As i wrote in the previous post, a recent vid I shot showed that my hauling, though fit for purpose, was a bit lazy. What I meant is that my hauling worked adequately for the distances being cast but I wasn’t hauling at peak efficiency. There are basically three elements to optimising haul efficiency – how you move, how far you move and when you move – in co-ordination with the body bits devoted to the fly rod. This post is mostly about timing and co-ordination. The how part is about moving in a straight(ish) line away from your rod hand and mostly by extending your lower arm – the forearm pivots around the elbow joint. How far you move varies with how much effort you want to put into the haul which varies with both the distance to be cast and  the intended contribution of the haul. It might be very short and wristy, as long as possible and everywhere in between. Explore, play, experiment and vary.

Back when I wrote about Biomechanics in part 4 I mentioned findings from work in a Swedish lab which lead to this summation.

“Among elite casters, single-handed fly casting with double haul is coordinated in an order of events whereby the peak speed occurs first for the translation of the rod, then for the rotation of the rod and finally for the line haul.”

My comment was that: 

“The succession of peak speeds speaks to each building on the Work of the previous stage, progressively accelerating the fly line. It implicitly confirms the mechanical effects of the proximal to distal sequence for both rod and line hands. Less obviously, it affirms the flow and integration of the body movements, including the overlaps between activation of the body parts.”

A lot of folks, including me when I’m not trying for maximum distance, might think “Oh yeah, fine, but I’m making fishing casts rather than competition casts so near enough is good enough.” But, and there is always a but, another part of me likes fly casting as well as I can, meaning as efficiently as possible. In movement terms that means without superfluous effort. What the mechanics and biomechanics are saying is that effort can be minimised by applying it at the right time and in the right way. It’s tempting to dive into the detail at this point but resisting temptation here is a simple practical exercise which makes the relevant point(s).

When I clean my lines I only apply the cleaning, lubing and buffing cloths in one direction – from the back to the front of the fly line (helps remove twist). That means I have to repeatedly shift all the line from one bucket to another in preparation for the next cloth application.  To do that I pass the line over the top edge of my “rod hand” and lift it up away from the donating bucket while my “line hand” pulls down to deposit the line in the receiving bucket. It’s a bit boring but using it to test for the optimal combination of movements, effort and timing (coordination) tones down the sense of redundancy.  In fact these movements in a vertical plane are very similar to a back cast haul made in a horizontal plane with a fly rod in my rod hand. The mechanics of “opposing” line movements using a pivot point are the same in both cases. Forward and back in casting becomes up and down line cleaning prep. 

Have a play. You don’t even need two buckets as two piles of slack line on the ground which is transferred between piles as described will do the job. Just remember that like casting with a rod and making double hauls it’s not about applying the most force possible but applying the right amount of force at the right time using both hands. What I’ve found is that the line movement gets the most zippy when the rod hand leads the movement and the haul hand follows. I’m guessing this sequence produces pretty much the same effect as the results reported after studying 3D motions analysis of elite casters – a succession of peak speeds.

To switch examples slightly think of driving a car with a manual gearbox. Compare a series of upshifts while accelerating. Example one. The car takes off in first gear and then it’s shifted into third gear. The rate of acceleration is compromised. Example two. The gear shifts happen at the same rev count, first to second to third. The rate of acceleration is maintained if not enhanced.

In near enough terms, casting efficiency is improved when we rotate after we translate the rod – late rotation. If we use hauls then we should haul late as well. Ideally translation leads rotation which leads hauling so rotate late and haul even later. This is a desirable outcome.

Of course, the actual process isn’t quite as simple as that because we need to coordinate a whole series of movements of a whole bunch of body parts and we need to do it smoothly to optimise the straight line path and minimise the chances of throwing tailing loops. However, if we have managed to self organise our movement to achieve nifty narrow loops on demand then tweaking the efficiency of haul timing and haul movements isn’t quite so difficult. The timing was explained with the line buckets example. The haul movements will be more efficient to the extent that they take (mechanical) advantage of the pivot point phenomenon. As an added incentive a late haul helps keep the rod bent which helps keep loops tight, a sign of an extended SLP. It also seems to mitigate the risk of throwing tails.

I found that making the timing adjustment was aided by doing it without a rod in hand, slowing down the opposing movements of the rod and line hands until the former started to lead the movement of the latter. When casting I tended to lapse back into the unconscious co-ordination and timing in which the both hands reached peak speed almost at the same time. The little added lag in timing by the hauling hand has a significant advantage.  I’ll need a couple more sessions to get it nailed down but significant progress has already been made.