# Pendulum cast variations



## lucky strike

Can someone name and describe the different pendulum casts?
I have seen Tommy using what he describes as flat arc and yet again john holden's cast is very different being more upright .What would that be called? It certainly is not a flat arc.
Mackellow is somewhere in between. Also at times I have seen Tommy do a variation of both in his videos.
Luckily I can do both types with equal success but if I am asked what the casts are called I don't have a clue other than the flat arc version.
I believe this creates confusion for those starting out as I am sure they watch videos and each looks different than the other. Even the OTG casts are different , some start with low arms driving the butt up on a 45 angle and pull the but down on the hit and others starting with high arms moving around in more or less a flat arc and pulling the butt in on the hit


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## Tommy

The term pendulum cast really refers to any cast that has these three functions. Outswing (swinging the sinker away from the body), Inswing (after the outswing as the sinker comes back toward the caster and then begins its path either high, flat or somewhere in between) and the powerstroke. The difference between High swing and flat arc is in the path the sinker takes between the inswing and the power stroke.

Neil Mackellow is "the" classic high swing pendulum casters. His arc is very high, almost vertical in nature. His timing was/is impeccable and the cast is amazing.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A11BESWd6mg

Peter Thain taught me to flat arc cast. I was lucky to attend a seminar back in 02 or 03 and received one on one tuition from Peter. He was the man that was able to get the mechanics of casting through my thick skull.... Thanks Peter....  I consider Peter to be one of if not the most technically profecient casters on the planet and the true master of Flat Arc casting.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DxOlcbBvG7c

Andy Copping is currently one of the best casters in the UK. His style is somewhere in between Neil and Peter as far as the sinker path is concerned. I'd still call it high swing but not high as in Mackellow high.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hY1gp6SLNKY

Personally, I have tried them all. I had good success with the flat arc, it held the USA record for 6 years... . Right now I'm throwing the high swing and love it. Almost as high as Neil but with a little more rotation, just works for me. Also the high swing is less stressful on my old shoulders and the performance is top notch. Here is one of each. 
Flat - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bdUT5-8rkyU
High - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PVx4MRpyVu4

These casts were comparable in distance, mid 800's

Hope this helps with your questions,

Tommy


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## neckfat

Thanks for the info, I've wondered about that as well. In my limited experience, when I try the high swing, I don't seem to get the weight on a downward trajectory when initially loading the rod. The usual result is an almost sickening smell of burning thumb as I try to control the coming birdsnest. I tend to circle the weight above my head and have never felt as though I were loading the rod as much as I do with other casts. In other words, my high swing casts are traveling along at an incredible speed about 20 feet above the deck. I actually get surprising distance from the casts but they leave the old thumb a bit worn. 

I have much better luck with pendulum casts keeping the weight lower on the backcast and being able to get a nearly 45 degree trajectory angle on the cast itself. But, when I increase the drop, the weight will sometimes hit the ground when initially loading the rod. When actually fishing, I have to shorten the drop even more to keep the bait out of the sand.

I may be mistaken, but it seems to me that in Tommy's high swing slow motion video, he is initially pulling the weight down from the high backswing position, that seems to bring the path of the weight, at least initially, more in line with the path of weights using flat arc or OTG casts. I suspect that the high swing allows a longer drop and therefore more energy to be imparted.


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## Tommy

neckfat said:


> Thanks for the info, I've wondered about that as well. In my limited experience, when I try the high swing, I don't seem to get the weight on a downward trajectory when initially loading the rod. The usual result is an almost sickening smell of burning thumb as I try to control the coming birdsnest. I tend to circle the weight above my head and have never felt as though I were loading the rod as much as I do with other casts. In other words, my high swing casts are traveling along at an incredible speed about 20 feet above the deck. I actually get surprising distance from the casts but they leave the old thumb a bit worn.
> 
> I have much better luck with pendulum casts keeping the weight lower on the backcast and being able to get a nearly 45 degree trajectory angle on the cast itself. But, when I increase the drop, the weight will sometimes hit the ground when initially loading the rod. When actually fishing, I have to shorten the drop even more to keep the bait out of the sand.
> 
> I may be mistaken, but it seems to me that in Tommy's high swing slow motion video, he is initially pulling the weight down from the high backswing position, that seems to bring the path of the weight, at least initially, more in line with the path of weights using flat arc or OTG casts. I suspect that the high swing allows a longer drop and therefore more energy to be imparted.


