Paul Arden | Tuesday, 3 September 2024
By the time this FP is live I’ll be back in the UK at short notice. So for everyone who I’m coaching via Zoom, I’ll be on UK time for the next 3 weeks! I think that works out better for almost everyone. Graeme in NZ might be the only challenge to arrange, but I’m sure we will find a way!
I’m not going to have very much free time however; I have some family duties, Zoom coaching and an Ironman coming up, back in Malaysia in 5 weeks time. But I do plan for some casting and in particular I have 7 MED5s I want to thoroughly measure and test in the field. I think that will be very interesting. I’ve brought the tape measure, the vernier callipers and the drug dealer scales. I’ve also brought the HT6, HT10 and HT12 along for the ride.
While here I plan to work on some quite significant stroke changes. I want to explore “stepping”, the way many of the Swedes do, because I think there are a couple of advantages to this that I hadn’t appreciated before. And also I plan to incorporate John’s baseball pitching cast more into the stroke. I’ve been working on both of these concepts for a few years now but haven’t had the opportunity to develop them completely.
It’s been a while since I’ve built my 5WT stroke up to comp level. I plenty much stay on top of distance Carry and train that regularly — because it’s fun! Building the launch usually takes me about 3 weeks to get to competition threat level nowadays. But a major stroke upgrade like this might take longer. I think it will be interesting.
I’ll be back in Malaysia on 28th September. I have a four-day Snakehead guiding trip booking immediately after. Then no guiding again until after the Ironman October 12th. December is looking busy!! I might be able to fit one more trip into that month. Otherwise both November and January are certainly available.
Finally a huge congratulations to the athletes I helped coach at this year’s World Championships for Trout Distance. Outstanding performances for both of them. It’s been both thoroughly enjoyable and educational to work with such talented casters. I’m really excited to see what the future holds for both and looking forward to getting together next week.
Have a great day everyone!
Cheers, Paul
POD: my wife dropping me off at the airport. :D