Paul Arden | Wednesday, 23 July 2025
Broadly speaking I see a Drill as a method of isolating a component of the casting stroke, enabling us to work on a particular variable movement pattern, an Exercise as working on the complete cast/presentation with purposeful varied outcomes and a Game as an Exercise with some sort of scoring system.
They are all important.
If I was to describe how I coach nowadays, it is to analyse someone’s cast and, within a sequential framework, set corresponding drills and exercises to develop flycasting stroke movement. In any lesson I typically set 7-8 Drills and/or Exercises, structure the next 2-4 weeks of training time and then analyse the results with both the student’s feedback as well as an analysis over the student’s newly developed casting stroke/s.
We are looking at long-term development, which is of course the measure of lasting changes. And of course it has to be fun, relevant, rewarding and preferably measurable.
For the student I believe that this is the best approach and for the coach, ie me, it is the most interesting method of teaching. Contrast that to telling someone exactly how to move for example, which arguably is the “traditional” approach and the difference is like a breath of fresh air. (iPhone autosuggest suggested “water” instead of “air”, but it’s definitely air!).
Of course it’s always an exploration. Not everything works for everyone in the same way all the time. We are not all built or hardwired the same. Otherwise we would all be yetis living in the jungle. And while everything is an experiment by definition, having the student explore and decide what works for them, is backed by solid coaching science.
When I was about 10 years old I was the boy at school who was constantly asked to invent new playground games. I invented “Stab you in the back”, “Murderball” and numerous war games. They were savage times in the Essex playgrounds.
I didn’t know it back then, but that laid the groundwork for me to be a modern flycasting coach! And great fun it is too.
Cheers, Paul
POD HT4 with a funky Rec Spacer.