Walter.....
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Saturday, October 22, 2005 10:59
AM
Subject: Re: More tips for practice
Hi Gordy - a few questions on practice:
1. How often and how long are your practice
session?
I PRACTICE IN BRIEF SEGMENTS.....SAY 20 MINUTES
OR SO EARLY IN THE MORNING, PROVIDED I
AM NOT FISHING EARLY. ON A FISHING DAY,
I'LL OFTEN TAKE ADVANTAGE OF A TIDE CHANGE OR A "NO FISH HOUR" TO PRACTICE
WITH AN EVENT OR PROBLEM IN MIND WHICH INTEREST ME. IT'S RARE FOR MORE
THAN 3 OR 4 DAYS TO GO BY WITHOUT SOME PRACTICE. EVEN ON MORNINGS WHEN
I'M SCHEDULED TO SEE PATIENTS AT 9:00 AM, I'LL GO OUT TO A LITTLE PARK NEARBY
AND PRACTICE AT FIRST LIGHT, THEN COME BACK FOR BREAKFAST. OFTEN, BOB
AND I WILL MEET FOR THESE SESSIONS.
VERY DIFFERENT, BACK WHEN I WAS PRACTICING TO
TAKE THE MCI EXAM ! THOSE SESSIONS WERE MUCH MORE INTENSE.....SOMETIMES
2 HOURS OR LONGER. I'D EVEN TAKE MY ROD IN THE CAR ON FAMILY TRIPS AND
WHIP IT OUT FOR A FEW MINUTES PRACTICE IF I COULD FIND SOME GRASS AND CLEAR
AREA WHILE THE FOLKS WERE FINISHING LUNCH OR GASSING UP THE CAR.
SOMETIMES I HAD NOTHING BUT A CONCRETE PARKING LOT......SO I'D PRACTICE
PUTTING LOOPS INTO MY OPEN CAR WINDOW, OR MAKE REPEATED CURVE CASTS
NEVER ALLOWING THE LINE TO HIT THE CONCRETE, ETC,
ETC.......
2. Do you plan your practice sessions and, if so, how
granular is your planning? Athletes like runners and weight lifters will have
a firm plan in mind
YES....OFTEN BOB ANDREAE AND I WOULD START WITH
A SPECIFIC GOAL OR BRIEF SET OF GOALS FOR THE MORNING SESSION. WE DIDN'T
STAY, "LOCKED" TO IT ONCE THE GOALS WERE MET. IN THE EVENT A PARTICULAR
GOAL COULDN'T BE MET, WE DISCUSSED VARIOUS MEANS OF ATTACKING THE PROBLEM FOR
THE NEXT SESSION. SOMETIMES THAT MEANT GOING BACK TO
DO SOME READING....OR CALLING ANOTHER CASTING BUDDY, ETC.
before a work out of which specific
exercises they intend to perform (e.g. 6 quarter miles at 90 seconds or 6 sets
of squats with specific weights).
Or is it less formalized, e.g. "today
I'm going to work on my backcast"? At the very least this would indictate what
sort of equipment you need to
bring along (types of lines, ropes, hoops,
etc.). If you have a bad day in one area, e.g. I wanted to practice distance
but the wind is too strong or
my arm is tired, are you prepared to change
the practice session? GOOD WAY TO DO IT. HAVING A 15 MIN.
TO 30 MIN SESSION ON A SPECIFIC CAST OR PART OF A CAST IS
FINE.....PARTICULARLY IF IT'S ONE WITH WHICH YOU HAVE ANY DIFFICULTY AT
ALL.
I'D WAIT AND PRACTICE WIND CASTS AT A TIME WHEN
YOU ACTUALLY HAVE WIND. THIS GIVES MUCH BETTER FEEDBACK AND A
VALUABLE SENSE OF ACCOMPLISHMENT WHEN YOU DO IT WELL.
3. Do you plan practice sessions in terms of time,
performance or repetitions? i.e. I'm going to practice making tight loops for
10 minutes, until I
get 75% smaller than 1 foot, or 50
repetitions. I'm guessing the number of reps isn't too useful for a fly caster
other than to provide some feedback
that they may be getting too intense on a
given exercise and risking an injury. AGREE.
GOING BACK TO IT IN SUBSEQUENT SESSIONS, HELPS A
LOT.
4. You mentioned making notes - what sort of notes do
you find helpful? Again, with the weight lifter analogy they would record the
complete workout
in terms of number of sets and repetitions
and weights used so that next workout they will know if they are ready for
heavier weights or if a certain
order of exercises produced better results
for future reference. A good example for fly casting would be when using ropes
spaced a certain distance
apart for practicing loop width - what
would be a good starting spacing for the ropes and length of line to start
with. If I practice this exercise once
a week I wouldn't have to remember the info
I could just refer to my notes.
