Tracking ... tracking ... tracking

[Paul Arden]

Thanks John. I suppose the issue might be rotating the wrist or something to do with grip. It’s also very likely that the tracking was an issue prior to this. Perhaps a drill would be to make the cast aligned so that the eye can see the target through the thumb or V. That’s how I personally throw at short-medium range targets anyway, and with such an alignment you can see what the wrist/lower rod is doing. I also sometimes use the reel face for alignment.

Another exercise that comes to mind is the 12 o clock, 1, 2, 3, 12, 11, 10, 9 casting planes drill. It’s about making the wrist flip aligned to the rest of the casting stroke.

Cheers, Paul

Edit. “ Perhaps a drill would be to make the cast aligned so that the eye can see the target through the thumb or V” I think that’s what you mean by using the thumb nail. The problem faced here is aligning the wrist flip to tracking/ rear target on open stance distance.

[jarmo]

Without seeing you cast and not knowing the impact of your hand injury there are caveats on my comments, however, may I suggest you may need to extend the amount of vertical elbow movement when your are casting in that 45 to 50 feet range, and beyond. I teach the standard cast with a closed stance and vertical rod plane and whilst that may be a bit different from some instructors, I want the caster to generate translation in an upward direction on the backcast and a downward direction on the forward cast, not generate translation in a predominantly horizontal direction. The driver to that is predominantly vertical movement of the elbow. Whilst the elbow moves up and down the forearm rotates. For a cast length of 50 feet the elbow is at shoulder height or above.

Hand injury plays no role with my current grips (standard 3-point in closed stance, thumb on top in open stance).

Here is a short clip at 45':


This one is over 50':


For comparison, here is a tailing-tendency analysis video with open stance, over 50':

[Paul Arden]

Hi Jarmo,

what line is that? Also what is your leader?
Personally I would much rather see, or also see, a close up of the top half of your body casting. No need to see all the rod either.

I’ll have on my laptop later. It’s very small on my phone From what I can see here however is that there is a potential problem with your leader! And with the 55’ cast it appears you are in overhang, which is why the loops have suddenly narrowed.

Cheers, Paul

[jarmo]

Hello Paul!

what line is that? Also what is your leader?

The line is #6 GT125. I tie my leaders, this one is an adaptation of an accuracy leader formula by Steve Rajeff. I wrote down the formula years ago, probably from ACA pages. I have the exact formula if you want to know it. The total length is something like 8'.

Personally I would much rather see, or also see, a close up of the top half of your body casting. No need to see all the rod either.
I’ll have on my laptop later. It’s very small on my phone

There is a maximize-button in the bottom right corner. At least on my system, it shows the video in full screen width.

I thought about this problem yesterday, and thought of a solution - which turned out to be opposite to what was suggested here. (More horizontal elbow movement.) But at least thinking about this this keeps me off the streets, which has some real value these days.

[James9118]

Hi Jarmo,

in the video showing 'tailing tendency' it appears to me you are creeping with your body.

Regards, James

[John Waters]

Hi Jarmo,

I suggest you extend your translation by extending your elbow movement on the backcast further. That is best done by lifting the elbow further above and behind your shoulder. It is just an extension of what you are doing in the shorter cast. It will improve the trajectory of your backcast at longer distances (it drops too far whilst it extends) and will also extend the hand path on your forward cast allowing a later block and faster loop speed. I also suggest you extend your stance on the longer casts so that the extended elbow movement can be done from a more balanced platform. It will also allow for more effective weight transfer from the front foot to the back foot on the back cast, and back to the front foot on the forward cast. Snapping your wrist faster will also increase line speed on both the back and forward casts tightening your loop shape on your 50 + foot casts.

Tracy James uses an excellent elbow path for her distance casting. I am suggesting you adopt a similar movement, albeit abridged, for your longer accuracy type casts.

