FFI CI exam Tailing loops

[bartdezwaan]

Fix 1
I will already give an answer for fix 1, so you can give your opinions.
What I recently have been seeing often is that people want to be slow and start the casting stroke to slowly. Halfway they start to apply power (slightly to abrupt) and the loop tails. Sometimes the abrupt power application is subtle and causes a tendency to tail instead of a "full" tail.
What fixes it, most of the time for me, is the analogy of hitting the nail in the wall. It does often open up the loop a bit, but the tailing loop is mostly gone.

Any thoughts?

Cheers, Bart

[Paul Arden]

Hi Bart,

well first up this is almost outside the scope of the test. You are not expected to have vast experience teaching because the organisations want instructors to be qualified! So the CI is a little bit like L-plates or your driving licence. You are already in front of the crowd because you are teaching the Dutch Team.

So yes an analogy or two would be fine I think.

Of course in the real world that doesn't always work. So basically we are trying to smoothen out the Overall Casting Stroke, if the analogy works then brilliant job well done! There are lots of other analogies, such as flicking a potato off the rod tip, cradling a bird, dunking a basket ball, ringing a bell etc etc

There are many causes of being non-smooth; gripping the rod too tightly, trying to snatch the line out of the air and the hard stop can actually be the problem/s. Often it's a hurried stroke, one without feel. "Feel for the weight of the line at the beginning of the forward cast" is a great line, and it changes the awareness to what's happening to the line behind and not the target in front. Try asking the student to describe his or her cast to you.

In no particular order I have three drills:

Firstly it's often important to isolate back and forward casts. On a distance cast you can lay the backcast on the ground. This is a higher level student - but tails are often an intermediate level problem. I find teaching the dynamic roll cast to be very good for teaching distance casting force application - so if this is a problem originating in distance casts then I'll often fix it by teaching \\\\/ of a Roll Cast. In both cases the cast starts sloooow.

Or you can go to one of the other methods - for me I will try the quicker methods first but it really can be the best solution, particularly for repeated problems - and that is Lee's triangle method.

The other method I use is to shorten the length of line to a very short length and ask the student to throw very narrow loops - ie Minimum Force Drill. And then gradually extend carry from there.

So that's what I do; look at the grip, isolate back and forward casts, change the cast to a dynamic roll, triangle method or shorten up the line and do minimum force. AND THEN, when you have something that works ask the student how it feels. That then becomes something that he or she will remember and you may get another tool in your tool box.

Cheers, Paul

[Boisker]

Hey Bart... language is funny, I found that the ‘hitting nail, abrupt stop and hard stop’ explanations really hadn’t helped my casting, it resulted in way to much power at the end of the stroke for me. After being self taught for about 5 years it took a lot of work to sort out that issue.
Personally, out fo the explanations I think the “flicking the paint off the end of a brush” is better, it’s a more controlled description... not quite true ... I actually found standing next to and watching an instructor who could cast was the best cure... immediately obvious how ‘un-smooth’ my stroke was.... but after that the “paint/brush” works best for me and is one I would use.

[bartdezwaan]

Thanks for the feedback Boisker. Funny how people click on different things.
Luckily I have more than one analogy in my toolbox and use the flicking the paint as well. Sometimes I am not able to cure the tailing loop at all in the time that I have.

Cheers, Bart

[easterncaster]

I'm with Boisker... and perhaps even more, hating the description: hard / abrupt stop. I much prefer: crisp stop.

At times I have asked students that are too forceful to 'hide the stop'.

Craig

[Boisker]

I guess it all depends how you use a hammer... the blacksmith in the village would send out shockwaves that would be felt in the Southern Hemisphere if he was learning to cast

[Lasse Karlsson]

I'm a painter by profession, flicking water or paint of a brush for me is like the blacksmith hammering.. Guess there's a reason I prefer to not talk about a stop at all in my teaching, sometimes people have so much bagage from everywhere though, and it creeps in...

Cheers
Lasse

[jarmo]

Guess there's a reason I prefer to not talk about a stop at all in my teaching...

That sounds interesting. What is your verbal description for the end of the stroke?

[Lasse Karlsson]

The end of the stroke

The important part happens before anyway...

Cheers
Lasse

[jarmo]

The end of the stroke

Fair enough.