Hi Nils,
Here are a few thoughts. It actually might be interesting to have a coaching competition casting discussion. Just to dial it down that’s what I’m going to use to talk about cues. The reason for that is I have more drills for beginners than what I’m about to talk about, and all the drills have cues too. So I’m just going to dial it down to a few things. But before I do, I think we need to talk about levels.
I’m totally in agreement with Mark and Vince nowadays in that beginners need to be given drills with lots of freedom of movement and variety. Instead of telling them how to cast specifically, it’s far better to create an environment where they can explore. All I’m really interested nowadays is them initially exploring loops. I’ve been coaching coming up on 28 years now. I wish I could redo the first 24
I’m coaching 35 “students” at the moment. Seven of these are competition casters. But at some point most, if not all, of my high level students learn hoop accuracy and long distance casting, just because I think there are good things to be gained from doing so. And some also learn to teach it, because I have MCI students and some of them are interested in doing so. It’s certainly not necessary for the test but a coach is always a coach and there is considerable interest in the 170.
I broadly think in three levels. Complete beginners who need as much movement variety as possible. Experienced anglers who want to be better casters, which is also about expanding movement, while also trying to instil “good form”, which I’ll come to in a moment, both of which I do concurrently. And there is the third group who some might consider “elite” (although I dislike that term!) who are really at the stage of exploring subtle nuances and exchanging ideas.
Cues and analogies can be different between these groups. Although some are the same.
Now for competition coaching and more advanced casters I really like the 3Ps. (If you haven’t read Nick Winkelman’s “Language of Coaching” I can thoroughly recommend it). Prior to the 3Ps, I used Stance and Sequential Movement (usually lumped together) and Application of Force. 3Ps are Position, Pattern and Power. Position being fluid and therefore can also be used to describe “getting underneath the rod” on a delivery distance cast for example. Pattern is sequential movement but a better term and more accurate I think. Power in the 3Ps is “does the athlete have the strength capacity to do the work?”, but I’ve bastardised that into Power/Force Application, in other words how much, when and in which direction the force is applied. Which I think is more useful for my needs. It’s also “fluid”.
So… let’s first take competition accuracy stroke.
Cues for Position:
darts throwing foot position, weight on front foot
Cues for Pattern:
Standing next to a wall (ok this is more alignment, but it’s directly going to affect pattern)
Lift directly away from target
Backcast: forearm hits a shelf and the wrist flails (thanks John)
Forward cast: squeeze rod grip into heel of the hand throughout the cast (this should bring shoulder into play). If it doesn’t then cue a bell behind the caster and pulling a rope down to ring the bell.
[there are certainly variations between Accuracy Caster Strokes, but this post is already going to be long enough!]
Cues for Force Application:
Throwing a potato off the rod tip (that’s a beginner one!)
Two targets 180 apart.
Line angle from rod tip to target after Lift… follow back for bell above and behind shoulder.
Cast to backcast bell and hold position until the bell rings “ting”
Casting loops through an imaginary tunnel
Cues for hover: start with the fly dead centre in ring and then hover to see what the air target should be relative to the rings. We know this will be the perfect cue to sight for because we started dead centre.
Imaginary mini tornado out of the centre of the ring that sucks the fly in.
I imagine a Gourami swimming under the rings, not too big of course or my knees will start shaking!
Cues for 5WT Distance
Position:
Like standing on a snowboard, bend the knees.
Weight shift to rock the boat.
Foot position is imperative since the angles both facilitate as well as block torso rotation and the alignment allows weight shift direct to targets
Shift to bent back leg, like a prizefighter (OSD)
Move “underneath the rod” for the Launch
Pattern:
170 Backcast like frisbee on vertical
Pullback to set pickup OSD backcast, initially learned using cues: flicking a towel, or bendy ruler or “wasp swat”
Stroke must be domed, learned through Wiper Drill.
Hauling backcast like Karate chop directly away from rod. Chop someone’s head off! Forward cast like “chicken wing” to put bend in elbow (chicken wing drill).
Turn thumb out/ haul twist “thumbing a ride” backcast, brush thumbnail past shorts on front cast.
Finish arms fully extended like aeroplane wings
The Launch: get underneath the rod with a bent knee and explode up from the ground
Cradle Grip: “like clicking the fingers”
Force cues:
Two targets one 15 degrees above the horizon and the other the horizontal on the backcast (can be moved)
Rod butt passing perpendicular on backcast (to time rotational hit&haul)
Second section of rod coming into view on forward cast (as above)
In fact in full flight, which really should be happening by the third delivery in a competition, I only want: backcast target, rod butt perpendicular (or later), check loop, front target, top third of rod appearing, check loop – as cues.
Forward cast (back to training): aiming rod butt through to target.
Reaching out and curving rod butt over target. Casting rod tip over tree directly in front.
Casting loop over tree.
Reaching out and touching the tree.
Dunking a basketball
Drawing a line down from the clouds in front to the target “Excalibur.”
Breathing - used to be like swimming: in, hold, out, in, hold, out – but we don’t swim like that anymore!
It’s endless. There a numerous cues and analogies for every part of every movement. If the first cue doesn’t work we find another and try again. It’s just pure invention (and fascinating!) and the 3Ps allow for us to direct our attention to what we want to mould.
Cheers, Paul
PS this may be the longest post I have ever written