Structuring multiple lessons

[Paul Arden]

I was yanking your chain Paul, we have evolutionary adaptions that enhance our ability to throw. It is like walking, a learned not a natural skill Do you think marathon runners would make good casters?

regards

Vince

It works for me! Charlie Jardine runs marathons too. So you might be on to something

[Paul Arden]

Part one I don’t think they do.

I don't think they do either...in fact I think it would be massively unlikely in all but the most exceptional of circumstances. Effort is very rarely, if ever, front and foremost in the minds of most casters I've ever taught. It is certainly a concern for instructors but this is an issue of reducing eye-bulging force input usually, I've had a few at serious risk of a prolapse. It's definitely not a matter of saving a few ergs with a wrist flop.

Nevertheless, it would be quite unusual to put a lens on a particular body part in an effort to reduce...umm... effort. If an instructor does decide to specifically recommend this wrist flop then casters will necessarily direct their focus internally onto one particular part of that kinetic chain that we're promoting. Plus, if white bear is added in to the mix, then there is a risk of casters ignoring management of combined sources of unnecessary erg consumption in the chain in favour of a relatively minor but very specific one.

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But of course it’s not just about reducing effort; it’s about better use of the body parts. So that when we do turn up the dial again it goes further.

Hypothetical scenario. Student comes to you. He says, I’m off to Oman in 3 months. Hang on… six months! I hear to catch permit I need to be able to make 80’ shots with a weighted crab on a sink tip line, casting accurately just below a cliff face. It’s windy and wavy. I can currently cast about 75’. But not in the wind or with weighted flies, let alone accurately. Can you help me please? I will book multiple lessons and train as you suggest.

Not so hypothetical for me because I have two long term students who independently both started out with me because they couldn’t make this shots. They can certainly both do it now and then some.

You have time to rebuild his stroke. You’ll get 10 lessons say and 80-100 hrs of training.

Where do you go from here with this dream student?

Cheers, Paul

[Stoatstail50]

Where do you go from here with this dream student?

I'd send him to you

[Paul Arden]

He doesn’t like yetis.

[Stoatstail50]

It's totally hypothetical for me...If I've read your description correctly you want me to teach someone standing in a wave, to cast a system that will kick, 80' upwind, with zero backcast space.

Please bear in mind the stick I got on here for failing to cast a weighted fly, 80' upwind, in a howling gale, up to my knees in mud and slightly concerned I may die a slow death imobilised on a remote bonefish flat..I couldn't do it then and I had room behind me. On that basis, and without seeing what this person can actually do already, I have to confess that, beyond work on the most basic concepts, I have no idea.

[Paul Arden]

No no. He’s on the bow end of a boat casting in towards a cliff. There is a ledge and permit are there, heads down, tails up. It’s an 80’ shot with a weighted crab on a sink tip line. Wind can be any which way. The front of the boat is moving up and down.

For me that means you have to be a 110-115’ caster. Most people get to about 70’ left to their own devices over time. But this is a skill level over and above. Fortunately you have 6 months. Which makes it very achievable.

Cheers, Paul

[Stoatstail50]

Sounds like my idea of a personal hell...are there any primroses or tweetling wrens ?...a babbling brook nearby ?

[Paul Arden]

It sounds awesome to me. I love sight fishing shots. Big fish, tropical climates, feeding the fish. The vast majority of my students come to me because they have a similar challenge and are driven to make shots. If you are going to drop 10K on a destination trip then you want to be putting the shots in!!

In these circumstances I’m almost certainly going to rebuild their stroke. And probably multiple times over a long time period. They need the 170 for backhand shots. They need stopless delivery on the forward cast for throwing into a head wind. They need line speed, trajectory and plane adjustments. A blistering haul. For me it’s great because it’s a layered process. It’s highly technical fly casting which also needs to happen automatically. That’s a lot of training. I take a lot of what I’ve learned from competition distance and apply it to the shot and analyse the casting movement in the same structured way. Weight shift is out but as part of the training process it’s in.

When you get an eat off a shot like that then that’s a memorable moment in life. Being able to do that on call I think is great fly casting.

[Stoatstail50]

It’s a job for world class casters then…which is where I usually send someone who needs that kind of service.

In fact I’m going to pack in private instruction altogether at the end of this season and focus on being quiet amongst the cowslips.

I think everything a new instructor needs to know about teaching has been covered more than once in the teaching threads and can probably be reinforced by reading a couple of books. Then they can concentrate on discussing what to teach, which is what everyone really likes to talk about anyway and where everything goes in the end, as amply evidenced on here.

[VGB]

In my professional life I have worked with a couple of astronauts. However in 30 years of fly fishing, I haven't even met anyone like this hypothetical person let alone been approached for instruction by them. I have taken to singing along with Wuthering Heights by Kate Bush because being challenged to sing along to that track in a karaoke pub is more likely to happen in the next 10 years.