Weight transfer/ sequential blocking

[Paul Arden]

Hi folks,

I was wondering about how to describe Open Stance Distance body movement using external cues. When I look at the backcast only from the forearm perspective it’s easy, “imagine that your forearm (damn, internal!) strikes a pillow [or something solid] and the wrist flips over as if you were throwing car keys high over your shoulder. (Or ‘spring’ them towards the bell). That forearm block I think is crucial to good technique.

But that’s only the forearm movement. What we want in distance flycasting is weight shift, torso twist, shoulder, forearm and finally wrist. And blocked in that order. That’s the cast starting at the ground and working it’s way up through the body. A kinetic chain. A sequential ‘collision’ from the ground up. “As you move towards the target and sink to the back leg imagine your are colliding with a wall, and every part of the body then collides travelling upwards, finally flinging [add object here] over your shoulder and far away?”

It’s very hard to consider the entire movement in one external package. However connecting the ground to the rod is what we are doing here, while using sequential blocking. Weight transfer to rod movement. That’s sums it up for me. But I can’t think of enough good analogies/cues.

How does it feel to you?

Thanks, Paul

[VGB]

I guess that you are building up to your 170? In my assessment, I taught the 30-50ft extension by standing around the middle of the tape measure, tying in the relationship between tip path and line length. Starting with how much the tip moved (no line at this point) relative to the tape by weight shift only, I then progressively brought in the arm and shoulder rotation, showing how much further the tip moved with each addition to the kinetic chain. I guess you could add wrist and haul as the final motion but I haven’t tried that. When I teach this with the line, I get them to drop it on every false cast and step back to straighten it, progressively adding the speed until they are moving fluidly with the line in the air. I’ll step away at times just to let them work through it themselves because their movement can be interrupted because they may also be focusing their attention on you, even when you are not speaking.

Regards

Vince

[Paul Arden]

Hi Vince,

I’m actually looking at Open Stance Distance at a high Intermediate level. Trying to get the body moving and gradually/sequentially stopping allowing the momentum to shift up through the body. While many might do this on the front cast it’s rather rare to see it done effectively on the backcast. Normally we see the hand and forearm start and complete together and not in sequence. And often I see a similar combined movement with the lower and upper body. In other words everything starts and stops at the same time. What I would like to see is more like a tree being blown in the wind, or Torbias’ whip effect, but transferred up through the body instead of up through the rod.

In practical terms, with the body, we start by shifting weight, then begin torso twist, followed by moving the shoulder and elbow. Then we stop/block weight shift, torso twist, forearm blocks and the wrist fires the rod (and line) backwards. That’s all internal of course. What I haven’t found is good external cues that generates this body motion naturally.

This is a little bit where external/internal breaks down because asking someone to jump higher is not much use if they don’t know how to jump in the first place. However by breaking it down into smaller chunks I can get the appropriate action. I just don’t have a clear way of providing external cues for this process.

Cheers, Paul

[VGB]

Hi Paul,

cueing is not an either/or solution, you can use both but the skill is in using them appropriately. I will have fixed the external cue such as the straight fly leg early on but will switch to an internal cue to make a change and then observe the effect on the external cue. The external cue or analogy is always the last thing I set in their mind before I set them back on the task.

Regards

Vince

[George C]

I’d think what we are trying for is sequential acceleration rather than sequential blocking. Isn’t the latter just a technique to keep that acceleration directed on line?
Watching Olympic javelin throwers it seems some have eliminated blocks entirely and fall to the ground as they release.

[John Waters]

Hi George,

The two movements (acceleration and breaking/blocking) are linked if optimal performance is the objective. What you see when the javelin thrower falls to the ground is follow through, and a direct consequence of the acceleration/breaking duality up to the point of release. Performance is a function of acceleration and breaking, and reflects both the range and sequence of the movement/breaks used to generate that acceleration.

John

[Paul Arden]

As I look at it it’s a chain of movement. Weight shift passes up the ladder to body, which in turn passes up to forearm, which finalised with wrist. Each movement finishes in turn. It’s possible to think in terms of sequential acceleration. What tells me if it’s done effectively is each part stopping in sequence. The one I personally concentrate on is blocking the forearm.

Maybe an analogy is better. Like riding a bike on a train. Train stops. Bike stops. Man flies over the handlebars.

Cheers, Paul

[VGB]

The two movements (acceleration and breaking/blocking) are linked if optimal performance is the objective. What you see when the javelin thrower falls to the ground is follow through, and a direct consequence of the acceleration/breaking duality up to the point of release.

Okay, I understand now and that is something I wouldn’t teach. For fishing casts, I would not allow movements to compromise functional stability.

Regards

Vince

[VGB]

“As you move towards the target and sink to the back leg imagine your are colliding with a wall, and every part of the body then collides travelling upwards, finally flinging [add object here] over your shoulder and far away?”

It’s very hard to consider the entire movement in one external package……… But I can’t think of enough good analogies/cues.

Hi Paul

Is the piece you quoted not working? I’ve stolen your frisbee throw but I think you are missing the multimodal element of teaching, the words are just reinforcing the demo and any mirroring.

Regards

Vince

[Paul Arden]

Hi Vince,

They work. Not in every case as well as I would like and I’m trying to think of different ways to package it. Blocking the forearm is central to this motion and I’ve been playing around with external cues for that movement, arguably with some improved results. (Eg striking a pillow – I like the pillow, but it can also be changed to something solid).

The bumping up a wall analogy was only something I came up with last week and I wasn’t happy with the results, arguably in fact it’s confusing. Typically I would talk about sinking the body and anchoring the back foot, twisting the torso, continuing to target and blocking solid the forearm to flip the wrist over. I’m looking for ways to improve the teaching not what is being taught.

Perhaps an analogy for the body movement and flipping car keys as the cue is still the best way. But I’m always ready to try something new on unsuspecting students

Cheers, Paul