NOTES: FOR ME, FLASH CARD NOTES HELPED A
LOT.....PARTICULARLY WITH THE ALGORITHMS VALUABLE FOR YOUR EXAM.
EXAMPLES INCLUDE SIMPLE LISTS OF THE CASTS YOU WOULD USE FOR WIND FROM
YOUR CASTING ARM SIDE. ANOTHER, FOR THE THINGS YOU WOULD CONSIDER FOR
TARGET ACCURACY PRACTICE, LIKE, 1. TRAJECTORY (LINE PLANE), 2. ROD LOAD LEVEL
( TIP CASTING FOR CLOSE TARGET; MID TO BUTT LOADING FOR DISTANCE
TARGETS), 3. HOVER IF NO WIND/DRILL INTO TARGET IN HIGH WINDS, 4.
STRICTLY VERTICAL ROD PLANE FOR CLOSE TARGETS / OFF VERTICAL FOR DISTANCE
TARGETS. ANOTHER, IS A LIST OF VARIOUS CHANGE OF DIRECTION
CASTS.......AND SO ON.
THEN I MADE NOTES ON A LITTLE PAD AS TO WHAT I
MIGHT CONCENTRATE UPON FOR THE NEXT SESSION....HOWEVER SIMPLE. AS I
WALKED HOME FROM MY PRACTICE SITE, I'D THINK OF OTHERS WHICH I'D ADD ONCE BACK
FOR BREAKFAST.
THE PLACEMENT OF MY PARALLEL ROPES DEPENDED UPON
HOW PROFICIENT I BECAME AT MAKING THESE TIGHT BACK CAST LOOPS. I
REMEMBER STARTING WITH THEM ABOUT 6' APART, THEN BRING THEM EVER CLOSER AS I
GOT BETTER. JUST PRIOR TO TAKING YOUR EXAM, I'D HAVE THEM ABOUT 18"
APART AND NOT BE SATISFIED UNTIL I COULD CONSISTENTLY KEEP THOSE BACK
CAST TIGHT LOOPS BETWEEN THEM OUT TO ABOUT 45', FOR
EXAMPLE.
THE NUMBER OF, "SETS AND REPETITIONS" IS A
HIGHLY INDIVIDUAL DECISION.....IT WILL DIFFER WIDELY BETWEEN CANDIDATES.
JUST DON'T DO THESE 'TIL YOU, "BURN OUT", AS YOU WILL REACH THE POINT OF
DIMINISHING IF NOT DAMAGING RETURNS IF YOU DO THAT. ONE EXAMPLE OF HOW I
DID IT : ON PRACTICING DISTANCE CASTS, I'D WORK AT IT UNTIL I COULD MAKE
THREE 90' CASTS IN A ROW WITH A NICE STRAIGHT LEADER LAYOUT CLOSE TO OR IN A
3' TARGET........I'D THEN STOP AND GO TO ANOTHER EVENT TO SORT OF LET
THAT MUSCLE MEMORY, "BURN IN". IN THE BEGINNING, I'D DO EXACTLY
THE SAME THING AT MORE MODEST DISTANCES, THEN WORK UP WITH SUBSEQUENT PRACTICE
SESSIONS......THE PRINCIPLE BEING THAT REPEATED SUCCESS MAKES A NICE WARM AND
FUZZY SPOT IN YOUR BRAIN.
5. Have you got any more ideas on
good feedback mechanisms. Having a buddy watch, watching your back cast,
casting between two parallel ropes
or a hula hoop, video taping?, sound of the
rod/line...
THERE ARE MANY. SOME DEPEND ON THE PRACTICE
CIRCUMSTANCES :
# THE LEVEL OF CASTING EXPERTISE OF YOUR "BUDDY"
CAN MAKE A BIG DIFFERENCE AS TO THE QUALITY OF THE OBSERVATIONS OF YOUR
CASTING, AND THE SUGGESTIONS WHICH FOLLOW. PRE-TESTING BY A CBOG OR
MASTER WE'VE ALREADY COVERED AS A VERY HIGHLY RECOMMENDED PATH.
