IMPROVING YOUR FLY CASTING - Readers Cast (Steven McGarthwaite - June 7, 2010

IMPROVING YOUR FLY CASTING

Those who wish to improve their fly casting, should first inspect their equipment, before signing up for fly casting instruction.*Few days ago I posted something on the bulletin board in response to someone wanting input about paying for fly casting lessons.*There were some FAOL members who get paid for fly casting lessons, and I think I might have gored their cow, from their response to my posting.*I am opinionated, just as everyone else, with their own opinions.*But I speak from my experiences in life, and learning from my mistakes?over the past 62 years.*PS:*I was a Senior Instructor in the U.S. Army, so I know how to teach someone properly so they succeed.

Personally I don't think the grip on the fly rod will either make you a better caster or poorer caster. What I do think will improve your casting is lessons from a certified instructor and practice. In reading/listening/ watching great casters such as Lefty Kreh and Joan Wulff, I have never heard them suggest or imply that you needed a customized grip to improve your casting. The only time I could see a specialized grip helping is if you hand had a physical deformaty of some kind, or if you had unusually large or small hands.

But the article is interesting.

It makes sense to me. I recently made a stick for my lawyer who is a big guy with big hands. I didn't measure anything, but made the grip larger thinking it would be more comfortable. He has been raving about how much he likes to cast it and about how good it feels in his hand. I expect to sell him some more rods. :)

Not sure where I stand with this? Do you need formal training? Not sure? Do you need instruction of some sort? Sure do...whether it be from observation/application.....video instruction/application.....or a formal class. You do need to be at the very least "demonstrated" the proper way to cast a flyline.

That being said, it's always a learning process. I doubt anybody is as good now as they could be tomorrow. We can all improve our casting in some way. Some of which can only happen on the stream in fishing situations however. I learned by observations and mimicking. Got better with Mel Kreigers video and further mimicking. And then worked on it on the water over the years. I later took a class out of curiosity and learned some neat techniques that i still apply as well. Always learning.

Grips? There are some I prefer. My favorite is the grip on my Orvis Far-and-fine. Other I don't like probably because they don't fit my hand and I just plain old don't cast as well with them. I lean toward a full wells but in a much shorter and slimmer version. And although my hands are smaller, don't care for the ultra-slim cigar grips that are common. But I cast at times with my index finger pointing...at times with my thumb extended....and at times with a normal grip. I don't cast in the classic 10-2 stroke though & I break my wrist alot on purpose:^) Steeple casts, dump casts & sidearm casts don't lend to classic instruction all that well:^)

I doubt that Ted Williams would have said that the right bat was the ONLY key to successful hitting in the big leagues. I'll bet he was a big fan of batting coaches and proper technique. In fact, Ted was instrumental in starting some fantastic youth baseball camps where fundamentals are taught by big league ball players and coaches. And they charge a pretty good chunk of change for that training. Like most of us, they offer some scholarships for disadvantaged youth who would never be able to afford to attend such a camp otherwise. But quality instruction costs money. People who dedicate their lives to teaching something have to eat and live indoors, too. And those 2+ decades of teaching in the Army - the country did pay you for that, didn't we?

Your article on measuring and customizing grip size on a fly rod is excellent, and will be included in the first edition of The Adaptive Fly Fishing Handbook. We've been sizing and customizing grips for folks with hand/arm problems for awhile now. Your method is the best we've seen and the article makes it clear and easy. The use of commonly available and inexpensive materials is a key factor for us. But it's pretty disingenuous to characterize our conversation about the use of your article as including some sort of pledge from me that nobody would ever earn a nickel from it's use. I made it very clear to you that The Adaptive Fly Fishing Handbook is being SOLD to a publisher and that folks will have to purchase copies of that book. Furthermore, almost ALL of our instructors derive a significant portion of their livelihood from the work they do as therapeutic adaptive fly fishing instructors/guides. And sizing of rod grips to fit hands is just one small thing we do to help anglers enjoy their fishing more.

It is a FACT that using the right size and shape of grip on your fly rods will make a major difference in your enjoyment and performance as a fly angler. And the analogy to a tennis player using a raquet with a grip too big for his/her hand or a golfer using clubs with too small of grips for her/his hands or a batter using a bat too skinny or too fat is a very good one. Everyone knows that you don't do that if you're even just a "weekend warrior" at one of these sports. The fly rod is no diffferent. And the fact that Lefty, Joan, Mel, et al have neglected the subject for far too long doesn't change reality. If you think about the marketing aspects of such a statement and what that would mean to rod mfgs (and fly shops), it makes perfect sense that nobody has talked much about it in fly fishing - where the mfgs and retailers are bound and determined to ignore true pro shop level service and product lines, yet insist upon charging pro shop level prices.

In the end analysis, I would contend that a truly GOOD casting instructor DOES customize your grip for you. So should a truly good fly shop when they sell you one - for a fair fee.

