Very much enjoyed the read. Couldn’t agree more about practicing. One thing that hasn’t been mentioned, and that I find very helpful, is practicing casting flaws. Tailing loops are a good example. Learn to cast a tailing loop at will and then correct it at will. This allows you to feel the difference between a good cast and a poor one. Once you have this feel you can get really crazy. Try to put the tail at different points in the loop. Try to get only the leader to tail. Then go to the other end of the spectrum and get the loop to tail as soon as it passes the rod tip. I find this extremely instructive. It’s kind of fun too.

Also, the comments about casting instruction have got me thinking. Now it’s possible, likely even, that I am misunderstanding the notion of a standard method of casting instruction. I think the standardization piece should go only so far as the basic elements of casting, like the 5 Essentials for example. How an instructor goes about communicating those essential elements should ultimately depend on the student. Every student is different and I don’t think one single, or standard, method is best for all of them.

I’m a much better instructor now than I was eight or nine years ago when I began working fly fishing schools. This isn’t because I learned some single, most effective way of teaching someone to cast. It’s because I worked with hundreds of students over the years and learned to discern more quickly a student’s learning style and could zero in on the techniques, word cues, etc. that would ultimately allow me to get things to click with that student.

Every student is different. A good instructor has filled his quiver with many, many different teaching techniques, phrases, etc. and can quickly adapt the instruction to fit that particular student.