Waypoints
Posted: Thu Oct 22, 2020 7:13 pm
I've been playing in my casting with what I call "waypoints". As these are mostly the result of repositioning the rod (orientation and tip), the device, technique, trick, is not new. New for me is focusing on the waypoint as a feature, rather than the rod action which produced it, and how its dynamics could be employed to change trajectory, direction and plane. I hope this perspective may open new possibilities for you too.
The trait first piqued my interest in one of Aitor's excellent Vimeo clips. My recent experiments with square snaps have helped me better understand its behaviour.
What is a waypoint? A bend in the line, purposely placed before or during a stroke to influence the line's flight path to benefit the cast. I suppose any propagating bend/kink, a few of which are well shown in Bernd's dangly bits description (BDB), could be described as a waypoint. But those bends often serve more to frustrate than to help a cast. Hence the "purposely" and "benefit" in the definition.
A waypoint makes the line on its fly-side first go to it (duh), which has the practical effect of the waypoint providing a pseudo origin for dynamics occurring on the rod side of it. That way, for instance, an upwardly directed forward cast behaves as if the fly leg flows from down low, instead of up high where the preceding backcast placed it, without tailing:
I think Paul's old extended drift and Jason Borger's Layback, among other rod path and biomechanics advantages, introduce subtle waypoints. They are an incredibly useful ingredient to the overhead, elbow forward style of casting.
How to deploy a waypoint in a cast? Aitor's sequence demonstrates a model version well, and Jason's Layback FP phrases it well, the principles of which you can transpose from those trajectory change situations also to direction change and plane change situations. For me, the fundamental parts are: Pick where in space you want to place the waypoint - usually at the base of the following stroke's intended path; If there was a preceding stroke, drift without pause to that waypoint position, simultaneously adjusting the rod position and orientation for the desired next stroke; There, make the rod tip slowly and deliberately turn the corner into that next stroke, setting the waypoint bend into the cast. It is as if you fluidly punctuate the motion. You almost only need to think it - "waypoint set".
Cheers,
Dirk
The trait first piqued my interest in one of Aitor's excellent Vimeo clips. My recent experiments with square snaps have helped me better understand its behaviour.
What is a waypoint? A bend in the line, purposely placed before or during a stroke to influence the line's flight path to benefit the cast. I suppose any propagating bend/kink, a few of which are well shown in Bernd's dangly bits description (BDB), could be described as a waypoint. But those bends often serve more to frustrate than to help a cast. Hence the "purposely" and "benefit" in the definition.
A waypoint makes the line on its fly-side first go to it (duh), which has the practical effect of the waypoint providing a pseudo origin for dynamics occurring on the rod side of it. That way, for instance, an upwardly directed forward cast behaves as if the fly leg flows from down low, instead of up high where the preceding backcast placed it, without tailing:
I think Paul's old extended drift and Jason Borger's Layback, among other rod path and biomechanics advantages, introduce subtle waypoints. They are an incredibly useful ingredient to the overhead, elbow forward style of casting.
How to deploy a waypoint in a cast? Aitor's sequence demonstrates a model version well, and Jason's Layback FP phrases it well, the principles of which you can transpose from those trajectory change situations also to direction change and plane change situations. For me, the fundamental parts are: Pick where in space you want to place the waypoint - usually at the base of the following stroke's intended path; If there was a preceding stroke, drift without pause to that waypoint position, simultaneously adjusting the rod position and orientation for the desired next stroke; There, make the rod tip slowly and deliberately turn the corner into that next stroke, setting the waypoint bend into the cast. It is as if you fluidly punctuate the motion. You almost only need to think it - "waypoint set".
Cheers,
Dirk