Ed Jaworowski's Functional Fly Casting, Video 2: Rotation & Leverage

EDITOR'S NOTE: Casting master Ed Jaworowski takes a deep dive into the fundamentals of fly casting in his five-part series “Functional Fly Casting,” which ran in each issue of Fly Fisherman in 2025. Part 2 examines rotation and leverage.

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In the previous article, I discussed the nature of acceleration. Now I’ll build on that by looking at an essential feature of acceleration which, for convenience, I’ll simply term “rotation,” although we could call it “pivoting,” or simply “turning.”

Since casting involves kinesiology—the mechanics of body movements—rotation is really an intrinsic part of acceleration, and occurs simultaneously. It is not a separate or additional move that turns over the hand at the end of the cast. The hand starts turning the instant it begins moving, and just as the hand accelerates, moving ahead faster and faster, it is also turning more and more until that instant stop.

Observe your hand, and the rod shaft, when you grasp a rod grip and very slowly move your hand by bending at the wrist or moving your forearm as you would when casting. You’ll note immediately that they are turning from the first instant. The hand and rod rotate in all casts, and throughout every cast during the time it takes to make the stroke. Just as you can’t load the rod without accelerating, you can’t load it without rotation.

Since a rod is a lever (albeit a tapered, flexible one), a little science here might help to better understand the leverage of casting. There are three kinds of levers, and all have three features: (1) the fulcrum is the point around which the lever rotates, pivots, or turns; (2) the load is the weight or resistance you want to move; (3) the effort is the force you apply somewhere along the lever to move the load.

Depending on which of the three features is in the middle, levers are labeled simply as class 1, 2, or 3. Class 1 levers have the fulcrum in the middle—think of a see-saw, a crowbar, scissors, or pliers. On class 2 levers, the load is in the middle, for example on a wheelbarrow, door, or nutcracker. Class 3 levers have the effort between the fulcrum and the load. Golf clubs, tennis rackets, baseball bats, and hammers are all class 3 levers—as is a fly rod, or any fishing rod for that matter.

Class 3 levers generally aren’t good for moving heavy loads and don’t give added mechanical advantage, such as a pry bar we use to open a crate or a jack to lift a car. Rather, the longer lever allows greater speed and distance without using more force.

As it relates to fly casting, at one end of the lever is the load, which is the weight of the line we want to unroll. At the other end is the fulcrum, the joint in the body at which the rotation or pivoting starts. The effort is supplied by the hand on the grip between the load and the fulcrum. The body has a system of class 3 levers and, depending on how much leverage is required, the fulcrum may be located at the wrists, elbows, shoulders, hips, or even down into the legs.

To limit the rotation to the wrist or elbow (when you want more load in the rod) means you will have to apply more force, sometimes much more. Of course, you might be able do that to a degree, for some casts, but it isn’t necessary, nor is it efficient. It would be like trying to drive a golf ball or hit a baseball using only your arms, with no help from your body. More than a half century ago Ben Hogan said, “The most important thing in the golf swing, to me, is the movement of the lower body from the top of the swing.”

For a very short cast, you might load the rod merely by flexing the wrist up and down or from side to side—the direction depends on the specific cast you’re making. