Larry L wrote:

But, every year, about this time (Striper time and 'ain't nothing left but
stillwaters' time ) I become aware of my failing as a distance caster.

My question
..after a comment. I'm a little afraid to get too involved in trying to
relearn casting.
I fear three things
1) getting so self-conscious that I actually get worse .........
2) falling into a blame the tools trap .........
3) losing fishing skills to casting skills ........

I improved my distance casting (somewhat) by concentrating on learning
to haul and double haul better. It's true that too much thinking made
my hauling worse before it got better, but--perhaps because these aren't
techniques that I use at shorter distances--working on them didn't at
all confound my "normal" casting.

On the other hand, an earlier attempt to improve my distance casting by
switching to a stiffer rod and screwing with the timing of my casting
stroke was disasterous.

JR