The Wrist In The Cast

On Wed, 19 May 2004 22:19:27 -0400, (tmon) wrote:

As a semi-newbie who is still trying to cast well consistently, I
thought I'd go out tonight to the local park for a little practice.
There was a Little League practice going on and I was puttering around
with my usual inconsistency off to the side. Then the practice ended
and I heard the voice, "Want to know what you're doing wrong?"
It turns out the guy was a coach. "You're not using your wrist.
Think snap, dead stop." Then he proceeded to false cast about 50' of
line effortlessly like it was nothing to demonstrate. He watched me for
a while, we introduced ourselves, I thanked him, then he left.
My casting improved more in that 15 minutes than it has in 2 years.
Why do so many instructors tell you to keep the wrist straight? It
seems much easier to generate line speed by snapping the wrist to a dead
stop. I guess there really is no substitute for personal instruction,
even if it is only for 15 minutes.

Don't feel bad, some of us took a lot longer than 2 years to figure out the
wrist could actually bend while casting a fly line.

I was introduced to the "Microsecond Wrist" by Doug Swisher hisownself - who
demonstrated it out in a parking lot with my 7 foot 2 weight.

First cast, Ziiiiing! He laid out a good fifty feet of line and leader with
half the arm movement of my own humble casting stroke. He did a slow-motion
walk-through showing his wrist actually breaking (gasp!) and the rest is
history.

That was in 1990, iirc. I'd been flyfishing for 26 years, using the classic
"hammer stroke", which requires one hell of a lot more energy to do and asks
precious little of the rod...

/daytripper (you pay for the rod, so make *it* do the work! ;-)

From: (daytripper)

Don't feel bad, some of us took a lot longer than 2 years to figure out
the wrist could actually bend while casting a fly line.

I would think that the reason some instructors tell you initially to
keep your wrist straight is to prevent the rod from going back to 2 or 3
o'clock. If you can snap your wrist and than stop at 12 or 1 o'clock it
is much easier to cast and requires less arm motion and energy. At
least in my case.

I was introduced to the "Microsecond Wrist" by Doug Swisher hisownself
- who demonstrated it out in a parking lot with my 7 foot 2 weight.
First cast, Ziiiiing! He laid out a good fifty feet of line and leader
with half the arm movement of my own humble casting stroke. He did a
slow-motion walk-through showing his wrist actually breaking (gasp!) and
the rest is history.

Have you ever watched Joan Wulff's "The Dynamics Of Fly Casting"? She
repeats the mantra over and over, loading move, power snap of the wrist,
drift on the backcast. Then the same. Loading move, power snap of the
wrist, drift on the forward cast.

That was in 1990, iirc. I'd been flyfishing for 26 years, using the
classic "hammer stroke", which requires one hell of a lot more energy to
do and asks precious little of the rod...

I use the "hammer stroke" the 3 or 4 times a year I golf. That's why
I'm lucky to break 90. :-)

/daytripper (you pay for the rod, so make *it* do the work! ;-)

I only learned that lesson tonight. It was a revelation.