’t let yourself get sidetracked by beginning every lesson with distance casting.
  • Concentrate on the things you need to improve, not the things you are already very good at. Each of us will be different in this respect although virtually everyone will begin with learning to control their loops. Are you able to consistently cast over 85 feet and make it look easy but can’t seem to hit a target? Then you should probably spend most of your time practicing accuracy rather than distance.
  • Start every practice session with some warm up drills. Make sure you are stretched and warmed up before getting into the practice session.
  • Vary your practicing and forget what the test requires. Instead of setting up targets at 30, 40 and 50 feet try setting up targets at different distances and at different angles rather than just on top of your tape. If you can consistently hit targets at any distance up to 50 feet then you will have a lot more confidence in your ability to perform this task during the test. Some of my fellows take a number of tennis balls and toss them out onto the field as their targets for their practice session.
  • Don’t worry about meeting the minimum requirements of a task but concentrate on meeting the requirements with ease. You are required to cast 85 feet – is that your personal best? If so, then don’t count on adrenaline to get you across the line in the test. Continue practicing until you can hit 90 or 95 feet consistently with minimal effort and with the line landing straight.
  • If one of your casts is giving you a problem then break it down into smaller parts and identify the things that are giving you problems. Fix these items and then put it all back together. You might recognize this as a form of Whole-Part-Whole. It works for your students and it works for you as well.
  • Work with your mentor to identify the areas to concentrate on and what sort of practice drills might help you fix an issue. Revisit the Baker’s dozen and see how they apply to practicing with a purpose.
  • Set aside a time to practice each day stick to it. If you set a regular time you are more likely to stick to practicing each day. Make sure people know that this is your time for practice and that you should not be disturbed. But don’t let your schedule become too much of a habit – vary your times on occasion. If you become mentally conditioned to making your best efforts at a certain time of day you may find your test time is not optimal for you.
  • Make sure you revisit the things you don’t concentrate on regularly to ensure you continue to improve or don’t backslide in those areas.
  • Train. Don’t strain.

Preparing for a casting certification test can be difficult because you need to practice a broad range of skills and it can be hard concentrate on one or two things. When I first began working towards becoming a certified instructor I printed out the performance test, took it to the field and worked my way through each task every time I practiced. After a couple of weeks I found that I spent about 10 minutes each session running through the parts of the test I felt mildly interested in and then spent the rest of my session trying to see if my distance cast had somehow improved from the previous day. Instead of my casting improving it became very sloppy. My loops were large and I was constantly ticking the grass. I was in no condition to attempt the test. At some point I decided that if I was going to pass the test I needed to concentrate on what was really required. Instead of spending every day trying to cast farther I concentrated on increasing the distance for which I had good loop control. If I started each session and found that I could easily handle the distance from the previous day then I added 1 or 2 feet for that session – no more than that. If I felt the loops weren’t up to my satisfaction I shortened the line until I felt I was back in control. By changing my practice methods I found that within a few weeks my casting, and my best distance, improved significantly. It takes patience but it pays off in the long run. Instead of running through the test every day you should run through it every few weeks to identify what things you need to concentrate on for the upcoming weeks. Select a limited number of items you think you can improve and stick to those.

One more tip – review your equipment regularly as well. Make sure you are getting the performance you need from the equipment you have selected and that it is kept in peak form.

Train Don’t Strain

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We tend to think of fly casting as a low stress physical activity so the likelihood of injury is low (with the exception of being hit with a hook perhaps) but in reality injured wrists, elbows and shoulders among those who are preparing for their master certification are quite common. Most candidates will spend a year or more practicing for an hour or more each day as they prepare for the test. This typically leads to injuries that are gradual onset in nature but sudden onset injuries happen as well. If you have spent several months preparing it is hard to back off when an injury occurs. It is also common to increase practice sessions significantly as the test draws near.

In order to prevent injuries there are some precautions you should take:

  • warm up prior to practicing. Begin with stretching, short casting, or light resistance exercise.
  • stay within your capabilities. If you’ve never cast anything heavier than a 5 weight rod don’t jump to a 13 weight to increase your strength. When practicing distance casting try to maintain good form rather than attempt to hit a new personal best in every workout.
  •  increase your workouts gradually. Add a few minutes to your workout each week or increase rod weight gradually over the course of several weeks or months. Don’t be fooled here – you may feel fine after adding 15 minutes or a half hour to your regular practice sessions but remember that many of the injuries you will experience are gradual onset in nature. It may take days or weeks before you begin to experience pain and by then it may be too late to simply back off.
  • don’t train to your maximum every day. It’s tempting to finish every practice session by seeing how far you can cast but you will do better by limiting these sessions to once or twice per week.
  • aim for smoothness and avoid jerky movements.

