Teaching drift?

[nicholasfmoore]

Hi all,

What are your favourite analogies/drills for drift? One of my favourites is to;

"Imagine a 10kg weight has magically materialised on top of your fist/knuckles after the stop on the back cast. Push this up towards the sky"

Have you tried grabbing the blank after the stop on the back cast and pulling it gently back and up? Would be interested to hear your thoughts, this is carrying on from a recent chat with Paul

All the best

Nick

[James9118]

Firstly, ask them to do something with the rod tip after the stop has been made e.g. put an aerial mend in or wiggles. Give them a target to mend around (both sides) or a line to cut with as many wiggles as possible. After that, ask them to tap the rod tip on the floor after the stop but before the next stroke happens etc., do this on the forward and backcasts. Once they can do this they have control over the rod tip position throughout the cast.

Cheers, James

[Paul Arden]

That’s good teaching, James, thank you; I’ll use that.

Drift is an interesting one. When I first started teaching I would almost always teach it without fail. But often I would get the result that instead of stopping and drifting, the arc just became bigger. Which is not what I wanted at all

And partly because it often made the cast worse, and partly because - I think - I’m far less inclined to drift nowadays myself, it’s something similar rarely teach in the first lesson unless I think it’s going to be an improvement.

Instead it’s something I teach now to longer term students and even then not always.

When I do teach it I teach to “try to feel the line straightening with the rod tip”. The hand must be lifted as well as rotated so that the tip tracks the rod leg of the loop.

Cheers, Paul

[Graeme H]

Thanks James - I like that method.

I teach it by asking my student to follow the loop with the rod tip. "Make the loop, then trace out the loop's path with the tip".

I use this technique mainly as a way to remove creep, making the student aware of the fact they they are prematurely moving the rod forward and that they can't do that if their rod is drifting.

Cheers,
Graeme

[nicholasfmoore]

Thank you all! Sorry just seen this!

[Paul Arden]

I think you need to teach Forward Drift to Carol.

[nicholasfmoore]

Me, Paul? I nominate you mate Incidentally, I really like James' teaching of getting the student used to playing around with the rod tip, that's gold!

All the best

[Paul Arden]

Yes I agree!

[Carol]

Forward drift could be very useful to get a longer casting stroke for a more energized back cast. I'll give it a go.

[Paul Arden]

I was more thinking about forward drift as the backcast is unrolling! I use it in distance casting to reposition the rod to a better starting point for the beginning of the forward cast. It’s also called “Slide” - a form of drift...

I will try to cover this more later next month. Particularly Drift/ Sweep/ Casting Stroke.

Cheers, Paul