jarmo wrote: ↑Sat Mar 05, 2022 2:10 pm
I have no need to argue with you, which implies that I do not need to wade into that thread either.
My apologies Jarmo. I know you personally don't want to argue that old point. My use of the word "you" was unintentional and meant in broader terms. I should have said "if someone would like to argue, please read that thread."
By emphasizing tension I think you mean "lifting the loop," right?
Yep, you got it. It's exactly from our discussions last year, when we discussed "lifting the loop."
I guess your task labelled
"make a loop that fails to reach the nail knot while keeping the rod tip high" targets
- minimum power
- the stop
- importance of tension (& lifting the loop)
- small arc size.
Would that be approximately correct?
Actually, the
main target is overcoming the incorrect application of power (in all its forms.) EVERY casting fault has incorrect application of power at its root cause in one way or another, and when people are really pumping that rod, there are numerous opportunities to apply power incorrectly. By slowing the whole thing down, most of those opportunities are removed.
However, I don't tell the students that until
after they have successfully achieved the task. All I'm asking them to do is make a really slow cast (with a high rod tip). I'm not telling them:
- To do it smoothly
- How large their casting arc should be
- To remove any slack
- How much power to use (other than to say "Too much power")
- How they should hold their rod,
- How they should set their stance
- Where the elbow needs to be
- Where they should focus their attention
By letting them sort all those things out for themselves, they fall into a natural stroke with an appropriate casting arc and power that suits their own physical requirements and discover how easily a cast can be made.
It turns out that's nearly impossible to throw a tail or a wide loop with this task, so they see great loops coming with almost no effort required. As a student, they see an immediate and dramatic improvement in their casting and they think their teacher is a genius.
Regarding tension: yes, we circle back to the importance of tension at this point in the lesson. Once they have achieved the task, we talk about why I told them to keep the rod tip high. I show them that when I drop the rod tip, the task is really easy to achieve, and that in fact, when I was showing them what the loop should do when you succeed in the task, I actually dropped the rod tip myself while they were watching the loop (it's that hard to achieve that I cheat when I demonstrate it.
)
I (literally) take it a step further to show them that when
all tension is removed from the rod leg, the loop fails and collapses in mid air. (I do it by running forward after I've made a cast, creating a pile of slack in the rod leg). This is a very dramatic effect and really drives the point home.
Then I show them the opposite effect: That gently lifting the rod tip while the loop unrolls makes the loop travel faster along the fly line, so we need even less effort to complete a cast once that "lifting the loop" move is done. At the very least, they need to keep the tip up longer. (In terms of considering the loop as a wave, I'm adding tension to the medium and increasing the frequency of the wave, making the wave travel faster through the medium. I have not yet had one student fail to understand this concept.)
Great story of method development on the field. I am sure you got one happy customer.
I am truly intrigued by this task. I can see that it targets
- slow start
- constant acceleration
- and something else, which I can not quite label, but it would be something along the lines of "slow acceleration," since you are asking to keep tension at a high point in the rod.
Would this interpretation be on the right track.
This one really is targeting the correct application of power by focusing the students' attention on the one visual representation of force we have in a cast. That is, the amount of bend we have in the rod. It does so by also using a trick of our perception of motion, in that we instantaneously and continuously predict the location of moving objects so that we can track them visually. If the caster "jerks" the rod, interrupting the predicted movement of the rod blank, we momentarily lose visual tracking of the rod. That's an indication we're applying power incorrectly (because power is a function of force and time).
I tell them to "put a bend in the rod at the tape and keep it there as long as possible". By giving the student the task of tracking their rod's bend, they must smooth out the application of power to successfully complete the task.
After they've completed the task, we discuss what was happening when they did it correctly, how it felt, why it led to better acceleration of the line and thus why the tip's path was more desirable (SLP and the "5 Essentials".)
How do you introduce late rotation?
As they attempt to repeat the task at longer line lengths, we discuss how the casting arc (the "piece of pizza" [thanks Morsie
]) must also be moved through space to keep that bend in the rod for a longer period. I demonstrate how I can keep it there longer when I translate the rod first, and them ask them to repeat.
I also demonstrate that this method of watching the bend in the rod works even with a 90' cast. Regardless of cast length and rod speed, we can visually track the tape when the power is applied correctly, and we can't track it when the cast is faulty. That makes it a fantastic task to teach casting with, because it's instant visual feedback indicating a shit cast.
cheers,
Graeme
) travel through the string. I combine the explanation with some simple and effective demonstrations of how tension makes a wave travel faster through the medium and the lesson takes hold in the students' minds. (This goes back to that long thread last year about how understanding the loop as a wave helps me cast and teach more effectively. I've said all I need to say on that topic, so if you want to argue it, go back there and read the whole thread. 