Learn to take frequent breaks. If you experience pain then it’s time to call it a day. If the pain persists for a few days then you should consider seeing your doctor.

Finally, if you do experience an injury, you should book a few sessions with a casting instructor after your recovery to get advice on things you may be doing wrong.

Stay healthy and enjoy the journey.

Teaching Old Dogs New Tricks – by Dayle Mazzarella

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I received the following from Steve Smith: [SS] Walter great article today in the Globe and Mail about teaching. It is in the Globe life section Mon.Mar.9th.They are talking about skiing but it could be any sport. It starts with are you a watcher, thinker, feeler or doer. I don’t know how to copy it and share (as I get it electronically ) but I’m sure you do, anyways it is a good read. Steve [WS] Thanks Steve! The article can be found by clicking on this link: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/health-and-fitness/fitness/tremblant-ski-school-teaches-old-dogs-new-tricks/article23338383/ I asked our resident expert on teaching theory, Dayle Mazzarella, for his thoughts about this article. Here is what he had to say: [DM] I’ve a few things! 1. The Canadian Ski article

a) Roger Castonguay’s “style” of teaching by his own admission, only works with very advanced or very talented individuals. That is not a style of teaching anyone should emulate. It is seriously limited in its effectiveness.

b) Anyone can learn using Kathy Prophet’s “style” – including the people Roger can reach. Her style, which is organized, sequential, and detailed, works with anyone.

c) A style that reaches only a relatively small percentage of the population is like having a cast that only reaches a few of the potential fish. Would we teach it?

The paragraph “There is not empirical evidence supporting … matching learning style and teaching style” is supported by the attached article, “Are Learning Styles a Symptom of Education’s Ills”. [WS] See attached document at end of this article[WS] 2. Style vs Substance: Whole – Part – Whole Teaching is virtually the only methodology supported by research insuring optimal learning for all students. Following is the substance of good teaching embodied in a whole-part-whole methodology:  (How one does this is style.)

a) Explain and/or demonstrate what you want the student to know or do by the time the lesson is done.  (How one does this is style.)

b) Explain and/or demonstrate what past knowledge and/or skill will be used as a building block. Explain and/or demonstrate how the  new skill will be used in the future. This is called motivation – “what’s in it for me” and “what do I know that will help me do this more easily and make it less intimidating”. (Often referred to as the anticipatory set.) The whole is completed, putting the parts to follow in context.  (How one does this is style.)

c) Break the skill and/or knowledge down into as many separate components as possible – (structured practice). Explain and/or demonstrate each step separately in a sequential manner.   ( How one does this is style.)

d) Now have the student do each of the steps in a very closely controlled environment so that errors are minimized. This step is usually, in the case of casting, done by having the student pantomime the steps with the instructor. For most students, this step requires lots of repetitions.  ( How one does this is style.)

e) Now have the student teach those steps to someone.

f) Have the student “put it all together”. Students begin putting it all together so that each step “flows” seamlessly into the next.  Do the “whole” skill.

g) Have the student practice the new skill 7 or 8 times over the next several days.

Style is how one does those steps! It is about what analogies one uses, which props, which “tools” in their bag they use while following the basic sequence. For instance, in the structured practice, an instructor may choose to have the student use a rod and line, a rod with no line, half a rod, a pool noodle, a paint brush, a pencil, etc…. The instructor may use pantomime, or have the student simultaneously do the steps with the instructor. These are examples of style. Following the basic steps above are not style issues for someone who wishes to become an exceptional teacher, any more than the 5 Essentials are style issues for those aspiring to become optimal casters. Every piece of research we have in the past 30 years continues to support the above methodology as the basis for optimal instruction. Virtually every successful coach in any sport, from high school to professionals, follow these basic principles of good instruction. Dayle [WS] Thanks Dayle and Steve! The document mentioned by Dayle can be found below: [embeddoc url=”http://wildoutfitting.com/testwp4920/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/LearningStylesResearch.pdf” viewer=”google”]

Mentoring Rubrics by Dayle Mazzarella

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The attached rubric is meant to be a mentoring rubric, not necessarily one used during actual examination.

