Sexyloops Zoom Coaching

Now I don’t normally talk too much about this, because my time is already pretty full-on!! So it’s low key and will be an absolute disaster if a whole bunch of you attempt to book lessons this week! I only have room for two more flycasters. Four at the absolute maximum. And it’s been like this for a while, consequently I’ve always held back on too much promotion.

Anyway, I thought now is a good time to ask a few of my longer terms students for a quick write up/ testimonial. This is the order in which I have received these testimonials. They have all had numerous lessons with me and are now either borderline soon-to-be advanced or fully advanced level flycasters.

Zoom lessons with me costs 800USD for a series of 12 sessions. Next year, at some point, there will be a price increase. I do maintain the prices going ahead, that you come in on. It’s all done via Zoom video conferencing, Smoke and Mirrors, and WhatsApp.

Here is what they say:

“The virtual fly fishing casting lessons via Zoom exceeded my expectations. Paul’s expertise shone through, providing clear demonstrations and personalised guidance.

The interactive nature of the sessions made it an engaging and highly effective learning experience. Plus the recording clearly show areas to work on. Can’t recommend enough Paul and this format, he really makes a difference.”

Graeme
Auckland, New Zealand

“I have been doing Zoom lessons with Paul for around 8 months now. I have done various types of lessons in the past including clinics and 1 on 1 lessons but I have found the Zoom sessions to work extremely well as you can rewatch the lesson later if having issues when practicing, or to just revise.

Paul is a great teacher who seems to be able to help click things into place even when you are struggling to put theory into practice. I can't recommend doing Zoom lessons with Paul enough if you want to progress your casting, whatever the level you are and whatever your goals.

Doing these sessions has been the single best thing I have done to take my casting to a level I never expected. I am now a much more confident fisherman and am comfortable taking shots at fish that I only dreamed of 8 months ago. I will be continuing to do lessons into the future with Paul to keep progressing further.”

Mark
Dakar, Senegal

“I’m eight sessions in and my fly casting is on a level I never dreamed of achieving! I just wished I had started sooner with Paul. Because you don’t have to be great to work with Paul, but it is a big chance you will be after a while.

The Zoom format is genius! I don’t have to do any travel at all to get to the lesson. I can squeeze in a lesson before work or even during lunch break. Another great advantage of the Zoom format is that you get a recording from each lesson from the same view as Paul has during the lesson. So you can go back and review all steps of the lesson and see exactly what you were doing. So you can go back and see for yourself what you were doing right or wrong.

And you get more than the actual lesson. You can review the video from the lesson, take notes and Paul will review and help you improve your notes. You have Paul available on WhatsApp where you can ask questions, send videos of your casting that he will review or if you just want to brag about your improvements.

Paul is a great teacher, one of the best. He always encourages you and explains things on a level that fits you. The lessons are very enjoyable, Paul is not just a great teacher he is also a very fun guy talking to. And somehow he knows how much new stuff you will be able to pick up in a session and work on until the next time.

If you want to see your backing knot Paul is your guy. It is a regular sight on all of my fly lines now, even on the MED5. If you want to improve on anything in your fly casting Paul is your guy. Working with Paul will improve all aspects of your fly casting.”

Rickard
Göteborg, Sweden

“When Paul asked me if I could write a testimonial on our Zoom lessons I immediately agreed since this course immensely helped me to improve my casting abilities.

I started to fly fish in my late thirties and since the very beginning I have been fascinated by casting. I am from the Czech Republic where are a lot of excellent fly fishers. On the other hand, I was struggling to find more advanced casting lessons. I was self learning from Youtube and other internet sources but I wasn't able to overcome my casting plateau. I knew Sexyloops and I decided to ask Paul for a piece of advice how to get better. I was positively surprised by Paul's open and friendly response. He offered me several possibilities. Now I am really happy that I decided for a chain of 12 Zoom lessons he suggested to me.

The training was worth every penny. We were meeting approximately once per 2 weeks with a lot of WhatsApp talks in between. We started from basics and continued to accuracy, distance, stopless, 170, presentation casts and Spey casts. For over 6 months I practised several times a week and we covered most of the casts one should have in his/her quiver for everyday fishing. I think that a series of professional lessons is absolutely essential to get better. One session is simply not enough.