Ken Morrow
Certified Angler Education Instructor
Certified Adaptive Fly Fishing Instructor

I have no problem with charging for the book, that what pays the printing costs, and I am sure that any profits will be rolled back into your organization to help cover operation costs.

I never said that a person does not need lessons to learn how to cast. I have taken lessons all my life for tennis, golf, baseball, hockey. What I originally meant, is that all the lessons in the world will not get you to where you want to be, if the match-up between the equipment and your hand is not correct. It is like wearing shoes that are too large, or too small. As for me my left foot is a size 11-1/2, while my right foot is a size 10. All of my life I have had to buy two sets of shoes to get one pair that fit.

My handle grips on my fly rods are a cigar shape with a half well to the rear. The diameter is 1-1/8 inch diameter. That is my hand grip shape for my fly rods, yours will be completely your hand grip size and shape, no two hand grip size and shape are alike.

One size does not fit all, each individual is different in multiple ways, from everyone else! I am not a fan of Traditions, where the only reason is that they have alway done it that way. Tradition does not help, those who are being poorly service by tradition, when a little bit of thought process, would help the individual achieve what they desire.

As a Senior Instructor in the U.S. Army, I could not expect all of my students to full understand the same training outline from the lesson plan. I had to adapt the lesson plan so those who did not understand the concept of the training, by various method (some very unorthodox) succeed.

My task was to find a way to transfer what I was attempting to share, so the individual could understand! Otherwise it was all talk and no showing of improvement.

PS: Ted Williams mother was "Spanish-Mexican" and Ted grew-up in San Diego, living with his mother at her parents house. So not only is Ted Williams one of the greatest baseball players to play major league baseball, his probably the greatest major league baseball player with "Spanish-Mexican" ancestry!

If your muscles and tendons are taunt during the cast, you lose speed of motion in the fly rod and fly line, you also have less control of the cast with the starting and stopping. You also lose the feel of the fly line and the fly rod movements during the cast.

Your hand should only light hold the fly rod, enough to have full control, during the cast. Too tight of a grip causes loss of motion and control.
As a baseball pitcher, I learned early on the tighter that I gripped the ball, the worse my pitching became. Most are taught in fly fishing to cast with their arm movement only. While in baseball the arm is mostly for directional control, the energy of the throw comes through the body movement during the throw (rocking backward then forward). Same applies to fly fishing, rocking the body, with one ahead of the other to supply the energy of the cast and the arm motion controlling the direction of the cast. At no time should need to have a death grip on the fly rod while cast...

While in golf lessons it is completely different, the body remains stationary, with body weight resting on the back foot, during the back swing, and only during the front swing does the body mass shift to the front foot. The speed of the back swing is the same as the forward swing. To many do a slower back swing and a fast forward swing, and there lays the problem of control.

I can easily cast 50 to 60 feet without straining, or using single or double overhauls... because my fly rod handle fits my hand, and my body motion during the cast supplies the force (energy) to give my cast the distance...

Whew! Glad we're clear on the remuneration issue, Steven. I'm a bit touchy on matters of disclosure regarding who is/isn't getting paid for what and by whom. And I certainly don't want anyone to have the impression that a) I don't think quality instruction, intellectual property, and service have economic value, or b) that the institute is "all or nothing" in either direction on the subject of compensation/fees. We are a non-profit corporation that does a lot of fee-for-service work, but we turn the revenues generated from that work into charitable work so that those who lack the means to pay can benefit as well. Same thing that the Red Cross, Salvation Army, Humane Society, Habitat for Humanity, et al. do every day. But I am not of the opinion that fly casting instructors and guides should all work for free! I think the socially responsible and morally conscious instructors and guides out there generally do quite a bit of pro bono work...in an industry where, frankly, they cannot actually afford to do so as readily as in most others. I'd just like to see more of the certified instructors actually out there teaching at all! I think many of the rank-and-file members would be somewhat unsettled to find out just how few of these so-called "certified instructors" actually teach fly casting with any regularity...professionally or for free. In my experience, most fly casting instruction around the country is done by un-trained, un-certified volunteers - who do a pretty darned respectable job of it, too! But more importantly, they're doing it. And that's far better than the alternative: no one doing it. This is one of the main reasons why the Adaptive Fly Fishing Institute has launched our Basic Casting Instructor seminar-based casting instructor certification program.

