Proof of concept: FlyCasting

We have created apps for smart watches and smart phones which let you hear your movements as you cast, and a desktop app for analysis of casting sessions at a later time. The watch and phone apps are already available as prototypes so that people can work on building the correct muscle memories for the different movements that go together to make a good cast.

SkillShaper apps for other activities are in planning stages. Get in touch with us if you'd like to know more.

SkillShaper apps for FlyCasting

Get the sounds of good casts in your ear:
Listen to the movement audios of a casting session, or download cast-recording from expert casters. Study the charts and play them back - to hear what a good cast really sounds like. The main fore and aft strokes will sound like a smoothly rising tone, as they steadily accelerate during the stroke. Then there will be a sharp spike in the sound at the point they apply reverse force to crisply stop the stroke. The more you hear it, the more those patterns burn into your mind - and the easier it will be to cast the same way.

SkillShaper Watch app for Android

Make real casts with a smart watch:  Strap one to your flyrod on top of the grip. Fold the watch band back under your thumb. Let some line out and start to cast.

The accelerometer in the watch reads the movements and produces the sound of those movements from its speaker. If your watch has no speaker, it can stream the accelerometer readings to earbuds or speaker.

SkillShaper Phone app - for Apple & Android 

Practice with a phone alone: You can use the SkillShaper SmartPhone app for learning and practicing good casting skills. Hold it like you would hold a fly rod. Pantomime a cast. Listen to your strokes.

   

Pattern your movements to the sound of good casts. Build proper muscle memory anywhere, anytime.

Focus in on one critical movement at a time by selecting an option on the setting page: the Stroke move,  the Stops at the end of your strokes, or keeping your swings in a Straight Line.

Charts When you are through casting, the Phone app can draw a detailed chart of your casting movements which can reveal important details about your stroke and help you diagnose issues to work on.

A case in point: I discovered that I habitually injected a sudden wrist-snap at the start of my strokes. The snap, which looked like a premature peak in the acceleration curve and sounded like a little hiccup in the audio swoop, was giving me tailing loops and greatly reducing the efficiency of my casts. I immediatly began practicing casts with a gentler start, and a smoother rise in acceleration-sound. I am finally overcoming this bad habit. I'm casting further, and with less effort. Most of the time, anyway. (Bad muscle memory is devilishly hard to overcome).

    

Lefty Kreh                    

Ed Jaworowski (now an advisor to SkillShaper)

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