Beginner's Study Guide for Classes

[VGB]

I wish you had mentored me Carol, Mark made me write lesson plans for each task and then told me that they weren’t bad. It was the nicest thing he ever said to me.

Mine tend to be straightforward. A clear objective following SMART requirement principles, a whole part whole demo with cues as required. Pantomime and mirroring is a big part of what I like to do to help them put it all together. Given that most plans don’t survive first contact, I’m always prepared to wind back the objective to something simpler, and have a plan B if they do really well and want more. I also try and leave them with 3 key points.

Regards

Vince

[Paul Arden]

Something that is really important to do is to separate student levels. Teaching a beginner is not he same as teaching a CI or teaching a CI to teach a beginner. At least not IMO. Of course if you teach a beginner for long enough they might become CI or even a world champion.

There is undoubtedly a lack of good teaching when it comes to teaching raw beginners (loop control). But equally there is a dearth of knowledge at the higher ends too. I think that will change.

Cheers, Paul

[VGB]

I don’t have the experience of teaching highly capable caster’s that you do Paul but where I have mentored over a period of time, I manage it by setting the objective appropriately.

Regards

Vince

[George C]

Perhaps this is heresy but I’ll put it our there for discussion.

Why such focus on loop control?
My casting never improved until I started focusing on fly leg control.
In retrospect it seems to me that focusing on loops worked no better than focusing on rod loading. Both just happen if you let them provided you have positioned the line correctly in the air then apply force to it smoothly in the correct direction. I think if I had understood I was casting a fly leg and not a loop from the start I might have avoided several decades of anguish.
George

[Lasse Karlsson]

Hi George

I agree, its like most look at the loop as the end all of everything, but it is a byproduct of our actions in casting that flyleg.

Cheers
Lasse

[Stoatstail50]

The question is….”can you control the system to get what you want?”

The loop, or the fly leg, or the final line layout, can be objectivised for teaching so that you can visually check to see whether you got what you wanted.

It feels good when you get the output that you wanted from the system but it’s not something that can be easily objectivised or verified.

For example I make two casts one is a straight line layout to a target. The other is a underpowered curve to a target.

Here the final line layout in each cast is a simple, long lasting, visually verifiable, objective that an instructor can use to teach. You can demo it, explain it and use it for independent caster feedback.

One cast involves the formation of a fully unrolling relatively narrow loop, the other a wide collapsing loop. Both of these are transient but, nevertheless, visually verifiable objectives that an instructor can use for teaching because this too you can demo, explain and use for independent feedback.

Both of these work IMO George, I use both regularly.

OK…now try that with “feel”

[Stoatstail50]

Lesson planning is very difficult unless you know a lot about your caster to start off with Carol. It’s made doubly difficult if you’re only going to have one or two sessions with them because it’s near impossible to check for learning.

The best anyone can do is to do basic task analysis on a skill by skill basis. If you’re mentoring a CI then the tasks are already defined and you can apply pretty much any process analysis template to that.

For mentoring purposes it’s only a mechanism to make someone really think about what the assessment task is actually about.

[Stoatstail50]

A quick Google…

Task Analysis (TA)

Identifying the Target Skill. ...
Identifying the Prerequisite Skills of the Learner and the Materials Needed to Teach the Task. ...
Breaking the Skill into Components. ...
Confirming that the Task is Completely Analyzed. ...
Determining How the Skill Will be Taught. ...
Implementing Intervention and Monitoring Progress.

[Paul Arden]

I don’t have the experience of teaching highly capable caster’s that you do Paul but where I have mentored over a period of time, I manage it by setting the objective appropriately.

Regards

Vince

I have a course structure. But it has never been in order. There are several reasons for this,..

1) a fishing trip is planned and we need to work with different tackle/casts
2) progress didn’t happen during training as expected (in either direction)
3) if I have a choice and I’ve already given the lesson to someone else that day, then I will more likely choose the other lesson for my sanity
5) I’m experimenting and constantly developing the course to see if a certain order is better in the total view.

5 is an interesting one for me. I think there are individual cases when you want to chop and change. Eg higher level student having transition problems in distance casting… a month of Spey casting might solve this. Consequently I think the course needs to be flexible.

Actually the is a 6 too. No two students have exactly the same set of existing skills.


Hi George,

I think that’s largely spot on. Loop control is predominately about shaping the fly leg. But I also want to see it done in all planes, and I’d also like to see control over the rod leg, particularly at turnover!

Cheers, Paul

[RSalar]

Ron

I noted that you put fishing in bold. I think that you need to be a bit more specific about type of water, quarry and techniques but I agree that it’s likely that you will have to derive you own.

Vince

Vince,

You are correct in the observation that the classes and casting lessons will specifically be geared to the fishing aspect of fly casting. The students will need to be taught everything from what to use for equipment, to tying knots, what leader material to use, etc. As I mentioned these people are in a local fly tying class. (Which I find interesting ... that they would start with fly tying before knowing how to fly cast / fly fish) But that is what I am told. Maybe it was just a hobby they picked during Covid and now they want to learn how to use the flies they tied?

I am imagining that we will have 1 class a month -- November, December, January, February, March, and April. Let's call it 6 one hour classes. The first will probably be an introduction to basic fly fishing and casting terms. A list of terms and definitions in writing will be handed out and then a discussion of each term. Then lesson 2 might be about equipment -- fly rods, reels, lines, leaders, fly vest or pack, waders, wading shoes, flies and boxes, tools etc. Lesson 3 could be just trying knots, lesson 4 might be species of fish to be targeted and what the requirements are for each. Lesson 5 might be stream etiquette and proper fish handling. (I'm just listing these off the top of my head) Then lesson 6 could be about the basics of fly casting -- roll cast and overhead. But I am pretty sure we will not be getting into loop control at this point!

After the six indoor classes it will morph into outdoor fly casting and fly fishing lessons. Probably group classes followed by one on one or one on two private fishing lessons. (The classes and lessons will take place at a local fish and game club that has a stocked pond.) I also think we should go after easy to catch warm water fish at local ponds and lakes -- just get them to be able to cast well enough to hook some fish ... any fish and play them, land them, unhook them, and release them.

I am kind of surprised that someone hasn't developed a workbook for this kind of thing ... Then again, it will be pretty easy to write one if that is what we need to do. Or maybe I can find specific material for each of the subjects. Then it will come down to teaching the material, assigning homework, and quizzing. Standard teaching stuff -- which is another topic in itself.

Any other thoughts and suggestions are welcomed.

Thanks, everyone!

Ron