Teaching Top hand v Bottom hand

[springer]

Very interesting Springer. I do this with the SH rod, and I can see how this would be excellent method when working on this issue. Obviously everyone seems intent nowadays on teaching the lower hand. How do you teach the feel?

I’m looking forward to getting my DHD soonish! Are there any exercises like Circles, Eights and Straights that could be shifted to the lower hand? I’m pretty sure circles would work, not so sure about 8s?

Cheers, Paul

I dont teach SH to any great level Paul just the basics really, I have no qualifications in SH rods, DH rods are what I teach.

I do think working with a rod with the line still on the reel is a useful thing to do though, it gets beginners or anyone for that matter to focus on the positions they need to be in and then the movements they need to make.

Interestingly other than complete beginners a lot of students roll their eyes to begin with thinking that they can already work with the line out whereas I think the line can be a distraction, 20 mins later they usually see the benefit. I dont do it with everyone, just those I feel need it. Listening to the noise the blank makes during the forward cast can also help people to develop the correct tempo for progression from the back to front stops. Usually most start too fast so you hear the long whoosh of a rod struggling to get faster, when I get them to listen to my higher pitched hiss instead of a whoosh they seem to understand the building up of speed easier than any other demo methody Ive came across.

With the DH rod its quite amazing just how few beginners or even improvers struggle to properly flex a rod with no line on it, they have never experienced what a loaded rod feels like in their hands. Generally they either hold the butt relatively still and shove the top hand back and forth or they do it in reverse with the top hand remaining still and waggling the rod back and forth using the bottom hand. I demonstrate it by holding the rod out to the side on the horizontal plane so we can see the blank flexing, I point out that the point of rotation is somewhere between my two hands (slightly towards the top hand) and that with very small equal and opposite opposite movements either side of this point the rod will load up very easily and significantly. Many people panic a bit and fear they will snap the rod because they can now see it it is bending so much, they have no idea how much it actually bends during a properly loaded cast. Just make sure the joints are either taped or checked before doing it. Once they feel and see this in the horizontal plane I go back to the forward cast movement and ask them to look for both the shorter hissing sound and also to recreate the feel of the loaded rod. Ive taught this since around 2007 and it works with most people, obviously some pick it up better than others.

I encourage students to worth with just the butt section of a DH rod as well because its easy to do at home in the garden or in front of the wardrobe mirror on a rainy day, that way they can practise 24/7/365 as I did in the early days. Its amazing what 5 mins a day can do for muscle memory. I tell people to think about the principle of Tai Chi, a series of slow highly controlled and disciplined movements that can be learned and practised at a slow tempo, once learned you can speed them up with ingrained accuracy. You can go through a whole cast with just the rod but including weight shift. Most people tend to naturally put their top hand thumb up the cork so I never discourage it to begin with. I give them reference points for their top hand thumb tip and if they can control that small part of their body they can then control the rod tip of any length rod as the tip will copy what the thumb does. Its easy for me to snap some pictures of them holding the rod in the right places and send them to them, they can then reference this in the mirror at their leisure.

I dont understand the terms circles, straights and eights, its not something Ive came across but I teach that the bottom hand movements control a lot of what the rod tip does in many parts of the cast. For me DH casting is far more about pushing the rod tip around to make d-loops and then pulling it forward to make tight loops, the reverse of what a top hand dominant caster will do.

[Paul Arden]

Thanks Springer, that’s a great post. What I find without the line stung up is that the caster gets to feel the rod unloading ie the bounce. I then tell them that when casting you can get a similar feeling and to try to replicate this feeling and even enhance upon it with the line. It’s also a good way of teaching pull-back but that’s another discussion! This concept (not the pull-back) I learned straight from Mel Krieger donkeys’ years ago.

Circles Eights and Straights is a Joan Wulff method I believe. Start off drawing circles with the rod tip (with a short line length outside the tip), then figure of eights, narrow the 8s until you are throwing loops perfectly straight back and forwards. With the SH Rod it’s a great way of learning to control the wrist. But with the DHD I can imagine it being a useful way to give some feel and control to the lower hand (but I don’t know about the 8s!! And that feels challenging when I try to pantomime it. But I can imagine that zeros to straights alone, may be a handy method of bringing the lower hand into dominance.)

I find these little games very useful when teaching. They are not for everyone but when they work they are great!

Cheers, Paul

[springer]

I find these little games very useful when teaching. They are not for everyone but when they work they are great!
Cheers, Paul

I think as teachers we should have as many different ways to get the point across up our sleeves as we can. If its a game and it works then great!

[Paul Arden]

That’s for sure. What always interests me is how different everyone is. Probably just as well, otherwise we’d be bored sick by now

[Morsie]

Great post Springer - thanks. I guess if they are switched on enough one thing to consider and to point out to the student is the axis point. I have have made big improvements myself by really focusing on the position of both hands before I commence the delivery stroke, strangely enough, especially the top hand, and out of the corner of my eye I can catch the angle the rod is at and in the background the shape of the bottom leg of the D. Every cast on my right hand side has become a snapshot of these three things. The left side not so much. Unfortunately at this time of the year where I live its all westerly winds which means all practise is right hand up.

I'm going to try you point of line on reel but will also use half a rod instead of broom sticks.

Sound is such and aid for analysis and in some cases for teaching. The sound I listen for and encourage is "shiiick" rather than "swoosh".

Mel certainly had a point when he talked about "whumping" it, "whump that thing", make it bend.

Thanks I will re read your post with great interest and watch for the detail.

Morsie

[springer]

Great post Springer - thanks. I guess if they are switched on enough one thing to consider and to point out to the student is the axis point. I have have made big improvements myself by really focusing on the position of both hands before I commence the delivery stroke, strangely enough, especially the top hand, and out of the corner of my eye I can catch the angle the rod is at and in the background the shape of the bottom leg of the D. Every cast on my right hand side has become a snapshot of these three things. The left side not so much. Unfortunately at this time of the year where I live its all westerly winds which means all practise is right hand up.

I'm going to try you point of line on reel but will also use half a rod instead of broom sticks.

Sound is such and aid for analysis and in some cases for teaching. The sound I listen for and encourage is "shiiick" rather than "swoosh".

Mel certainly had a point when he talked about "whumping" it, "whump that thing", make it bend.

Thanks I will re read your post with great interest and watch for the detail.

Morsie

The way I teach is to give my pupil reference points that hopefully they can learn and remember, that way when Im not there and the casting goes awry they should be able to find the problem by tracing through the reference points until the find out which one that they are either doing wrong or is missing.

In terms of the rod angle at the back stop I teach people to look for the anchor as it develops after making the d-loop forming move, if your looking at your anchor either turning to align with the target on a waterborne or land on an airborne then you will be looking over your shoulder and so will easily see the angle you have your rod held at while checking out whats happening with your anchor and the bottom leg.

For me my top hand forearm will always be vertical and its easy to judge what a 45 degree angle looks like agains the vertical forearm, if you push the bottom hand out too much it goes back to more than 45 degrees, not enough and its less. Position of the top hand varies depending on the length of line being used, typical two-hander shooting head and my top hand is answering the telephone next to my ear, as the lines get longer that top hand will raise up and drift back, only with the longest lines will I open the casting arc up past 45 degrees back and front a little.