1. The “Pass” categories are very rigorously scored. When coaching, it is important to prepare the student for every possible testing situation. For some of the tasks there are multiple interpretations of what constitutes the expectations. In addition, even when the general interpretational is similar, different examiners have differing view of the relative importance of various components of a given task. For instance, some are considerably more concerned about the quality of the pick- up than are others.

I have no doubt that scoring “Borderline” on many tasks would pass – depending on the examiner.
The point is, if a candidate can hit a passing score on this rubric, it means ALL examiners would pass him/her. When preparing athletes for competition, a coach prepares his/her athletes for the most biased referees, the stiffest possible competition, the worst weather, etc. We need to do the same when preparing for a test or mentoring candidates. Candidates need to be ready for any and all expectations.

2. This rubric represents my personal interpretation of the tasks and my observations after participating in, or observing, the examination of 15 or so MCI candidates. (around 30 different examiners)

3. This is not an officially sanctioned IFFF document. It is meant solely  as a tool that some may find useful in mentoring candidates and/or preparing for the exam.

4. Remember: A rubric is nothing more than a checklist with the addition of relative values assigned to different components of the check list. The values assigned in this rubric reflect a conglomerate of those I have observed.

Feel free to modify the rubric as you see fit, but don’t make it “easier” or you will not be prepared for any and all possible testing environments.

Have fun, and comments are welcomed.

Dayle

To zoom in or to view the document in full page mode move your cursor over the upper right corner of the embedded document viewer below and select the desired option. The document can also be downloaded by  right-clicking  here  and selecting save or save as.

[embeddoc url=”http://wildoutfitting.com/testwp4920/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/MCI-Mentoring-Rubrics-1-19.pdf” download=”none”]

 

Teaching and Casting by Lefty Kreh

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I’m left handed but the Nuns made you write with your right hand. Joe Brooks gave me my first casting lesson in the late 1940s—left town the next day I didn’t want to know why!

For some years I cast left hand-but as I began teaching casting I realized that a good instructors must posses three criteria and I think few do—that is not meant to be egotistical. The three requirements are

(1) You never display your casting knowledge—you share it.

(2) You must be able to cast with either hand. The best way for students to understand what the hand is doing is for the instructor to get behind, take their hand and make the correct strokes. A right hand instructor holding one who is left handed will not make the same smooth moves.

(3) A good instructor should be able to make many, many bad casts. It is here where I feel so many instructors who are caring and sincere fall down. They make statements simply not true. UNLESS YOU CAN MAKE A BAD CAST YOUR REALLY DON’T UNDERSTAND HOW IT’S MADE. If  student has a casting a fault and you show him you can cast with the same fault but then cast and eliminate it—he knows two things—what’s really wrong and you can show him how to correct it.

After a good many years I feel I have conformed to the above three.

Because I learned early to use either hand equally well casting it became a real asset to teaching and fishing.

 
Many years ago my lady asked me to flip our mattress a routine procedure in our marriage. She was on one side of the double bed and I was on the other. Spreading my arms I reached down grabbed the heavy mattress and flipped it over. She could hear from the other side as almost all of bicep muscle tore loose from the elbow. The doctor said I tore if off, which I knew. He knew me well and said if reattached it will be four months in a sling and three to four months of therapy. “Lefty, I watch you and you seem to be able to something as well with either hand. I would suggest you just let it heal and realize you’ll be limited in what you can do with the left one.”

 
I can cast as far with my left hand as I can with my right but it quickly develops a charley horse. During clinics and demos I often switch hands to show something.

You said that  I “have a style.” I don’t have a style. When fly fishing there is no one way to cast. If I’m up against a vertical wall of trees on a trout stream, I put the rod tip at the surface, my thumb is underneath the rod hand with the elbow elevated and I then can throw the fly line straight vertically as the cast ends the rod hand is turned and I direct the cast to the target. If I am in a confined are on a stream using a 9 foot rod. I will slide two feet of the rod behind me grasp the rod at the butt guide allowing me to fish a 7-foot rod in tight quarters and as the cast ends I’ll hold the rod by the handle to fish the fly. Two years ago I was with Ed Jaworowski on a Penn. mountain stream at a private club. There was a large trout rising along the far bank. The cast called for making two different casts (styles). Behind me was a tall fir tree with the lowest branches at least 10 feet from the ground. In front of me was a narrow vertical gap in the trees. A low side cast was made before the cast unrolled behind me I brought the rod to the vertical plane and delivered the forward cast. Since I wanted the leader to fall with slack I towered the vertical forward cast to obtain that slack. It fell two feet in front of the fish. As the fly neared he sucked it it and I had Ed net what they told me was the largest brown ever saw caught at the club. I don’t mean this to be bragging. I’m trying to emphasize there is no one way to cast and to catch that brown trout it required two separate “styles” of casting.

