The Launch, open/closed

[Paul Arden]

Bizarre. Well I know why the difference is for me, if you look at closed stance above you can see the front foot angled sideways which in turn positions the shoulders around and more aligned to the target. I can’t get into that position with open stance and finish with the shoulders squarer to target.

Cheers, Paul

[Lasse Karlsson]

Ah, so its because you're old and stiff, that explains it

Cheers
Lasse

[Paul Arden]

That’s probably it

[John Waters]

I overstepped the platform one day casting the 120 gram salmon fly distance fortunately did not break anything. Lucky we were casting on grass. That half metre height is always longer when looking down.

I use an open stance for the all the reasons given by others above, a much better structure from which to generate speed and power.

John

[Graeme H]

Bizarre. Well I know why the difference is for me, if you look at closed stance above you can see the front foot angled sideways which in turn positions the shoulders around and more aligned to the target. I can’t get into that position with open stance and finish with the shoulders squarer to target.

Cheers, Paul

Paul,

I think the point Lasse is trying to make is that while your hand finishes further forward with a closed stance, it also starts the stroke further forward. That is, the total distance you move your hand doesn't change regardless of the stance.

If those 30 centimetres gained from the rod tip being further forward after a closed stance cast comes at the cost of 60 cm due to poor ergonomics during the cast, you're worse off. (I don't know the answer to that "if" though.)

Cheers,
Graeme

[Paul Arden]

Hi Graeme,

I don’t think there is a loss, or if there is I don’t know how to quantify it. I spent close to ten years competing one way and then ten years competing the other. In full flight, closed actually felt more fluid and it’s done well for me in competition. I really wanted to switch back to it for the previous WCs and again for the one we haven’t had yet. However as I’ve written it’s not practical for where I train and if I manage to fall off the boat while catching my foot on the rooftop rail then I think I would have to stop all sport for a while! If I can find a solid platform – I am considering building something on the lake, around the back of Millipede Island – then I’ll train this way for the next championships.

When I was suggesting a few more inches on the reach I wasn’t considering stroke length. Only reach on the delivery. The stroke length with closed is actually longer for me and everyone else who uses it because it involves a step.

Quite a few people now are making a two steps, including most of the Swedish Team. I’ve played with this but I haven’t dedicated myself fully to it yet. It’s obviously something I need to do seriously at some point.

However it plays tricks with the mind when you step on a platform. And because you don’t want to walk off the edge you are in danger of holding back. Left foot planted forward with weight shift I can put the foot near the edge. But stepping forward into no man’s land with the right foot, while looking off into the distance bothers me greatly. In Norway we were on floating platforms that rocked which was even more disturbing

What I think is different between these strokes is Open has a sequence of blocking moves initiated from the weight shift, as John neatly explains. That’s not nearly so apparent with Closed Stance.

Cheers, Paul