Paul is a really outstanding instructor and a very nice person who always tries to help. I think that this training is accessible for a lot of people because it's easy to both practise and have lessons on the same spot near your home. The price is also not high considering that one can practise under the guidance of an instructor for such a long time. This course opened a completely new journey for me.”

Karel
Prague, Czech Republic

“I’ve been seriously fly casting for about ten years. Love the learning process and spent countless hours studying Paul’s videos, reading whatever I could, and filming myself at the park. Always self taught.

I had a lesson from Paul after buying a HT rod. Thought it’d be fun to chat with the Sexyloops legend himself. And it was fun, a blast really as Paul’s enthusiasm is infectious. I signed up for the full year of lessons immediately.

I’ve been blown away by what I’ve learned in the first year of Zoom lessons. The nuances Paul is able to pick up on are incredible. It’s opened a whole new awareness of techniques that have taken my casting to another level.

Couldn’t recommend these lessons more! Oh and buy a Hot Torpedo too!”

Taylor
New York, USA

“I love working with Paul. He is a creative and thoughtful teacher. He uses Zoom deftly to craft a personalized effective approach to casting instruction. By the end of my first course (I’ve re-upped for more) I felt transformed as a fly-fisher, gaining accuracy at all distances and casting planes, miles of extra distance, and confidence in a variety of presentations. It’s been a gas.”

David
Los Angeles, USA

“Zoom casting lessons with Paul Arden? Humbug!

For those of you who were thinking to buy yourself a series of zoom lessons for Christmas, or worse, have the New Years resolution to finally train with Paul to get that FFI CI certificate, you better read this. 10 awesome reasons to consider whether that investment would really make it worth your while.

10. Not getting what you pay for - part 1

I have taken two series of lessons with Paul. And in both series, every lesson took longer than the agreed 60 minutes. Paul kept answering my questions, and he kept trying different ways to up my casting if at first I could not relate to certain points. Mentioning that we were past the hour was of no use. He kept motivating me and pushing the envelope! His beard must distort pleads to call it a day!

9. Emotional black mail

Paul doesn’t just teach, he invests in an instructor-student relationship. Taking classes in a series, already means that you need to give it your best every single time, because you will see him more often! But he also makes you feel as if you were his casting buddy, making it really really bad not to give it your all. So, you could say this leads to more prep time and better results, but to me it’s just emotional black mail.

8. 10 lessons? It’s more like a semester!

Even if you delay, hide and duck, Paul keeps remembering that it’s time to schedule a next lesson. Moreover, in between lessons Paul sends you these text messages that constantly keep you on edge about casting. “Hi Richard, how’s the … exercise going for you?”, “Hey Richard, I have been thinking about our last lesson, and another way to approach it, would be...”  And this is especially bad if you live in another time zone. He asks you one thing, you answer and then the next morning there is the next text already!

7. Only uses four of Bruce Richard’s six steps method

So, if you move really close to the camera, Paul can’t see your loops. So from time to time he would ask about the shape of my loops. But to be fair, he would only ask about those, when I noticed they were eh.. not so great. So even without loops, Paul is able to help you along. Again, you could call this awesome, but in my opinion it’s shortcutting the six steps method.

6. Not getting what you paid for - part 2

So zoom lessons are online, but they are also recorded. Apart from the fact that Paul uses that as prep for the next lesson, he also sends the recording to you. So there you are, with video material that you can review after a couple of lessons. Really annoying if all you wanna do is become a better caster (, which in my opinion is done by grinding the wrong movement over and over again and expecting a different (better) result). (Einstein may have been a fly caster, who knows).

5. Not getting what you asked for

So, I had a very simple question when starting the lessons: please help me to cast 75 feet easily. And instead of doing that, Paul taught me all kinds of stuff in some structured manner. Something to do with three casting styles and within casting styles on different aspects, such as grip, pull back, stance and what not. Not one lesson (and remember, I paid for 10!) did we focus on my question of casting 75 feet. Sure, I now cast the fluff 90 feet with my eyes closed, but that’s beside the point!