The high swing is a very timing dependant cast. You must have patience to allow the sinker to climb to the top (12:00) before you start your turn. If you turn into the cast too early, the sinker will be in the wrong position and one of two things will happen.

1 - The rod will feel like you are trying to throw a brick. It will feel heavy, it will unload early and the sinker will fly low and left.
2 - The sinker will smack hard into the ground.

Even if you wait long enough on the inswing, you still need to turn slowly letting the sinker get outside the tip. The real power should be applied late when your left hand is extended and out in front of your face.

When you get it right, the cast is remarkably easy on your body. Lots of power without extreme effort.

Tommy


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## lucky strike

I am very proficient in the flat arc style pendulum and ground casts but have a hard time with the high swing-sinker mostly goes off to right field. Can someone describe in detail how the high swing pendulum is done?
Thanks,LS


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## Tommy

lucky strike said:


> I am very proficient in the flat arc style pendulum and ground casts but have a hard time with the high swing-sinker mostly goes off to right field. Can someone describe in detail how the high swing pendulum is done?
> Thanks,LS


Here is the very best explanation I have read from the master of the high swing, Neil Mackellow. I hope he doesn't mind the copy/paste.

_Well you asked for it! 

High Swing Pendulum Cast by Neil Mackellow 

A rod is like a longbow, no good until it’s nine tenths busted! 

What I am about to write is what I believe I did to get to the top very early in my casting career and stay there for a good many years. I will be the first to admit that I had a BIG advantage over many others, in-so-far as I discovered I had a natural ability to throw things. 

In 1981, after initially failing to get the required distance with the then conventional 11ft 8in rod and high reel, I started looking at alternative set ups to enable me to compete with Paul Kerry – then king of the court - for tip speed. 

My answer was simple, if unable to obtain the required tip speed with a short rod, use a longer one! 

I will not bore you with my initial Heath Robinson attempts to generate said tip speed, suffice to say a 14ft rod was the basis of my endeavours. 

So, on the field for the first time with a now 13ft 3in rod with a reel mounted 8in above the butt cap and a removable extension in my back pocket ready for retrieving, I made my first high pendulum cast. I beat my previous best cast in practice by around 10 yards. Not bad for the first attempt! 

I knew I had come to the right conclusion and that the long rod was the way to go and went on to make a PB cast of 235 yards in the next session. However, I was not quite ready for the bite on the ass when I went off to a SA event down in Bournemouth with it. I ended up pulling more muscles in my stomach than I even knew I owned! Back to the drawing board. 

Right, time to sit down and take stock. For the first session I had been extremely circumspect and kept the power down and well within control. Of course creating a PB had given me a big dollop of over confidence and I screwed up big time. 

A month later I drove slowly and alone to Alton where there was another SA event. I had had a little time to try to get the long rod under control and was trying hard not to get over confident. It worked. By taking it easy and only putting in as much power as I could control gave me a PB and national longest cast – although unofficial - of 257 yards. 

Now then, just what is this high swing style? 

The object of the exercise is to get the sinker away from you in the greatest arc possible. This is where the initial momentum is gained. 

Let the rod go down parallel to the ground on the outswing and LIFT the rod to make the sinker return almost along the trajectory it took on the out swing then stop the rod dead as the lead starts to climb. Many find it hard to believe just how much power this simply act generates but this is just the start of the power build up and as yet you have not used any body movement needed later in the cast. 

And here is where I think many miss the point. On the back swing the sinker has to climb up against a stationary rod, BUT, before the sinker gets too high you start to turn into the cast. By leaving your arms behind and only using body rotation you leave all your arm movement available for making the hit much later in the cast when the sinker has reached the point when it can be powered away with very little effort. 

