Tailing winds

Last lesson I arranged for a headwind. This week I chose a tailing wind. I mean, these lessons have to flow together, this is Sexyloops after all and it's what everyone has come to expect.

So I checked out Karen's casting for a little while. In teaching there is always an analogy that works best for each individual. Perhaps, for the forward stoke, it may be slinging an apple off the rod tip. That's a good one, but it doesn't work for everyone. Some people are best imagining that they are throwing a dart. Some like to chop with a meat-cleaver. Karen flicks the tip.

It's interesting this bit of a human psyche. As an instructor I just run through the list (and there are others) until we find the one that works best. Then whenever the casting starts to suck, I just say; 'pop the top!' or 'stab the beast!' or 'sling the old lady!' Often I can actually tell what will work for a person before we go casting. Thing is, it's all the same movement. Isn't the human mind an amazing thing? Or just rather odd.

Whatever, I'm also a flick of the tip kind of guy.

Anyway, tailing winds can play havoc with your casting. When confronted with a tailing wind it is critical that you send the backcast low. If one sends a backcast high the wind catches the line and it fails to straighten out. Tragedy rapidly follows. So we must send the back cast low. Although there are all sorts of clever things we can do, hooking the ground is not one of them. For this reason tailing winds are not easy.

Which is ironic, for one often sees beginners choose to position themselves so that the wind is behind them :-)

It is definitely the case that beginners struggle to go from high backcasts, to low backcasts and back again. Which is, of course, why I earn so much money.