If a student is only fishing 10-20 days/year, then it’s unlikely that they are going to devote many hours to training to be a high level caster. It would be very atypical for me to have someone book a course with so little annual fishing. My students are, by and large, obsessed. I must attract them
The only students I get who might (almost) fit into that bracket have taken up fly fishing later in life. Typically in their 40s, having a number of destination trips/year. Eg Seychelles, Oman or New Zealand (but it’s far more likely to be SW) and have recognised that in order to have more successful trips, then being a much better caster is a key. These guys will train 5 days/week to learn the required skills. But even then they are fishing considerably more than 20 days/year, and can see direct use of what I am teaching them.
So it’s definitely a different world. My typical student is very similar to CI candidates who have decided to take the CI to improve their skills. I have a far more developed (in scope) casting program for them, than the more-focussed CI training program, that I’ll use if that’s the plan.
So it’s totally different. That said, how you teach and how you assess whether something has actually been learned, is the same. I certainly don’t think an annual lesson would suffice in my students’ circumstances, where we are trying to make significant long term and robust improvements. Typically I expect my student to be at or above CI
casting level within about 12 months. Some then decide to do the CI, which is fine. This is not me suggesting it, but usually other people they then meet.
The bit that interests me the most in coaching flycasting,
is taking someone through to being a high level flycaster. I find this totally fascinating. I have an unusual situation in this too, in that the better they get, the more influence I seem to be able to have.
Burned 6900 calories yesterday. Time for some food!
Cheers, Paul