Drills

[Paul Arden]

That’s really great, Anand. Bodhi casts like I did at that age. Which I find really interesting. We have this classic idea of what it should look like and it raises the question for me, why?

When I started using the 170 cast, so many people said I was “doing it wrong”, not meaning that I was doing the 170 incorrectly, but that I wasn’t flycasting properly! And now pretty much everyone who does Trout Distance, uses some variation of the pattern.

We saw this in swimming with the straight arm recovery, and triathletes who have a very open arm recovery and higher cadence. As examples.

I think there are times when it can be beneficial to learn a specific pattern, done in a certain way, but not at the beginning. Competition level for example. Certain aspects of instructor exams require blocked practise (although I actually think they are best learned in a different way) and I think this is one of the problems we have; namely because instructors largely prepare for exams by repeating the same cast over and over again, the assumption is that this is what beginners should do too.

Hopefully that’s changing. Certainly I’ve changed, and new instructors in the future, who were originally taught this way themselves, will undoubtedly teach differently in the future. For example when your son becomes a flycasting coach, he will not be teaching new students to pickup and laydown 30’ of flyline

OK driving down to KL to get my wife a 1hr swimming lesson. 9hr return trip!!!

Cheers, Paul

[Stoatstail50]

I have no idea how this informs the rest of this thread, but I wanted to share in case that is helpful

There’s so little feedback on these threads that even the slightest bit from a client is a happy thing. Sometimes it must read like we’re talking totally in the abstract and that we’ve forgotten that all this stuff has to be applied in real life to real people.

[mathgeek]

I always enjoy learning from others -- thank you all for your contributions and tolerance/welcome of neophytes!

[Paul Arden]

I love these conversations, even if they end up in a totally different place, because they always make me think and give me new things to try in my own lessons. While there may not be a lot of engagement sometimes, they are well-read. I know this because I get a lot of comments on them.

For example, while you might only know half a dozen instructors who look at coaching in the way we describe here, Mark, I know many others who are experimenting and including in their own lessons as a result of these conversations. And I’m quite sure that there are many others I don’t know about.

I think that’s quite exciting actually. I mean we know they would be bloody fools not to, but the fact that it is happening is something to be excited about!

Cheers, Paul

[VGB]

I’m sure it was technically imperfect in many, many ways. But because he is having this all approached from a growth mindset and exploration, it’s an evolving “play” and he’s now convinced he will be the best caster in the family in short order. Again, there are many ways to learn, but having seen the difference first hand has been quite enlightening. I have no idea how this informs the rest of this thread, but I wanted to share in case that is helpful.

That is great to hear and it is highly likely that he will become the best caster in the family . Teaching this way removes many inhibitions and seeing children taking on these challenges without fear of failure might encourage more adults to give it a go, I wish him the best.

Regards

Vince