Casting ergonomics

I have noticed that my students also grasp the backcast more quickly than the forward cast. I also have been wondering about it and am interested in your thoughts, as a physician, about the effect of antomy on casting. I notice that with me, I cannot move my forearm back as far as I can move it forward. My forearm stops at around 12:00-1:00. If we reduce the amount of wrist movement with our beginners, then it seems to me we are able to make a pretty good back cast, without even thinking about it. Thoughts??

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When casting in the vertical or almost vertical plane, it is not possible to move the forearm back nearly as far as we can move it forward. Despite this, the most common fault with early casters is usually noted to be a poor wide loop back cast directed downward. This is usually due to a poorly controlled wrist, ("wristing").

Problem is that we must get the casting hand way back for great casting distance. There are several ways of doing this

Many champion distance casters use the vertical plane partly because they are likely to reduce mal tracking. Some do it because they have greater strength for the delivery cast..... and some because of a combination. Because they can't get the forearm and, therefore, the casting hand back as far as they wish, they use body motion, leaning way back. This is much easier for supple young atheletic casters (Gets much harder as one ages !).

Casting in an, "off vertical" or, "off horizontal" plane, one can get the forearm and hand way back. In fact we can get it back as far as we can move the hand on the forward cast. The major difference is that to do this one must rotate the shoulder and the forearm at the elbow. (The so-called Lefty Kreh low elbow off horizontal rod plane style.) For most casters, it helps to rotate the body a bit, too, using a more open stance.

With this style of casting, I note the most common fault to be a wide loop in the horizontal plane due to a combination of poorly controlled rotation of the arm mainly caused by the arm being held out and up with abduction of the shoulder as the casting hand is brought back during the back cast. As with wide loops in any plane, the following cast suffers because of the relative slack which this intruduces which, in turn, shortens the effective rod arc. (Check out the diagram on p.30 of Joan Wulff's FLY CASTING TECHNIQUES.)

The cast may look OK when viewed from the side .....First tip is that the caster is demonstrating poor ergonomics as he seems to be working too hard to achieve a modest distance. Best way to make this diagnosis is to crouch either directly behind or in front of the caster. If you have the luxury of being able to watch the caster from above, it becomes painfuly obvious.

1. The line is forming a wide sideways loop on the back cast. 2. The rod tip is moving in a sideways curve. 3. This is because the arm is held too far out and the elbow and shoulder are not rotating properly.

Reversing this yields the, "cure": 4. The arm needs to be brought down and the shoulder and elbow rotated as the elbow passes the body on the back cast. 5. This will minimize or eliminate the sideways curved path of the rod tip. 6. This should eleminate most or all of the horizontal wide loop, and the line loop travel will be straighter.

When I run across this problem, I find it helps a great deal to have the student go back to horizontal plane casting over a straight line on the ground (stretched out rope, etc.). To keep the center of his loop over the line, I have him bring the elbow in close to the ribs with each stroke as the elbow passes the body. Once achieved repeatedly, I have him use the same maneuver with the rod tip higher in the off horizontal plane, and then a bit higher, etc.