Paul Arden | Tuesday, 28 June 2022
For about four months now I’ve been working hard on my swimming technique. At first I had to get over my fear of open water swimming and swimming into a set of Snakehead babies (that hasn’t happened yet so I still don’t know if they will be defensive and attack or flee as a set) or indeed into a snake. I do look for snakes while sighting but since I still manage to swim into floating sticks then hopefully the enormous king cobra that I missed spotting will avoid me. Yep, and then of course there are lake monsters looking up at my silhouette that every angler imagines catching…
Anyway this is not about tricks of the mind, this is about how bloody fantastic video footage can be for learning. And almost everyone on the planet who has a phone has this tool at their disposal now. What happens is that Ashly follows me around in key kayak and films me passing her. Later I analyse all the footage and compare it against teaching videos and open water swimming patterns on YouTube (there are many excellent channels). I also have a friend on FB who is an ex-pro triathlete, who I gave some casting advice to way back on his casting and he’s been looking at my videos and giving me excellent advice.
Then on the next swim I try to adapt my stroke closer to what I would like to see. And repeat the process.
Between trying to improve my stroke and upping my stroke rate I have improved immensely. The last time I tried to improve my technique was 25 years ago. It was much harder back then because I had no idea what it looked like and all the feedback came from the coach.
It’s exactly the same with flycasting! There are loads of videos you can use for example this strange bald guy on Sexyloops:
https://www.sexyloops.com/flycast/introduction/
That’s definitely one way of improving your casting. Work your way through the drills. Film yourself. And play.
You can also get a lesson from an instructor. I’ve been coaching fly casting for over 25 years now. Since 1996. It’s a constantly evolving process for me too. Most of my current teaching is via Zoom. I do six individuals at a time (not together but separately! I just cap the numbers to six now because it’s quite restrictive on where I have to park my boat and I have a lot of guiding/hosting trips coming up). However I do have a couple of spaces opening soon so if you are interested in that then let me know. A series of 12 lessons is £500 (615USD at todays exchange rate).
Anyway that’s what I was thinking about this morning. I have a triathlon coming up next month and really looking forward to that!! The run is going to be hot!!!
Have a great day,