MCI Exam, Section 3, Task 5

[Graeme H]

Hi all, and especially MCIs on the board,

I'm somewhat confused about this particular task and would like some advice from you guys.

Task 5. Distance Casting:
The candidate is required to teach one of the following tasks:
A. How to cast and double haul to an advanced student.
B. How to perform a distance cast to an advanced student.

My quandary comes from the definition of an advanced student, as per the MCI exam:
Advanced Student: Has the skill level of a successful CI candidate.

In Part A here, how am I supposed to teach somebody something they already know? By definition, if the student is advanced enough to have passed their CCI exam, they already know how to double haul since that skill is tested in Task 14 of that exam.

Does anybody (especially Lasse) have some insight to share here? What actual level of caster should I be pitching my lesson to? Should I pretend they are an intermediate caster and teach them double hauling from scratch?

Cheers,
Graeme

(Part B I'm fine with. That's just expanding on what they already know and it's measurable (i.e. teach them to cast further than they already do with longer carry, longer translation, wider casting arc, precise tracking, etc..))

[Lasse Karlsson]

Hi Graeme

Even the intermediate student knows how to single and double haul

As far as I know, this is about making those things better in a student that already has the basics of the skill down, the advanced one just needs finer tweaking than the intermediate.

What have you improved in your distance cast and hauling to go from a good looking 75 footer to a great looking 85 footer?

Cheers
Lasse

[Graeme H]

Thanks Lasse,

Taking what I did for my CI and improving it is how I envisage Part B so I’m fine with that.

It’s the bit about teaching an advanced student how to double haul that I don’t get. They are advanced and by definition, they can already double haul. The exam expectations state that the candidate is being assessed partially on how well they take the experience level of the student into account. If an advanced student asks me for help and they can’t double haul, they are not advanced ( and that’s supported by the exam conditions.)

I have no trouble teaching double hauling. I do so with my beginner students on their first lesson. But it seems wrong to give that same lesson to someone who has passed their CCI exam. What am I missing?

When you are running an exam, how often have you chosen part A for the candidate?

Cheers, Graeme

[Graeme H]

I just had a thought: is it possible that the word “advanced “ in part A is a typo and it should have been “intermediate”? The task makes sense then and is in keeping with the other tasks in the section, where there is often a choice to teach an intermediate OR an advanced student.

I’ll make some inquiries.

[Lasse Karlsson]

Hi Graeme

Easy answer, never that task was changed in 19, and because of covid19 I haven't done any examining since it hit so haven't tested this change. Before it was either teach task 10 or 11 to an advanced student

I would take how with a grain of salt, and look to improving a students haul instead, since its in the preamble that they know it. Most that know hauling has a sketchy timing, a bit of erratic force application, and hold on too long. Timing of haul towards end of stroke insted of all through like most teach it, force application smooth as stroke, and release at end of haul if delivery.

Cheers
Lasse

[Graeme H]

Thanks Lasse. That answer helps if indeed it’s not a typo.

My first inclination was to ask the examiner to carry out task 14 or 15 of the CCI Exam as they did when they passed it and work on improving their haul and stroke as it was demonstrated. That would lead to instruction and discussion as you’ve indicated above.

But really, that’s a fault correction exercise rather than a teaching task, and there’s already a fault correction task.

Cheers, Graeme

[Paul Arden]

Hi Graeme,

Haul timing, haul length, particularly where the hand is positioned at the beginning of the haul and then how the arm makes the haul away from the rod hand. What I call “intermediate” FFI call “advanced”.

I think that’s a wonderful inclusion on the exam since most DH teaching finishes when the student has learned to double haul. But of course there is so much more we can teach, not only in making hauling more efficient and effective but also things you can do when it’s not possible to feed line (reposition the line hand towards the stripping guide) between hauls.

https://www.sexyloops.com/flycast/intermediate-hauling/

Cheers, Paul

[Graeme H]

Thanks Paul,

So how would you then advise an MCI candidate to answer Part B? How are the two options different? Your answer is where I'd expect to start improving a caster's distance casting (as asked of us in Part B).

Remember that for the FFi, an advanced caster is defined within this exam as someone who is at CCI level, meaning they have demonstrated 6 false casts to 50' with the DH and has cast to 75' with a DH. Part A specifically says to teach them how to cast using the double haul, not how to improve their double haul (that's covered in part B).

I'm not fretting on this too much. I have the option of asking the examiner to act as the student, so I can ask them to show me their DH and work on improving that, should I get asked to answer Part A. Teaching from scratch or improving a DH is par for the course for my students.

Cheers,
Graeme

[Paul Arden]

I’m not sure on the specifics, Graeme. The issue I think is that these things are discussed, they get an idea of what they want, but much of that gets lost when they post the task. A full syllabus was something I was asking for 20 years ago.

Part B is distance casting, for me that would involve body movement and not only the double haul.

Teaching the double haul to someone who can haul to me sounds like advancing it to a higher standard not teaching them something that they can already do. It could be written clearer/more specifically for sure but I suspect that must be the intention since the other explanation doesn’t make any sense

Cheers, Paul