There is a limit we all reach for loop control on the standard overhead accuracy cast, after which we need to open the stance, use the torso and extend the hand path by moving the elbow to the side and then behind the shoulder, indeed, move the elbow more in a horizontal line. My suggestion is that you practice to extend that line length, after which you lose loop control, using the standard overhead cast. When you have exceeded that line length tipping point, train with a PUALD cast to a target a foot past that tipping point length. Repeat the PUALD cast a number of times then add a single false cast, then go back to the PUALD cast. When that single false cast is under control, repeat the PUALD cast and add two false casts etc etc. You may be surprised at how much control you gain, at extended distances, without reverting to the elbow out, horizontal elbow movement.

If you want to improve your accuracy consistency, with your desired loop shapes, at distances 50 foot and greater, keep your elbow in the plane of the shoulder, not out to the side. As Paul said just move the targeted objective in small increments and control follows.

John

[John Waters]

Thanks John. I suppose the issue might be rotating the wrist or something to do with grip. It’s also very likely that the tracking was an issue prior to this. Perhaps a drill would be to make the cast aligned so that the eye can see the target through the thumb or V. That’s how I personally throw at short-medium range targets anyway, and with such an alignment you can see what the wrist/lower rod is doing. I also sometimes use the reel face for alignment.

Another exercise that comes to mind is the 12 o clock, 1, 2, 3, 12, 11, 10, 9 casting planes drill. It’s about making the wrist flip aligned to the rest of the casting stroke.

Cheers, Paul

Edit. “ Perhaps a drill would be to make the cast aligned so that the eye can see the target through the thumb or V” I think that’s what you mean by using the thumb nail. The problem faced here is aligning the wrist flip to tracking/ rear target on open stance distance.

Hi Paul,

I only use the thumbnail for the backcast, but let me better describe what I do with my accuracy stroke. I've got grandfather duties today so will add a post about targets, backward and forward tonight.

John

[jarmo]

Greetings James.

in the video showing 'tailing tendency' it appears to me you are creeping with your body.

Somehow that does not sound like a generally accepted activity. Like, in a diary entry: "I was just creeping with my body..."

Still, I may well do it, I might even do it on purpose. There are a couple of reasons. First, I like the initial tension it adds. Second, if I want to have any body speed during a relatively short stroke, I do not like to start from standstill.

Are you suggesting this would cause the tailing tendency? Oh, that would be so sweet, because it would be easy to fix. Let me try to do the thinking, then you can tell me if this is on the right track.

1. Body creep would cause an initial movement of the line.
2. This might lead to a jerk when the line straightens.

Or, alternatively,

1. Body creep would cause an initial horizontal movement of the tip.
2. This would cause a "dangling end" when the line is cast "upwards" (not just horizontally). However, video stills show a clear dip in the line travelling towards the end, so my guess at this point would be that this is not a dangling end.

I have an idea of where those tendencies are coming from. My final rotation, with that grip, is just a squeeze with fingers. It feels extremely smooth, but I am now thinking that the maximum rotation speed happens when the hand is most open, that is, at the beginning of the rotation. At this time point, the different joints of the fingers are working in the same direction. When the hand is more "closed," some joints no longer contribute significantly to speed of rotation.

But I sure hope this eerie "creeping with body" would be the cause.

I will return to the other replies later. Got to work now.

[John Waters]

Hi Paul,

You asked a question about accuracy casting. I preface this post by saying these are my thoughts only about short line, accuracy casting. Many will have a different view but I can only speak about what works for me and why it does. In advance, I apologise for the length of this post and if I have repeated statements from previous posts, but there are no Aussie Rules Football game on Foxtel tonight so obviously, I have too much downtime.

