Walter & Group...
I'd like to have your input on the following:
1.) Your method and "tricks" for teaching the basic roll cast to students.
2.) Your way of teaching and improving the DISTANCE roll cast to for advanced students and MCCI candidates.
Tom White is the best roll caster I've ever seen .... bar none. One method he uses to teach efficient roll casting, is to get the student to change mind set about what he/she is trying to accomplish. He'll take a caster who has a good basic casting stroke but who is having trouble with the roll casts and in minutes have that caster go from a wide loop poorly controlled roll cast to a nice egg-shaped tight loop efficient roll cast.
He'll start by having the student make a good roll cast, "set-up" .... fly out on the water about 1 1/2 to 2 rod lengths out in front (a bit farther on grass), and a static loop behind the casting arm with no more line than that contained in the fly line head. (In other words, no shooting line.) He points out to the student that with this ,"set-up" you, "always have fat line to turn over the skinny line in front of it".
An important part of that, "set-up" is to have the rod way back in the direction of the loop on the ground behind.
He then tells the student, "DON'T MAKE A ROLL CAST. SIMPLY MAKE THE VERY BEST REGULAR FORWARD CAST YOU CAN".
The caster usually surprises all by making the first beautiful tight loop roll cast he's ever made !
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I've taken a page from Tom's, "book" in teaching the long distance roll cast to MCCI candidates and other advanced casters :-
The caster's fly line is pulled back in a straight line behind .... say, 50 ' stretched out on the grass. Then I have the caster make a simple straightforward distance cast to a target, say 65' in front. It's easy. It works even with a wt. forward taper with some shooting line out of the rod tip (overhang).
I repeat that several times.
Then, I make the, "roll cast set up" on the grass (or water) by hand carrying a perfect needle sharp loop out behind straight behind the casting elbow.
I have the caster do exactly what he/she did previously, and repeat the process 3 times.
Only then do I go into an explanation of why it worked so well.
We, then, go into the methods of making the, "roll cast distance set-up" with no assistance, and reinforce the idea that, "we need to make an ordinary perfect distance cast .... not a, "roll cast".
Too refine this to the point of having a nice tight egg shaped loop, I use a method taught to my by Floyd Franke. He stands in front of the roll caster with his arm stretched out to the side and has the caster try repeatedly to place the loop just UNDER his hand.
This method is based upon the idea that so many poor roll casters get the idea of the, "ROLL" into their heads as the need for a rod tip moving in a rolling fashion overhead. This, of course, leads to the inefficient wide loop produced by too wide a casting arc for the amount of line carried, ie. way too much convexity to the tip path. Getting rid of that mind set that has been ground into the student's DNA is one secret leading to success.
Try it. It WORKS.
Gordy