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Walter & Group...
[GH] Still none who answered "NO" to John Bilotta's question 1.
This is a new one for me to consider for my bag of teaching tricks. From Rick Brown :
Gordy,
Here is something that I have done which seems to be helpful to beginners and more advanced casters who are having problems. It is similar to the ideas of others but goes a step further.
I ask them to close their eyes and IMAGINE that they are standing in the middle of a large room. Painted on the floor is a one foot wide yellow stripe with a one inch red stripe in the middle. The stripe continues across the floor, up the wall, across the ceiling, down the rear wall and back across the floor to its origin.
Then I ask them to put their rod tip in the middle of the red stripe. Then begin a slow lift to the juncture of the wall and ceiling and then a smooth acceleration to some predesignated point and then return to the starting point. They must concentrate on keeping the tip planted on the red stripe. This gets them started with the rod tip down, gives them an acceleration point and the beginning of a straight line path.
Since I can move the imaginary line wherever I want it, any rod plane or angle can be practiced. I change the concept a little for SLP by asking them to imagine that their rod tip is inside a tube with a slot cut in it. They must imagine (eyes closed) that no matter how much the rod bends it must remain inside the tube. I actually use a PVC tube painted yellow with the slot outlined in red. This is a big help with concave/convex rod paths. With eyes open, I can hold the tube at any angle or rod plane and explain that the rod tip must stay within the tube during the cast.
Another trick is that I can position the walls, in their imagination, wherever I want them. I move them in close to teach the stop.
Since an actual rod is not necessary, this exercise can be done anywhere and the possibilities are numerous.
Rick
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[GH] Interesting. In order to keep that imaginary rod tip inside the tube, two things are necessary :
1. There has to be a straight line path of the rod tip in ALL PLANES (includes good tracking)
2. The rod bend (imagined or real) has to match the casting arc.
Seems it might be a bit of a stretch to assume that all students have the capacity for that complex visualization. For those who didn't, it would be a great idea to have those floor/wall/ceiling paths created with lights or lasers.
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[GH] An accomplished golf instructor weighs in. This from Dave Hutchinson :
Gordy,
Again I would like to use golf as an example of visualization. Accomplish golfer use this technique when attempting a particular golf, such as a hook, slice, high or low trajectory, or even a combination of these types of shot After taking their stance in preparation for the shot, they visualize the shot in their mind. They are not thinking about the technique that they must accomplish. I have found that this works for me in fly casting. Of course the casters must have practiced the cast to the point that the actual movements needed are ingrain in their muscle memory.
Dave Hutchinson
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[GH] Dave,
Your message is reminiscent of the teachings of the great Harvey Penick... perhaps the best golf pro of all time. His "Slow Motion Drill", "The Mythical Perfect Swing", "The Magic Move" and "In the Mind's Eye" are concepts of use in teaching fly casting. *
I am not a golfer. Perhaps that has something to do with the fact that I looked at golf as hard work when I tried to make a few dollars as a teenage caddy on Long Island during WWW II when most of the adult men were at war. Golf carts hadn't been invented - bags were of heavy leather - Huffing up the hills at Plandome with three bags - 2-3 loops a day......No numbered clubs (mashie niblicks, etc.) ..... duffers blaming a poor shot on the caddie's choice of club....................... shagging balls 'til nightfall. You get the picture.
Peter Minnick and Chuck Easterling introduced me to one of golf's classic writings ... Harvey Penick's, "Little Red Book".
When the fly casting instructor reads Penick's words, he quickly notes that the simple but sage advice applies to fly casting as well as golf with startling regularity. I'm indebted to Peter for having sent me the book.
It was Chuck Easterling who taught us how to use Penick's, "..slow motion drill" for self teaching of the Casting stroke at my home when we were gathered as instructors at one of our CCI & MCI prep courses in the Florida Keys a few years ago.
Harvey Penick was known for aiming his instruction directly at his student and his student's problem. He considered group or class instruction as well as observers as distraction. He is said to have tailored each golf swing to the physique and temperament of his student.
How many of us have thought of doing that as we teach the casting stroke to our students ?
I can't resist a couple of quotes from Harvey.: "I prefer to teach with images, parables, and metaphors that plant in the mind the seeds of shotmaking." "....... it's not what the teacher says, but what the student hears that matters." His "A Teacher's Guide" should be read by both golf and flycasting instructors. Harvey's, "The Barbed Wire Line" is a perfect example of the use of visualization when teaching.
* The Wisdom of Harvey Penick, by the Estate of Harvey Penick, Helen Penick & Bud Shrake, 1997, ISBN 0-684-84508-3, pp. 26, 16,78, 89-90, 163-168, 272.
Gordy
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