For my accuracy cast, distances up to 55 feet with no line shoot, I use a closed stance and do not watch my backcast. The elbow movement on the backcast and the forward cast is in the plane of the shoulder and does not move in a horizontal line. Any deviation from that elbow movement path and plane does not deliver consistently accurate casts. For technique training on the backcast, I focus on the thumbnail to ensure the backcast has the correct trajectory and direction. It is automatic, if the thumbnail is only partially visible I have misaligned tracking and whilst that impedes loop speed and shape at the back, it ruins an accurate forward cast and either slices or hooks the delivery line layout. It also stuffs up hover or fly sighting for correct distance judgement. Accuracy casting is about locking in the correct technique and then improving consistency, so any deviation from the correct elbow, forearm and wrist movement means less consistency. As you move from target to target the only change is the vertical height of the thumbnail and its angle. The attached are two slides taken from my series, "Make Every Cast Count” and they shows my thumbnail position, after the wrist flip or wrist snap, on the backcast on say a 12 metre cast length. As I said to Jarmo, if the length was 6 metres, the thumbnail would be lower, and if the length was 17 metres, the thumbnail would be higher, and further back, over my shoulder. For longer distances the angle of the thumbnail changes from near vertical, vertical, to pointing to the shoulder. The angle of the thumbnail simply reflects the expanded rod arc. It automatically aligns that wrist flip and hence delivers correct backcast tracking. The backcast cannot have anything other than correct tracking, direction and trajectory. When you are training for technique, glance at your thumbnail at the end point of your backcast and adjust your movement if it is not in the correct position.

I only ever charge the arc size from the back, never the front. The angle of the forearm compared to a horizontal line through the elbow, parallel to the water, grass or casting platform, will alter depending on the distance I am casting but I want my rod angle at the forward block to be the same for all cast lengths. As I have said, it is all about consistency and the 1%’ers, so keep the forward rod angle as close to constant as possible. The elbow and forearm drive that consistency and the further away from the plane of the shoulder they are, the less control over accuracy you have. An outcome of that vertical, in-front-of-shoulder movement plane is sighting and distance judgement. I don’t look down the rod or through the grip because that would mean I needed to move my line of sight across to the shoulder plane. Rather I focus on a point on the target and have the fly “materialise” over than point. Depending on light conditions or wind, I may angle the forward cast to better “see” the fly, but it is always from an upright body position with my line of sight at an angle to the target. Once again it is about consistency so the less deviation from those optimal movement planes, the better for me. The key is to standardise that point in the loop turnover when the leader and fly are dropping uniformly. It is only then that you want to sight the fly. Earlier or later in the turnover and your distance judgement becomes variable and inaccurate. That means no “humps” or "troughs” in your leader, so section length and or diameter need to be changed to minimise these outcomes. Tight loops and high line speed are required so your casting tempo and hand blocks become critical. The best accuracy casters train for consistency of turnover and do so for a very obvious reason. Accuracy is a function of loop control so the body movements need to be geared totally to optimising that control. Each body movement segment needs to be supported and controlled by a larger joint or muscle group because only then do you maximise smoothness of movement and hence loop profile. Keep everything in line, shoulder, elbow wrist rod and loop, if you want to be more accurate, more often.

No different to fly distance casting really. We compose volumes of text, miles of video about tracking, loop profile, line speed carry length, and the best technique to deliver all for distance casting, but not much of the same about accuracy casting. It is the same, the only difference is the range of movement.

Train with a exact length of line needed to have the fly the centre of the target and see where the fly becomes visible to you. Lock that sight point into your mind and replicate that procedure for varying distances. Each sight point in training becomes your reference point for the next time you practice, the more times that is achieved the more consistent and accurate your sighting becomes. In Oz we have a number of fly accuracy events with targets at distances between 20 feet and 55 feet so judgement is important (no different from the trout accuracy event in WCs). I see a lot of casters training for results, not consistency. IMHO that is a flawed strategy.

Hope the above makes sense, if not just put it down to the ramblings of a bloke who learnt to cast at a casting pool.

John

[Paul Arden]

Train with a exact length of line needed to have the fly the centre of the target and see where the fly becomes visible to you. Lock that sight point into your mind and replicate that procedure for varying distances. Each sight point in training becomes your reference point for the next time you practice, the more times that is achieved the more consistent and accurate your sighting becomes.

First class advice!! Thanks John just parking the boat and heading to town. I’ll write again tonight.

Many thanks!
Paul