Article by Charles Davis
In tenkara we use a straight back-and-forth cast, but we can cast using circumduction.
What’s circumduction?
Circumduction is the movement of a human joint as it traces a circular motion.
The motion can be demonstrated by the arm and/or the wrist for casting purposes. While the movement is not exact, it does follow a circular path. For example, if you were to draw an imaginary circle using only your wrist (pretend you’re holding an imaginary pen); it’s that circular motion that’s referred to in biomechanics as a circumduction movement.
So what’s so important about circumduction? It’s important because it introduces rotation into our casting stroke. While there’s nothing wrong with back-and-forth (straight-line) casting, introducing circumduction into our casting motion can make casting more efficient and enjoyable. That is — if you’re willing to break-from your foundational skills, and drop [at least temporarily] your straight-line casting habits.
While there are many advantages to using circumduction techniques…
I’ll instead, paint a picture
When I’m fishing I want to feel ‘connected’ to my experience. For me, it’s always been about rhythmic casting. Sprinkle-that with periodic fly manipulations and simple dead drifts, and it’s those moments on the river that allow me to feel-connected to my fishing. One way to describe this feeling of connectivity is that I want to escape into my own seemingly unbothered-rhythm with the river and the techniques that I’m performing.
How does circumduction help me reach this seemingly unbothered state-of-mind? Circumduction casting provides me the tempo. The rhythm. Though every angler knows everyday on a river is different, it’s this found-tempo that opens the door to the possibility of a flow-state occurring.
This unencumbered freedom of motion (through the use of circumduction techniques) that allows me to be my own on-water conductor so-to-speak. Simply put, circumduction casting allows at least some chance of a flow-state occurring in my casting rhythm. It’s that kind of connection and personal meditation on the river that drew me to tenkara.
What drew you to fly fishing?
Was it the artistic beauty of the western fly fisher painting his or her own portrait-of-the-day with each false cast, or the simple peace and quiet of the fixed-line delivering a kebari with precision and elegance near or ontop-of its’ intended target?
Tenkara may seem simple, but there’s an art form hidden under all that simplicity. In order to experience the magic of tenkara, you must want to discover it. Whatever curiosity has led you on your tenkara-journey thus far, that same curiosity will lead you back to the river to continue experimenting. It is that curiosity and experimentation that holds the secret to the flow-state of tenkara. Maybe on your next outing you’ll unlock the secret, and discover the “hidden magic” that awaits all anglers who are willing to open their minds and give circumduction casting a try.
Charles Davis is a tenkara casting instructor who currently lives in Utah. If you would like to learn more about circumduction casting you can visit his website MasterTenkara.com
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There’s nice resonance here with principles in Rob Worthing’s new book, “Demon’s Game”.
“What drew you to fly fishing?” The answer for me touches on some things you express: sport as an art form. Being a writer, when I approach a stream, with rod in hand, it’s as if I’m holding a long pen, looking at a blank sheet of paper, and asking, ‘What story can we write today, on this stream? What hidden gems can we and the muse find?’.
Something else that drew me to tenkara is the flow-state you mention. I have a meditation practice (on a cushion), and to be in a flow-state likewise requires being in the moment, as in meditation. And tenkara can certainly cultivate approaching a meditative flow-state (same for fly fishing in general, but especially tenkara, with its minimalism). If we’re not fully in the moment on a stream, paying attention to our cast, to the line, and to contact with tippet and fly, there’s a good chance of missing a take and a fish.
Absolute “hidden magic”. It has been such an eye opener to my casting.