Nice article, Neil.

Nothing brings you back down to Earth about teaching fly casting like teaching the disabled and kids. They are singular in their objective: let's get this stuff down quickly so we can go catch fish! It also constantly reminds you to keep your "stuff" boiled down to its simplest form. And to stay student-focused, instead of falling victim to the drift into process focus or self-absorbtion that so often turn good coaches into bad ones.

I have a pretty strong grasp of physics, biomechanics, kinesiology, and such. But few things bore me quite so quickly as a passionate debate about what makes a triangular point on a forward cast, or how much "delayed rotation" should be applied to the "perfect" double-haul.

But I can really get into a good discussion about where the biggest trout hang out in the river, or fluorocarbon vs. nylon mono tippet: does it matter! I can listen for hours to salty dog fly fishermen discussing their flats tactics.

So I really enjoyed reading your perspective on the proper place of fly casting in the grand scheme of the cosmos this morning.