Dana-
I must first preface this with the fact my casting style is very unorthdox, I solely self-taught and some people cringe when they see me cast and others 'oooh and ahhh'.
As you probably noticed watching me cast, I do not go light on the power myself (Mike Kinney made some comment that I have little too much testrone because of my single handed casting).
Anyways...because of the power I will put into both the forward and backcast, I had a horrible tendency to throw one tailing loop after another on softer rods. I grew up on GLoomis and Sage RPL+s...rods that dont mind that extra power.
George Cook and I were dinking around with single handers one day and he looked at me and said one thing "Think 0-60" as in MPH (or KPH...you folks do measure time in hours up there, dont 'ya??).
That little comment made all the differnace in the world. Do not think power, do not think velocity, think accleration! You can hit the rod as hard as you want as long as you maintain that acceleration with a proper follow thru. You can also power through as lightly as you would like and as long as you accelerate, you will generate a tight loop and decent line speed.
After I worked on that though, applied it to my stroke, a very unothordox stroke (I recieved my first casting lesson a year...after 10 years of flycasting) etc., I could cast the some of the softer rods such as the Winston BL5 and WT's, Scott G series etc. almost as well as I could the XP's and Tiborons etc.
Also, breaking your wrist isnt always a bad thing-there is a proper way an a proper time to break your wrist. Because I am a little guy (5'10", 160 pounds), I found over time, that to reach the distances I needed, I had to extend out my stroke. Maximize the distance my rod traveled to
help maximize the amount of energy applied to the line.
As I extend my stroke, I open my body up and my rod literally becomes parrell with the water because my wrist is breaking severely! In fact, you can not cast without breaking your wrist. According to Lefty, the only reason for a tailing loop is not the proper crack of the wrist on your forward. I believe that your backcast and forward cast should mirror one another so if I am going to break my wrist on my forward cast, I sure as Hell am going to do it on my backcast! The severity of the 'break' is all dependant upon the distances I am trying to reach...when I am fishing in short, obviously my rod tip barely moves as I am just working the tip of the rod.
I compensate for this severe break in many ways...if you would like to know how I do, let me know. I can also go into detail on the proper time and manner in which to break your wrist...
...as you have noticed, I am as about untextbook as they come. I dont teach the casting stroke to students like so many do as I want them to develop a stroke that is comfortable to them. I instruct my students what the goal of flycasting is and why and how to reach that goal (as the subject of this post says, there are many differnt ways to skin a cat).
I am also more concerned with them knowing how to troubleshoot their cast by looking at their loops, by listening to their line etc. etc.
I also take great pride in my instructing abilities...I am far from a great caster but the amount of people I have seen benefit from my instruction sure as Hell leaves a nice warm fuzzy feeling inside! I actually had a very good caster today offer me up a 6 pack of my beer of choice because I managed to help him greatly!! We need to hit the water together!!...God knows I need some further instruction and tweaking with my two-handed cast!!
I could ramble on about single handed casting for hours but I will leave it at that!!
Juro-
You have excellent loop control...not necassarily in the size of your loop but when you open and close it! This is something I am always working on and watching you maintain that tight loop at those extra long distances was a sight to see! I have a tendency to open my loop to soon and I also manage to generate a fair amount of turbulence on my forward cast which I think is a product of my open extended stroke...much much less room for error with a stroke like mine!