Whilst practising my casting over the weekend, I think I may have had a breakthrough in my learning and experience so far. I spent some time at the park and also on my local river.While I was casting on the river I began to think of body dynamics and how each part of my arm and body works in the most efficient way. If possible I would like some feed back on the following questions.

Would I be right in assuming that you start your back cast slowly with the arm relaxed, speeding up to the point where you stop the arm and rod in a quick braking fashion,as if throwing a baseball or if there are any other karate ka on here,as in performing gyaku zuki and applying kime at the end of the punch.I`m also beginning to see a resemblance in stances that are used in fly fishing.I think the stance I seem to be using is called open stance ,left leg forward right leg back,casting with my right arm. From what I can gather, at the moment all the work seems to be done by the forearm muscles and the biceps and triceps. Are the hips involved in casting ?


Also whilst I was practising casting last night at the park, a passer by commented that I was not using my wrist. I thought the movement of the wrist was limited. He did say he was not an expert and that he had seen salmon anglers using there wrists to cast.
Was he right or just a well meaning arm chair expert ? I thanked him any way.

Many thanks

Sean

your a salmon caster?

Zoomer will explain the power snap

Don`t think so,I was practising using a trout rod. Sorry if I didn`t make that clear.

hips are used in double handed casting, pretty astute analysis i thought, wrist break is a common fault which you dont appear to have, if your casting from an open stance keep an eye on your tracking, the shoulder can roll around making a less then straight path.

You'll find a lot of the answers to your questions here: www.sexyloops.com

James

Thank you Zoomer Does tracking mean the path the line takes. and shoulder, roll any ideas how I could avoid this.

Also thanks James starting to read the beginners guide on sexy loops.

rod tip path, a closed stance minimises the rotational movement in the shoulder, thats one way i guess, try making a back cast and letting the line fall, you can see how straight it is.

Thank you Zoomer will try this later

Sean

I hadn't thought about the karate comparison before, but it makes sense. The power is more in the 'stop' than the swing, and experienced casters often refer to 'punching' a line out.