The BCI is a full-day seminar for intermediate to advanced fly casters (meaning you at least have a solid overhead and roll cast in your bag of tricks) during which a Certified Adaptive Fly Fishing Instructor teaches how to teach fly casting and some very basic fundamentals of teaching casting for people with disabilities/injuries. The goal: to produce an instructor capable of taking someone who has never cast a fly before and in about an hour get them to casting well enough to go fly fishing and have fun, and to do so in a manner that is fundamentally sound, safe, and enjoyable for everyone involved. Sounds simple, right? It is simple...but it's not easy! If it were everyone would be doing it. In fact, the thing that is the hardest for most folks is keeping it simple. LOL Too much contemporary casting instruction is about impressing the student with how much you know, what you can do, and how important you are. All...I repeat ALL...of that is disruptive to the learning process. Showing off isn't teaching. For the teacher, the only focus is on the student and what she/he accomplishes. The jewels in the crown of a teacher are the accomplishments of their students. Putting students at ease, making them believe it is easily attainable and quite natural, and keeping yourself out of the way so they can "discover" their new skills and knowledge "for themselves" are the true hallmarks of mastery in teaching. A fly cast is actually a very simple thing if you don't think about it too much.

Your examples are good ones, Steven. Your points are well-made. And the approach of using the body to create the momentum for the fly cast is certainly one valid approach. In fact, it is an approach that seriously reduces the strain on the arm of the caster. We use this quite a bit for people with upper extremity injuries. More than 3/4 of the strength in the human body lies below the solar plexus. Learning to utilize this vast storehouse of kinetic energy efficiently can remove much of the effort and wear-and-tear from a lot of the things we do.

I should add:

By missioning the BCI the way we have and formatting it into a 1-day seminar, what AFFI has tried to do is to meet the actual needs of the community instead of some conceptual "ideal" of what "a fly casting instructor" should be capable of. 1 day of school, $75 tuition, and you're equipped to teach introductory fly casting. Presto! No muss, no fuss, no tournament casting crap, no hero stuff, no 100' measuring tape, etc.

I would like to jump into this fracas as a late comer. Like parnelli, I too am opinionated, and I try to temper my opinions with objectivity rather than subjectivity. I also like to stress the well made point, not buy me(unfortunately), that opinions are like anal sphincters; everyone has one and they all stink! Me included!

First, IMHO, Certification DOES NOT a good instructor make! Let's face it, some individuals have a talent for teaching, and there are those who don't and no amount of teaching them to be teachers is going to overcome their inabilities. In fact, some of them could not carry water in a bucket from the well without assistance.

I respectfully submit that everyone of us has had bad, if not horrible, teachers during our academic careers, starting with the first grade. I most definitely have, and not just one; and every single one of them was certified! This same situation held true throughout my entire academic career at the University level. In spite of the bad teachers we had, most, if not all, of us have gone on to become responsible productive citizens, with many pursuing and attaining advanced degrees in various and sundry disciplines.

Second, I totally disagree with the opinion that pokes it's head up in several of the previously posted comments that instruction is essential to becoming a better caster, NONSENSE! It definitely speeds the learning process up, but it is NOT essential! Otherwise, no one would have ever learned to cast, or swim, or play golf, etc., ad infinitum et ad nauseum. The truth of the matter is that the old adage about the fastest way to Carnegie Hall is Practice! Practice! Practice! I can personally attest to the fact that instruction is NOT required. I bought my first fly rod, which I still have, in 1952, and am self-taught. I have made every mistake conceivable as a caster, and still make a few, and am definitely not a 'tournament caliber' caster, but I can at least hold my own and do catch fish; and I have successfully taught others to cast.( Let's not forget that many of the great masters of music had no instruction!) If I had waited until I first saw someone else cast, I would not have started fly fishing until 1982, 30 years after I bought my first fly rod! I learned by reading every piece of instructional material I could put my hands on on the subject, and practiced the three" P's".

My final point is that the point parnelli makes about handles on fly rods has a lot of truth in it, and even applies to the fit of the handle on a hammer. I have a rather small hands for a man, and found early on that the typical fly rod handle resulted in serious hand cramps during a long day of fishing. They are too small! Thus, when I made my first fly rod, I used 1 1/2 inch diameter corks rather than the typical 1 1/4 inch corks, and shaped it by hand, using a 4-in-hand file to shape it, stopping periodically to 'try' it,, rather than turning it on a lathe; producing a 'custom fit' cigar-shaped handle that is a perfect fit for my hand. This solved my hand-cramp problem, and is still my favorite handle. A better hand-fit, as parnelli suggests, is also partially attested to by the the fact that elliptical, or hammer-handle-shaped handles, were put on many bamboo rods by one of the better know bamboo rodmakers of the 1900's, and the introduction by an Englishman in the 1970's of a very strange looking handle that was supposed to be more ergonomic than the typical round handle and had a much better fit to the hand than the typical handle. These entities realized that there has to be a better approach to a comfortable, properly fitting handle, or they would not have introduced their 'new designs'.

Perhaps, as parnelli infers, we need to be more pragmatic in our choice of handles on our rods.

I have gleaned the above opinions after having dipped my oars in the water for the past 73+ years, and a fly fisher for 58 of those years.

aged-sage