 
I have fished several times in New Guinea, more times in the Amazon and other wild places where there are fish. I have never seen a native cast like most instructors——————unless he was taught by a white man. Go to the Bahamas and spend time bonefishing with a local guide—most can throw the full fly line with little effort. That is because they have to buck the wind and there is nothing around that might  foul the cast and they all use what many call my style. NO. They are instinctively using a natural motion the way their forefathers or a New Guinea native would throw a spear.
My concept for teaching for many years is to teach what a person would do naturally—and I know it conflicts with the method that was developed centuries ago with a rod with no reel and short horsehair line on small stream and it’s much different today. We need a different approach. THERE IS NO SPORT EXCEPT FLY CASTING THAT SUGGESTS YOU USE ONLY YOUR ARM AND WRIST. Everyone uses their body to play ping-pong or throw a Frisbee.

 
I teach four principles, which I developed in the early 1970’s and published them in my saltwater book in the mid 1980s. I can send you those principles if you like and the three aids to casting that have worked wondrously well for my students. (WS-  Lefty did send me these and I will include them in another post).

Comments on The Roll Cast by Lefty Kreh

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I saw the Federation book and the principles—I think they are mostly correct. But the same book shows making a roll cast where the rod tip is delivered directly at the surface so the photo shows the angler throwing the line around a big circle—wasting most of the cast’s energy. You change the back roll cast because you can’t make a regular backcast—you should never change the regular forward cast since it delivers energy and line in the at the target.

LeftyKrehRollCast

Teaching by Lefty Kreh

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Recently I had an opportunity down south to teach a class where a young lady who never held a fly rod asked for instructions.
I did not start by teaching the dynamics of loop control or confuse her with words like loading the rod, etc. I gave simple instruction how to place her feet, pivot the body and required arm motions. I try to teach what she might instinctively do if she never had instructions. For the backcast  I handed are a small toy asking her to throw it sideways up a hill to me. The first attempts she stopped her and hand in the wrong direction and the toy didn’t come to me.I explained that would be the direction your fly line would have gone. Soon  she began stopping her arm and hand so the toy traveled toward me. I got behind and took her hand telling her to look at the tip of the rod and I began false casting suggesting she try to make the line crash into the rod.
I made sure each time she took the rod well back so the tip followed a curve path and when she attempted to hit the line on the rod she created a tight loop. After a minute or two helping her I had her try it alone. She threw perfect loops.
Then placing the line on the grass I repeated the procedure but taught her to pull on the line during acceleration. In perhaps three or four  minutes  she was making perfect double hauls. I had her false casting. In 15 minutes this lady who never held a fly rod before was throwing tight loops and false casting and with a big grin. I have done this many time over the years.
I have been teaching casting since the 1950s and I think it’s wonderful for the instructor to know mathematics, physics, etc,. But I think most instructors want to learn down to earth techniques that will help them teach.

Teaching Principles – The Baker’s Dozen by Dayle Mazzarella

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The Baker’s Dozen Rules of Basic Learning Theory

1. Covering vs Teaching = “Cognitive Overload.”

a. Teaching takes time. Covering ten items in a session teaches virtually nothing as a result of cognitive overload.

b. Cognitive Overload occurs:
1. When we cover too much material in a session.
2. When we inject distractions; things that really add insignificantly to understanding but take up storage space in the brain.

c. Our brain has a working memory of only 5-7 items at a time. Keep the items presented to a minimum. Working memory must be converted to long-term memory. The next 12 rules are much of what makes this conversion happen.

2. Recency and Primacy.

a. The first (primacy) and last (recency) items in a learning sequence are more likely to be remembered than items in the middle.

b. Start and finish your learning sequence with the most important points.

3. Distributed practice is far superior to massed practice.
a. It is better to practice 4 days a week for 30 minutes each day than it is to practice 1 day a week for 2 hours.

