Structuring multiple lessons

Structuring multiple lessons

Paul Arden | Tuesday, 16 April 2024

One of the things I’ve been experimenting with over the past years is ordering the sequence of lessons differently in my long term courses. And I haven’t got a definitive answer if one sequence is better than another. I think that’s partly because if it does make a difference, then it’s not the same for everyone, and possibly that it actually doesn’t matter in the end.

One thing I have been surprised about, is that we hardly ever go forwards one step at a time, but often have to keep making the same or similar step many times. It takes a lot longer to learn fly casting proficiency than I had in the past believed, when I was giving single lessons. This also applies to advanced casters too of course; long term stroke changes often take many months of training. When it doesn’t, and changes appear rapidly, then I’m suspect that the changes aren’t permanent. Fast gains are often fast forgotten!

Most of my courses are with experienced anglers. The sort of students who can certainly cast and fish, but are looking to become better or even outstanding flycasters. I also have beginners (many less), instructors and competition casters. It’s an excellent mix that keeps it all very interesting for me and means that I’m not saying the same things over and over again!

The way I have been structuring my intermediate level casters’ courses (can double haul, cast 70’ and have an existing range of serviceable casts) is to clean up the overhead cast first with an accuracy stroke, look at the double haul and open stance distance. Then shifting over to the roll cast and introducing three stops and backhand deliveries. And somewhere around lesson 4 introduce the 170. I do this because I have very good success introducing the 170 and it has many uses for wind and shot taking in both directions. This gives us three core overhead strokes: Accuracy, OSD and 170. Which we can then run through every, or nearly every lesson, continually honing each. Then I have two major blocks of two lessons each, two lessons of presentation casts & mends, and two lessons of Speys. This could mean “kiss and go” one session and sustained anchors the next, or vice versa. I have modules for “all planes”, Winds, SW shots, and get out of jail casts, which can be dropped in pretty much at random.

What I find interesting is how much development occurs in the overhead stroke when introducing both Presentations and Speys. Now it’s true that this is four lessons combined, so a couple of months of training, during which we are still training O/H casts, including distance. But at some point during – or immediately following – these training blocks, I always see significant advancements in ALL casts. Learning single handed Speys immediately improves overhead distance. There is no question about this now.

It’s certainly possible to structure differently. And if I have a predominantly small stream angler, then I will of course structure differently, putting in presentation casts before the 170 for example. What I’m unsure about is how different orders of these lessons affects the final outcome, if at all. Certainly the sequence is often changed to accommodate fishing trips. We are not going to do a Spey casting module three weeks out from a SW trip; instead we are going to train shots with the appropriate tackle and a fly.

So perhaps the order of these lessons doesn’t matter too much. I do think it’s important to cover them all. Even if the student only fishes the salt for example, learning Spey casting (with the single handed rod) can have a profound impact on their ability to both carry line as well as  to change direction during the shot, making it a must learn set of casts for me. Mends and slack line casts for streams may have limited use in the Salt or Stillwater, but by goodness they teach casting control. Learning to make a high speed backhand stopless cast might not be particularly useful in most tight overgrown stream situations, but the expansion of casting skills always seems to feed back into overall control and performance.

I suppose one important consideration in structuring lesson order, is that the later you leave something in the course, the less time you’ll have to work with it, unless the student rebooks! For me I’ve always liked teaching very high level casters, so booking a second course with me is usually when things start to become the most interesting my end.

I have many students at the moment. Approaching 50 full time. Many are stationed in US Eastern Daylight Time. Particularly now they have summer time, if not summer weather, my 7am Malaysian time is always busy. I could probably bring in one more in this time zone if my arm was twisted. Europe, Australia, NZ, all other US time zones present no problems.

So if you would like to take your fly casting prowess to the next level (or in fact several levels higher) then drop me an email and we can discuss. Currently I’m charging 800USD for 10x1hr Zoom lessons. You’ll need a tripod for your phone or iPad, some hoops and a Bluetooth headset or similar, so we can talk while you are away from camera. Lessons are recorded so you can download and replay them, take notes and WhatsApp these over to me. I encourage you to send videos of your cast to me regularly while practising, so that we can go through these too.

My students have again been telling me I’m not charging enough, so I will put rates up in a couple of months time, because I do listen to them!

 

 

Much of my current time is organising our exciting rods. We are moving production over to Spain. The land of the Hot Tortuga. We have new and old decals in stock. Just waiting for our blanks, cork,  tubes and components to navigate their way to northern Spain from the UK. I’ll be very pleased when we are up and running properly again.

We are also having a new Sexyloops website and shop built at the moment. I’m not sure how long this is going to take. Hopefully 4-6 weeks and then the huge task of importing 25 years of Sexyloops content into the new management system begins. I might need to bring in assistance for this!

I’ll get rod production running again and then I can start producing more Sexyloops fly fishing videos. The Flycasting Manual Part 2 “Drills and Exercises”. Operation Fluff Part 2 “Ugly flies have more fun”. And Fly Fishing Moments, Snakehead in the Jungle “Hang on to your shorts baby; it’s all about to happen”.

I’m looking forward to season two of “On The Fly”. By the sounds of it we will be heading over to East Malaysia next.

Have a great week!

Cheers, Paul