PRIOR TO THAT STEP, HOWEVER, IS PRACTICE.....ESPECIALLY OF THE EVENTS WHICH
YOU FIND MOST DIFFICULT WITH ONE OF THESE DEDICATED FOLKS ON AN INFORMAL
BASIS. THIS IS INVALUABLE. REMEMBER, THESE FOLKS ARE WILLING AND ANXIOUS TO HELP YOU
AS PART OF THEIR COMMITMENT TO THE FFF PRINCIPLE OF IMPROVING THE VERY
TEACHING OF FLY CASTING. IT'S UP TO YOU, AS A CANDIDATE, TO SEEK THEM
OUT.
# PRACTICE IN THE EVENING, AS THE DUSK
APPROACHES IS MY BEST TRICK TO TAKE THE CASTING EVENTS FROM THE VISUAL TO THE
KINESTHETIC LEVEL. TO BECOME A REALLY ACCOMPLISHED CASTER, YOU NEED TO
REACH THE POINT OF BEING ABLE TO MAKE GOOD DISTANCE CASTS AND SOME SPECIALTY
CASTS IN THE PITCH DARK. THESE EFFORTS GIVE YOU A KEEN SENSE OF THE PART
PLAYED BY LISTENING AND FEELING. IT'S MUCH BETTER THAN USING A
BLINDFOLD, BECAUSE IT TAKES YOU FROM THE VISUAL TO THE "FEEL AND HEAR"
SCENARIO, GRADUALLY.
VIDEO TAPING IS VALUABLE.....BUT DOESN'T GIVE
THE INSTANT FEEDBACK GAINED BY YOUR OWN "REAL TIME" OBSERVATIONS AND THOSE OF
YOUR BUDDIES. IT TAKES TIME TO SET UP, AND THE COST OF EQUIPMENT IS A
STRONG CONSIDERATION. OFTEN ATTENTION IS DIRECTED AT THE FILMING MORE
THAN TO THE CASTING WHICH IS NOT TIME-EFFECTIVE FOR YOUR
LEARNING.
# TAKING ADVANTAGE OF SITUATIONS AS THEY APPEAR
CAN PRESENT ENDLESS CHALLANGES . FOR EXAMPLE, JOAN WULFF'S,
"PICKING LEAVES", TRYING TO PLACE A TIGHT BACK CAST INTO A HOLE IN THE TREES,
CASTING WITH A HIGH EARTHEN BERM BEHIND YOU (AS BOB ANDREAE AND I HAD TO DO
WHILE TEACHING LADIES TO CAST AT AN IGFA EVENT), USING SQUIRRELS AS
TARGETS AS THEY MOVE ON THE GROUND (I'VE NEVER ACTUALLY BEEN ABLE TO HIT ONE
WITH THE YARN FLY !), CASTING TO PLACE THE FLY BENEATH PARK BENCHES, USING THE
PARALLEL LINES AT THE EDGE OF A TENNIS COURT, THREADING THE FLY THROUGH AN
EVER DECREASING OPENING IN A GATE (TIMED TO THE SWINGING OF THE GATE IN THE
WIND). FLOYD FRANKE'S TRICK OF HAVING THE CASTER PLACE TIGHT ROLL CAST
LOOPS BENEATH HIS OUTSTRETCHED ARM........ETC., ETC. (COULD GO ON
FOR PAGES !)
GORDY
Thanks
Walter
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Friday, October 21, 2005 9:22
AM
Subject: More tips for practice
Hi, Group.....
Here are a few more tips for practice casting:-
1.) Minimize your casting arm fatigue, by placing your rod/reel
under your arm whenever between casts....like when you are thinking or
talking with others. Shake out your casting hand as you do this.
2.) When practicing distance casts, use a 2 handed retrieve with
the rod under your arm. It's also a time saver.
3.) Collect your loops of line on the grass in front of your zero
mark....THEN take a step back behind the mark and make your cast.
Getting into this habit will negate the likelihood of standing on your line
while practicing and (especially) while being tested.
4.) When sharpening your loop control skills, do so with varying
amounts of line out of the rod tip.
5.) Practice controlled loops using different rod planes. Note
the necessity to increase line (loop) speed as you go more horizonal.
6.) Teach yourself to make perfectly controlled loops using no line
hand.
7.) Make these controlled loops using ever decreasing line speed so
that they are done very slowly without losing perfection. THIS ISN'T
EASY......BUT MAKES FOR MUCH BETTER DEMONSTRATION, AS THE LOOPS AND ROD
MOTIONS ARE SO MUCH EASIER TO SEE.
8.) Practice your tailing loops so that you can do them in a couple of
different ways. DO NOT MAKE THEM BY SHOVING YOUR ROD TIP UP INTO THE PATH OF
THE LINE. (This is a poor demo...because it is NOT the way your student is
likely do do it.)
