Feel

[Paul Arden]

How do you have them develop spatial awareness, Lasse? And why do you think it matters?

Cheers, Paul

[John Waters]

How do instructors change a habit of gripping the rod too tight? Am interested in what you do and say both during the lesson, and what do you advise the student to do when they are training on their own so that at the next lesson, you see an improvement in that performance impeding issue.

John

[Torsten]

Feedback from the rod or line is an external source.

[easterncaster]

How do instructors change a habit of gripping the rod too tight? Am interested in what you do and say both during the lesson, and what do you advise the student to do when they are training on their own so that at the next lesson, you see an improvement in that performance impeding issue.

John

Hi John,

At the Wulff School, we use a house-hold dish washing sponge, cut in half length wise so it fits better in the hand.
Mime casting stroke with sponge expanded and squeezing at stop position, releasing pressure in follow-through.

Students also, later on, use the sponge whilst holding the rod - but that is not all that easy IMO.

Hope my brief explanation makes sense.
Craig

[John Waters]

Hi Craig,

Thanks for your feedback, it most certainly makes sense. I wonder what other instructors say and do?

John

[Mangrove Cuckoo]

How do instructors change a habit of gripping the rod too tight? Am interested in what you do and say both during the lesson, and what do you advise the student to do when they are training on their own so that at the next lesson, you see an improvement in that performance impeding issue.

John

John,

With more advanced casters, on the back cast, I ask them to simply allow the top of the handle to lay upon their index and middle fingers. The bottom of the handle is trapped against the base of the thumb. The "grip" is about as relaxed as it can get.

It is much harder to explain than to demonstrate.

The resistance of the line throughout the stroke keeps the rod in place, but at the block of the arm I ask them to squeeze the hand as if they were holding and quickly squeezing a pair of pliers.

This results in a very quick acceleration of the tip, much like pulling with the lower fingers at the end of the presentation cast. I know this is quite in contrast to allowing the wrist to flip, but it works very well, especially in OSD and fishing situations.

Apparently, though, it also results in a specific strengthening of grip muscles in the hand and inflammation of those finger tendons if done in excess with large tackle.

Don''t ask me how I know!

Gary

[Lasse Karlsson]

How do you have them develop spatial awareness, Lasse? And why do you think it matters?

Cheers, Paul

Learning to flycast. As I said, one pick it up faster if you already have good spatial awareness, it take longer if you have to develop it on top.

Knowing where you are in space and time helps when moving, ask anyone who moves. One of the reasons why closing your eyes drops your accuracy, your distance, and your overall smoothness and performance.

Still waiting for someone to explain how they teach feel, not holding my breath though...

Cheers
Lasse

[VGB]

Thanks for your feedback, it most certainly makes sense. I wonder what other instructors say and do?

I don’t make a drama out of it, you can’t demand people relax. They are working hard and may be suffering from stage fright. Usually, I’ll observe the less than 3 white knuckle rule and tell a dit of how an instructor threatened to sellotape my middle 3 fingers together if he saw me strangling the rod. If I see it happening and it is impeding performance, I’ll mention the white knuckles and call a break. If it’s a regular occurrence, you need to lighten up your lessons, the dance and interpersonal skills go a long way to setting a relaxed atmosphere. Don’t stimulate the vagus nerve in the first place.

[George C]

Still waiting for someone to explain how they teach feel, not holding my breath though...

Cheers
Lasse

Hi Lasse
Why would you need to teach feel?
Humans have many experiences in common. Our internal sensory perceptions of these experiences often are similar.
All you need to do is suggest a feeling the student is familiar with and see if it helps them. If not they quickly discard it.

Vince and Mark make very good points about the problems of this approach. Certainly there are more reliable teaching methods. Telling a student he should feel like he is throwing an apple off a stick is unlikely to be as helpful as using the triangle method to discover the associated feelings for themselves. But students are human and humans use feel, both consciously and unconsciously, for feedback during movement. Like it or not they are seeking a link between the new activity and something they are already familiar with.

An example. I have problems with accelerating my delivery cast too quickly in certain fishing situations. I understood the problem but had trouble avoiding it. Then somewhere I read that the start of the casting stroke should feel slow, ‘like stroking a woman’s thigh’. That suggestion worked for me. My casting improved and my wife seemed appreciative as well.

Sure, lots of feely suggestions are unhelpful or confusing when the student’s perception of what they feel is different than the instructor’s. If one’s idea of foreplay is ‘brace yourself, honey’ then the stroking bit may not help their cast. But this is immediately apparent and the suggestion can be discarded. When the comparison does strike a chord, however, and the student discovers the necessary movement is something they already know how to do, then a jump in performance can occur.

Seems to me that feely suggestions should never be an instructor’s primary tool but, at the same time, they can be a helpful tool to have in the box to try in certain situations.

Regards
George

[VGB]

Based on the assumption that you didn’t take your wife with you . How did you know that you had a successful outcome?

Regards

Vince