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Walter & Group...
[GH] Phillip Maher shares a neat teaching trick for teaching youngsters:
Just a short note -
I have a game I like to play with kids when teaching them to cast. Called the Harry potter magic wand.
You give the kids/adults the rod with approximately 25 feet of line out side the rod tip. You stand about 35 feet away and hold your hand out and ask them to point the rod at it. At this stage the line is in loose coils on the ground. Then you start to move your hand to the left and ask them to follow it. Then to the right and they should try to stay pointing the rad at your hand as it moves. As you speed up the movement of your hand from left to right allowing a relevant pause at each stop for the length of line out. The loose line on the ground will become air realised and they will be casting with correct tracking and timing. It is simply magic like Harry him self and all kids like a bit of magic and fun as they learn a new skill.
Philip Maher
Fishhunt
Touraneena
Ballinamult
Clonmel
Co Tipperary
Ireland
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[GH] Phillip,
Harry Potter's wand !
I like that idea ...A game that I'm sure worked well.
Before actually teaching my grandson to cast a fly rod, at 5 years of age, I took him out fishing on my skiff. I'd hook a small fish and hand the rod to him. After showing him how to strip the line in so the fish could be landed, he did this many times.
Later, I hooked larger fish and taught him to use the reel and its drag system to land them.
Then.... I'd make the cast while he made the retrieve and hooked and fought the fish.
It wasn't long before this led to his wanting to "cast like Grandpa-Gordon".
Trick is to get the young one into a situation where there are lots of eager to strike fish... Young kids don't care what species they catch, so long as there is action.
Starting him actually landing fish was the key to motivating him to want to learn to cast.
Gordy
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[GH] Here's a teaching trick which Rick Brown finds helpful even with youngsters :
Gordy,
After being a CCI for about 2 years, I have found that the hardest thing to teach is ''gradual acceleration to a to a stop.'' Most beginners just wave the rod back and forth, assuming that since they changed direction, there must have been a stop in there somewhere.
We have had discussions on many methods but here is one that sometimes works for me. I ask the student to say ''Tick- Tock.'' Assuming a pick up and lay down cast, I ask them to start the cast vocalizing the ''T'' in tick and end it with a stop at the ''K.'' Then the tock part is the same, begin with the T and end with the K. If this isn't clear (I understand) but the student actually says ''tick-tock'' with tick being the back cast and tock the forward cast. It is like a metronome. the T sound starts the cast and the K sound ends it.
Delaying the time between the words can help with timing also. Depending on line out, I ask them to say ''tick, 1,2,3, tock'' or whatever is appropriate.
I have used this with kids as well as adults and it can be helpful ,with either. I think the key is the simplicity.
best, Rick
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[GH] From Gary Eaton:
Gordy,
Reflecting on the problems identified and in Mac Lord's direct instruction - it seems the analogies we use to get the results ("chop my forehead"), often become permanent. The problem with this is that the methods may need to change as casting situations change. I try to reinforce that a particular method works "for this cast" if I have to vary from Gammels' 5-Essentials.
Likewise, there remain some refinements of description that seem to improve upon a previous method. We all know of the "chopping" description of roll-cast stroke and "pound-the-nail" of forward cast description. Early-on I recognized both of these as often contributing to excess rotation. When teaching a small group of Boy Scouts once, i brought a few "throwing and striking" props along. The skill that transferred most directly, and transformed their roll cast, was "throwing a knife". The stop is high with no rotational follow-through. The stroke is very long in translation with a smooth, abbreviated rotation to a very abrupt stop. Not necessarily just-for-kids, but adopting this description helps a lot of people with refining their casting stroke, especially on roll casts.
Mentioning Tasmania's great MCI, Peter Hayes, brought to my mind all of the innovations he has developed. It also reminded me that his young son recently became what must be the youngest CCI, ever (age 11). I suspect that the young Lachie Hayes, CCI, might reveal to us older instructors which watch-words and skill-builders made the greatest impact. Maybe Peter would relay their experience in this regard?
Gary Eaton, MCI
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[GH] Gary,
The way I see it is that when a caster is taught by "direct teaching", before he can become a really competent fly caster, he must learn not only the substance (essentials) behind what he has learned, but the variables as well.
Very young kids are not yet ready to learn these essentials let alone the variables as they begin their journey... and they will likely be turned off by discussions of casting mechanics and physics explanations.
By the time they reach Boy Scout age (12 +) most of them can appreciate basic casting mechanics in small doses if taught in relation to what they are actually doing.
Good thought on Lachie Hayes ! I'll ask him.
Gordy
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