4. Being confronted with a conundrum that has nothing to do with casting

I have seen the Sexyloops masterclass videos a gazillion times. Even the newer ones and the updated ones. I really like the instructor in those videos. He appears as wholesome (well shaved, nicely dressed) and brings his message across with a bit of humour. Now after 15 (more like 25) hours of zoom lessons with ‘Paul’ I am really still uncertain whether it is actually the same guy from those masterclass videos. Sure the ‘Paul’ from the zoom lessons is also gentle, motivating and has a similar kind of humour, but it is REALLY Paul from the master class videos? So many times I just zoned out during the lesson asking myself this question. Really distracting!

3. Getting a fundamental understanding of casting

So I bought a Sexyloops “Instructor’s rod”. That name is by the way totally wrong. It should be called student’s rod, as it allows the instructor to much more easily spot the student’s (rod) movements. This also applies when shooting videos of your own casting with say your phone!

So if you buy this or another Sexyloops rod (or take a series of zoom lessons), Paul helps you, for free, to work your way through the theoretical CI exam. I have thrown everything at Paul to not help me with this, but he’s soooo persistent. At first I wrote 1 pagers per question and this took so long, that I thought he let slide me of the hook. But oh no, not Paul. He kept reminding me of the texts, made me reduce them time and again until there was a bare minimum allowing me to ace the theoretical CI section. (Ok, I had one wrong answer, but that was of course because the question was flawed, not me).

2. Jump-scares you with CI exam

So, after a few lessons I had adapted with all of the points above and actually kind of felt like casting was fun again. And this was when Paul said: yeah, I think you’re ready: you should go and do the CI exam. Unbelievable! Sure, I wanted to do my CI, but I have been saying that even before COVID! And then all of a sudden there I was in the UK and believe it or not, but I even passed it. So, you better watch out, you better not cry, zoom lessons will turn you into a CI (you have been warned!)

Now before, I reveal the main reason why you may ponder a bit more on that investment, I must say, it was really difficult to select a top 10. I could have done a top 20 or even top 30 easily. Honourable mentions that didn’t make it are: the free (read: unwanted) art (sketches) that Paul provides on nearly every topic, hammering down names of inventors, so we don’t forget the giants on whose shoulders we’re standing, myth busting fake fly casting news and reflections on his own teachings with criticisms by Sexyloops board members, rather than selling his word as the one to rule them all. So, without further ado, the number one reason why you may want to reconsider zoom lessons with Paul.

1. The number one reason

Call it the visit of the Spirit of Lessons Cast, but I … I … humbug, I need to speak my heart. Paul’s casting lessons are so much fun. He’s incredibly patient and a grand teacher. He takes your casting questions, turns them into a structured programme and really ups your game. The lesson series really creates an instructor-student relationship and makes that you persist in practice over a longer period of time. The recordings are a must-have and allow you to revisit the lesson directly or weeks after. But the number one reason why I’d recommend you to take zoom lessons with Paul, is because of the incredible coach that he is. We all have hills to climb in our learning process and even then Paul makes you feel as if you can do anything. Moments before my CI exam, he sent me a personalised GIF making me laugh and feel relaxed, although he was on the other side of the world, multiple time zones apart. So, if you really want to become a better caster, want to gain a better understanding of casting itself, while having tons of fun, do yourself a favour and book a series of zoom lessons with Paul.

Happy holidays and all the best (zoom lessons) for next year!”

Richard, CCI
Netherlands

Christ.

Remember just two of you — no more. In fact just ignore Richard’s comments. Especially the bit about my artwork. I’m sure he’s printed out all of my masterpieces and is selling them in an Amsterdam market for vast amounts of seal’s fur. That’s probably why it takes him so bloody long to reply to my questions.

Sorry this was obviously a very bad idea in the first place, to ask for testimonials from these crazy people. Apparently I have even more coming in as well, but let’s just ignore all of this stuff. If one, or maximum two of you, are trying to learn not to double haul or just fancy 12 hours of chatting about nothing in particular, then drop me an email... But I’ve already forgotten my email address.

Cheers and thanks guys. You’re very kind. You are all stars! I should have mentioned “low key” because that’s really what I was thinking!!!

Have a great week all! :)))

Cheers, Paul