Acceleration

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I did a little research regarding the description of the casting stroke and adjectives modifying the word 'acceleration'.

From the phamphlet To Cast A Fly, published in 1966 by Scientific Anglers, Inc. "The proper application of force by the rod to the line in making a cast is a rapid accelertion from fast to faster...". An illustration in the phamphlet includes the term "steady acceleration". In the section describing how to fix casting troubles, in one example the caster is admonished to "Accelerate the rod briskly".

From the book Fly Casting From the Beginning, by Jim Green, a Fenwick pulication in 1971 by Sevenstrand Tackle Mfg. Co. In describing the casting stroke....."It is a slow-starting, accelerating movement, carried out basically in a straight line, as opposed to the fast-starting, circular motion of the hammer stroke."

From the book, The Complete Book of Fly Casting, by John and Richard Knight, published in 1963 by Putnam. They describe the casting stroke as ..."a gradually accelerated motion..."

Joan describes the casting stroke in her 1987 book: Joan Wulff's Fly Casting Techniques. "The fly casting stroke is a straight-line movement of the whole rod by the rod hand, in an acceleration to a stop."

Bill and his father describe the casting stroke and power application in their 1993 booklet entitled The Essentials of Fly Casting, published by the FFF. ".....power should be applied slowly at first, gradually increasing to a peak at the end of the stroke."

Gary Borger describes rod motion in his 1995 book entitled Presentation. "The rod movement on the back stroke is one of continuous, seamless acceleration ending in a abrupt stop." "On the forward stroke, the rod moves in a smooth, continuously accelerting movement and then stops abruptly."

In Jason's book, Jason Borger's Nature of Fly Casting, A Modular Approach, he emphasizes the need to start slowly at the beginning of the stoike and move faster until the end of the stroke and to remember to accelerate smoothly.

Ed Jaworowski's 1992 book, The Cast, emphasizes a smooth, progressive acceleration followed by an abrupt stop. "No part of the casting stroke should be at a constant speed." "Even though you may be moving the rod fast, unless it is getting faster all the time, the rod will not load deeply and little energy will reach the end of the line." "If you start moving your hand slowly and continually get faster with a very short, rapid acceleration at the end and then stop the rod, you will make an efficient stroke, even though you are aware of little effort." "Continuously accelerate, then stop the rod."

````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````

Mac Brown, in his book, Casting angles, 1997, comes close to using the adjective, "continuous" in his clause, "....continually accelerates for the final quick pop.....".

We, in our Study Group, have used many terms over the past 6 years, to describe the acceleration of the stroke. These include:

Accelerated acceleration, Continuous acceleration, Uninterrupted acceleration, Smooth acceleration, Rapid acceleration, Controlled acceleration, Constant acceleration, etc., etc.

The computer generated readouts of the angular acceleration of the rod butt when using the Casting Analyzer, have been interpreted by Bruce Richards and Noel Perkins as demonstrating, for an efficient cast, acceleration which is both RAPID, and CONSTANT. To this I would add my own personal opinion that these curves also demonstrate that this acceleration is at the same time, "uninterrupted", and "smooth" .