Just wondering if anyone on here has learned to teach fly rod performance to students with out using the word ‘Casting’. Id be the first to admit its tough, but oh the rewards are so in the results astounding. I’m just curious.
Talking about transporting the fly with the line makes sense and I do that but it seems pretty long winded for constant use. Getting away from the term “casting” might help avoid the muscle memory of casting a weighted lure that most people have. " Line manipulation" maybe?
How about , draw, project , aim. Is that not part of forming the loop shaping, deciding the energy path and direction?
With the few folks I have introduced to fly fishing I always say you are casting the line not the lure.
Rick
I was just wondering of those who may have learned to teach with out using the word ‘casting’. I know how effective it is, an how difficult it can be for an instructor to put into practice.
I was taught at a very early age to cast my bread onto the water. But since I am not fishing for catfish, I figure I can use flies instead. 
Larry —sagefisher—
I’ve been casting flies for over 30 years. I don’t know how else to describe the act.
cast1
kast/
verb
verb: cast; 3rd person present: casts; past tense: cast; past participle: cast; gerund or present participle: casting
1.
throw (something) forcefully in a specified direction.
“lemmings cast themselves off the cliff”
|synonyms:|throw, toss, fling, pitch, hurl, lob; informalchuck
|—|
“he cast the stone into the stream”
|
Perhaps I should ask have you tryed to teach a fly rod student the fundamentals fly rod manipulation, performance understanding’ without using the word, ‘casting’.
So … can you describe and explain say a half dozen or so of the astounding results that would not result from using the word “casting” to talk about casting ?
I’m just curious.
Thanks.
John
Learning curve cut to minutes rather than years. When a student tells you they learned more in minutes than they have working with instructors for 10 years. You start to understand you’ve found a key. I used to teach three or more days a week and did so for over thirty years. Took me a long time to figure out why people were not understanding such a simple thing as throwing a fly rod. There is only one real answer. Instructors were telling them to do the wrong thing. Most students know or have a concept of what casting means to them, Why tell them to do the wrong thing and confuse them when with some effort you can learn to teach yourself to use more accurate language. The number of instructors who haven’t yet made the effort, utterly astounds me.
Just curious as to what would be a sentence , statement, containing “the wrong thing”? Unlike Chemistry or Physics etc.,manipulating, throwing, projecting, casting a fly rod/ line is best taught to students by demonstration and hands on practice. If language becomes a problem, perhaps too much is made of the effort.
Mark
Students hear what you say, they cannot hear what you under stand when you say the word “casting” thus they respond with their own understanding and interpretation of the word 'casting". To most students ‘casting’ in their understanding is a single hard forward thrusting motion as with a spinning rod or rods of the like. Casting moves don’t translate well with a fly rod in hand of the wrong frame of reference, the hand follows what the mind prescribes.
Paul,
Perhaps I’m “gifted” but no one ever “told” me how to cast. Well, maybe Lefty Kreh who told me to place a book between my casting elbow and rib cage while manipulating the rod . I more or LESS maintain that style till today. It also looks cool :>)
Mark
Even Lefty came around to my way of thinking in that he in his later years learned to advise students, you don’t “cast” a fly rod.
I’m going to draw the line, form, shape and aim the loop." That is one example. Changes are of course made as we talk further about manipulation and yes Physics. Students learn on many different levels and in many different ways. Instructors should strive to be more in tune with their students.
All of this reminds me of the feminist I heard recently who does not want to refer to a female as HER because it is HE with and R. Far out thinking Capt. Paul, but if it works for you, go for it. It will always be casting to me and I usually get the fly where it needs to be with little effort. Good thing I am not an instructor who has to worry about the mental interruptions of an uncoordinated student who cannot visualize right from wrong.
It isn’t about me, I’m the instructor who had to figure it out. It works for the students, Instructors seem to have a hard time accepting that the students do get it, I understand. It’s very difficult at first to teach with out employing the word casting, but my students convinced me it is the shortest route to their understanding.