4. Long-term memory takes place in the emotional areas of the brain.

a. To create long term memory, emotion must be present. Motivation is a big factor in creating long term memory.

b. Start every lesson by setting the stage (See Part 3).

c. Use humor, powerful analogies, and stories.

d. Use Praise, Prompt, Leave Tactics (PPL). Keep it positive (See Part 2)!

5. Virtually all long-term memory is hastened by association.

a. Associate the new material with known material. Attach it to something!

b. Analogies are important tools as are building on previous skills and knowledge.

6. Organize teaching into “chunks.”

The concept of “chunking” learning segments into smaller and similar content areas is important. For best results, sequential chunks should be related and similar. If a  lesson is about loops, refrain from throwing in a discussion of mends. Better yet, the ideal lesson will deal with the formation of narrow loops only. This would be the chunked learning segment. When it is mastered, the instructor could now add another learning segment dealing with the formation of wide loops. This is “chunking”.  Comparing and contrasting the tip paths of each is a very powerful tool to be used when going from one chunk to the next.

7. Spiraling is the concept of revisiting/reviewing previously learned material.

Example: Every lesson should include a review of the initial pick up cast and the formation of loops followed by a new learning segment.

8. Staircasing is building future, more complicated, tasks or knowledge on a good foundation.

Example: 90% of a candidate’s likelihood of passing the casting portion of the CI or MCI exam is rooted in the ability to control basic loops. Basic loops are the foundation of further development. To practice the slack line casts before mastering loops is largely an exercise in futility.

9. Combine #5, #6, #7 and #8 above and we get to Sequencing.

The order in which we teach new skills is of great importance. By teaching foundational skill (a) narrow loops, and then adding skill (b) wide loops, and then reviewing (a) narrow loops and (b) wide loops as a way of teaching (c) narrow and wide loops in successive casting strokes is an example of staircasing, spiraling, chunking and using association.

10. Keep things simple.

For #4 we could have written, “It is important to understand that the Amygdala, Hypothalamus, and Hippocampus are the primary organs responsible for long term memory while the Cerebellum and Neocortex play more minor roles.” Instead, we wrote, “Long term memory takes place in the emotional part of the brain.” This isn’t completely accurate in more ways than one, but everybody gets the idea! As a teaching tool, it is often far superior to get the point across than to be technically accurate.

11. Repetition.

The typical person requires 7 repetitions in the proper context before he or she can commit a reasonable learning segment to long term memory. This is, of course, dependent on motivation, innate ability, and other factors. Distributing these repetitions over two or three learning episodes a few days apart accelerates the learning process. Also helpful is the use of structured practice discussed in Part 3.

12. Whole – Part – Whole.
By demonstrating and explaining the entire cast we show the student the whole (explain and demonstrate), then we need to break it down into parts (See structured practice in Part 3). After the parts have been mastered, we put it together by smoothing out the transitions between the parts (See guided practice in Part 3). Thus we get back to the whole. Independent practice consolidates the whole (See Part 3).

13. “Say-See-Do” or Trimodal Teaching (From Fred Jones).

Concerning ourselves with learning styles is a valuable goal. However, the idea that we need to develop different lessons dependent on a person’s individual learning style has been rebuked by modern research. Instead, researchers have found that a lesson using all the senses more or less simultaneously works best for virtually all students. The IFFF has long embraced, and rightly so, the need to consider audio, visual and kinesthetic modalities while instructing. As a result, the IFFF has promoted the idea of Explain (auditory), Demonstrate (visual), “Now you do it” (kinesthetic), as a default teaching methodology.

By simply expanding the dynamic and methodology of the “now you do it”, we have a very powerful teaching template. More of this will be discussed in the section on Lesson Plans and specifically in Structured Practice. Without Structured Practice, there is no ‘Part’ in “Whole – Part – Whole”.

The main point here is that individualizing instruction based on the perceived dominant learning modality of the student, does not lead to increased achievement. As a matter of fact, it will lead to decreased results as it crowds out the use of superior methodology. Don’t worry about separating the three modalities or discovering a student’s learning modality preference. Simply teach by using all modalities simultaneously.

The say-see-do lesson plan template in Part 3 takes advantage of all modalities.

The 13 rules of basic learning theory combined with the information in the next two sections are what guide instruction when optimal results matter!