Get proficient in doing it the way students do it......either by the
use of a spike of power in the middle of your stroke, or by making an
obvious creep prior to the spike.
9.) For MCI candidates, practice your back cast tailing loops
using more line out of your rod tip than is matched by your stroke length,
without changing rod planes. Make sure you can do it slowly, with an
easily seen tail every time.
10.) In practicing wind casts, it's best to orient your self with
respect to actual wind conditions, so you actually have the wind to deal
with. Practicing this with no wind is not nearly so valuable a self
teaching tool. Doing this way out in the middle of a grass field, and
turning to a different wind quadrant for each cast is a good way to do
this.
11.) Spey casting practice on water is the only way to get the skill of
anchor placement and timing down.
12.) Practice on grass can have its problems....especially if
there are weeds and other, "grass cleats". Not a bad idea to take a
large bath or beach towel upon which you can coil your line at your zero
point.
13.) Joan Wulff recommends that you always cast to some sort of
target. I think she's right.
14.) While practicing distance casting, DON'T MEASURE YOUR
DISTANCE ACHIEVED BY THE MARKS ON YOUR FLY LINE !!!!!! Always measure
by where your fly lands in relation to a measured target distance.
15.) With distance practice, be as critical of your leader layout as
with the position of your fly. Proficiency is measured, not only by
the distance traveled by the fly, but by whether you have a neat turnover of
your leader and a reasonably straight layout. (Remember, a good
straight layout is the product of good controlled casting combined with a
properly designed leader assembly.)
16.) After pleasing yourself with distance accomplishment, start
working at making the same distance with a LOT less effort.
17.) We've emphasized the point that watching your back cast
loops is a good way to improve them. However, there are some casts
which MUST be done by observing the targets....not your back cast.
This is why you must finally get to the point of making controlled back cast
loops while not observing them. For this, it's important to make them
while having a buddy critique them for you, repeatedly.
18.) It's not a bad idea to have some practice sessions in
differing conditions....like fog, wet sticky grass, windy days, cold days,
hot days.....etc. That way you'll feel confident to test under any
conditions.
19.) For long practice sessions, it is a good idea to use as light a
reel as possible. A heavy real provides inertia which makes a crisp
STOP more difficult, and it results in greater arm fatigue. If I have
a real problem with a particular cast, I like to shorten my line, remove the
reel (placing it at my feet) and then make many attempts, until I've solved
the problem.
20.) Cleaning and lubricating your line prior to your practice sessions
is a very good idea. A dirty line can cause many subtle casting
problems.
21.) Choosing a practice site with light and a contrasting
background can make your observations of your line much easier to see.
This is particularly true for critique of your back cast loops.
22.) Tom White taught me to LISTEN as I practiced. By
actually hearing the line as it traverses the guides, this may well be
telling you that you are using too much power for the task.
23.) In teaching yourself to be good at curve casts to the right
and the left, I found that I could get a lot more casts in a given period of
time and with little arm fatigue, by using only 30' of line out of the rod
tip, and repeatedly making curves to each side without letting the line fall
to the ground. This doesn't work with the distance corkscrew casts,
but it does with most of the others.
24.) While practicing your, "explain and demonstrate" events,
learn to express 2 things:
a. A statement of the problem. (Such as:
The wind is blowing from my casting arm side and will blow the line into
me.)
b. A statement as to what you are trying to
accomplish. (Such as: I need to place a mend upstream of a tongue of
current in order to have a drag free drift of my fly.)
25.) Don't simply practice perfect casts. Take plenty of time to
practice FAULTS. This way, you can demo to students what they
look like, and how they occur.
26.) As you make these faulty casts, talk to yourself as you describe
each one in terms of, ERROR, RESULT, and CORRECTION.
27.) Another way do do this, is to verbalize Bruce Richards' 6 step
algorithm as you purposely make each faulty cast and then go on to
correction.
28.) Those lucky enough to be able to practice with a buddy of similar
or equal casting ability have a real advantage ! When you help
one another, you really increase your learning !!!!
29.) Practice sessions done when you are wide awake and full of energy
are much more productive than those done when you are tired. For me, I
find that the first light of morning after a cup of coffee is best......but
that's an individual consideration.
30.) Teaching is actually wonderfully good practice. Fishing is
not, because your attention is on the fish....less so on the casting.
31.) After completing each practice session, I sometimes make little
notes on a pad as to what I've taught myself....or what I need to work on at
the next session.
32.) Bruce Richards makes a point of recommending that you have an
outfit all strung up and ready to go for easier and more frequent practice
sessions. Good idea (if you can)
Gordy