By rolling the lead outside the rod tip you harness incredible circumferential forces which the lead soaks up like a sponge for use later in the cast when most needed. 

Next objective is to get the lead as low to the ground as possible. The reason being that you want the lead below the rod tip when you start putting the power in. 

As an aside, when on form people would often say I had hit the ground. Wrong! My lead was so close to the grass that for the first couple of casts of the day what they were seeing was the sinker blowing the dew off the grass! That’s how low the lead wants to be. 

Many years later I finally discovered why all my best casts seemed so effortless. And here comes the controversial bit, I believe that on those big casts my sinker was in FRONT of the rod. 

There comes a time when the sinker has to change position and go from being pulled by the line to pulling the line itself. 

I have a photograph that I scanned from a SA mag. I was casting at Weybourne in Norfolk for a review on the Daiwa Interline surf rods and Tom the photographer had positioned me so I had a natural sunburst between my legs, also illuminating the line and sinker. He had caught the sinker in a position I had never seen before or since. 

I spend weeks mulling over the photograph and by chance found another picture which showed the lead actually changing direction from being pulled to being the puller. I was casting a cheap fixed-spool set up for a shoot and it was as clear as day with a big loop of line behind the sinker. Sadly I no longer have that photograph as I threw out six years of mags when we last moved house. 

This style of casting has to be millisecond perfect and only through time and practice was I able to get to a point where I could perform without having to think about. On the way to the oche I simply went into auto-pilot. My way incidentally of overcoming nerves. Again, I was very lucky in-so-far as I got the shakes just like everyone else. But with me it was different, I started shaking only when the lead hit the ground! 

Good luck - Neil_


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## lucky strike

Hi Tom,
Thanks for the post-I feel mostly those reactions when making my cast -the part that puzzles me is the angle of the rod when making the hit-If you would , On the High Swing ,where is your left hand relative to your face when the hit occurs? On the flat arc my left hand is almost dead infront of my face on the hit. Is it the same on the high swing with the rod being on a more upright angle??
Thanks,LS


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## lucky strike

ls


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## lrs

I watched the high arc you tube video. Neil makes it look easy and effortless.
It is an intriguing cast.


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## Tommy

lucky strike said:


> Hi Tom,
> Thanks for the post-I feel mostly those reactions when making my cast -the part that puzzles me is the angle of the rod when making the hit-If you would , On the High Swing ,where is your left hand relative to your face when the hit occurs? On the flat arc my left hand is almost dead infront of my face on the hit. Is it the same on the high swing with the rod being on a more upright angle??
> Thanks,LS


Take another look at this clip. Stop at 28-29 seconds and you should be able to see pretty clearly that the left is out in front of my face. On the high swing, the right will be in a different position coming around which gives you a different rod angle but the left should still be extended and ready for a hard pull.

Hope this makes sense.

Tommy


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## lucky strike

Got it, thanks Tom!
LS


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## lucky strike

Tommy said:


> Take another look at this clip. Stop at 28-29 seconds and you should be able to see pretty clearly that the left is out in front of my face. On the high swing, the right will be in a different position coming around which gives you a different rod angle but the left should still be extended and ready for a hard pull.
> 
> Hope this makes sense.
> 
> Tommy


Thanks alot Tommy,
I got it!!!
LS


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## lrs

I'm glad I stumbled on to this thread.
I watched the videos you Tommy, Neil and Andy. Of the 3 of you, seems like Andy has a way of waiting just a hair longer, before starting his hip rotation. 
I found this cast to come natural to me for whatever reason. 
I struggled some on Monday, reviewed the casts yesterday, and was able to get the baseball airborne in the proper direction.
I recorded the casts, then reviewed them, technique seems OK.
On one cast, for the sake of utilizing hip rotation in conjunction with the hit, I tried that slight pause just before the hit, only to have the baseball (t-ball) bounce off the ground. Oh, well, that's fine, that's why they call it practice.
Still having to take it easy though, shoulder's been talking to me.
I dropped most of the casts near a buoy, that measures 135 yards away. I'm not gonna hit it any harder than that.


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