Itās totally fascinating. Once again I was up on the roof until dawn last night. I started off with a 90ā carry. This isnāt a 90ā carry under control but itās a 90ā carry for half a dozen false casts. Thatās still a huge jump for me.
But last night the big thing was something Iāve always said which is that the hauling hand fine controls the cast. So I used the left to teach the right how to control the left.
Thats the exchange of information thatās going on between my hands/ body sides at the moment!
Itās quite easy to swap hands when the loop begins to unroll on the forward cast, so I can go right/left/right/left etc. Iāll be doing this and just when Iām ingrained the right hand will pop in something funky. The left is like āfuck you!!ā And tries to learn it.
What amazes me is how good (technical) my right hand is and how advanced is the left hand haul. Itās the same for any developed caster, we do things automatically without realising it. They are oracles of information that are just waiting to be tapped. However my right hand haul (remember this is the hand that writes) got to show my left hand haul, that itās quite easy to pull line off the reel under control, while falsecasting, instead of yanking it off as my left hand has been doing for yonks! The left is like āthanks dudeā.
So the process is what does this side of the body know/do, and how to transfer that information over? And what drills to use to do this. Pull-back for example. First try to slow it down. Didnāt work. So teach a Snapcast. Right does a Snapcast, left does a Snapcast. Make a soft Snapcast. Crossover. Thatās pull back feeling. Now back up the ladder and apply to the forward cast. And then apply to the back. And it goes on and on. (I didnāt know you can use the Snapcast to teach Pullback).
For me casting is totally tied to feel. Vision is important (glimpsing the loop) because it gives you feedback but itās feel that we use to apply force. I realise now just how critical the haul is. Itās the acceleration of the haul and how that is timed. Want to speed up the stroke, then speed up the haul at the right time. And for me at least, the haul directs the backcast, and pulls directly away from target.
I believe that I can not only be better with the left than I am with the right, but I will be better with the right than when I started. The āknowledgeā that my hands have acquired and the skills that they have developed are immense. Thatās why we find it so difficult. We say we are not coordinated with the left but we have this highly developed haul that is basically leading the cast. The left haul is telling the right hand what to do. Thatās how I see it.
We talk - or I do - about one side of the brain controlling the opposite side of the body. But thatās highly misleading. We are bringing subconscious movements to the conscious level and then trying to find ways to make them automatic on the other side of the body.
I donāt think we do a good job in teaching the haul. We talk about down-up and triangle methods, but we do not give the haul the credit and time it deserves. I stop teaching it when I get to the haul controls the stroke but thatās just the key to the box. There is a vast amount inside the box that needs unpacking.
I see great value in presentation casts when it comes to learning the finer rod hand skills. I can see that I will be working on these for some time. Trying to learn the overpowered curve mend (JB) off the left is quite an exploration.
Fascinating. It feels good to be all over casting again.
Cheers, Paul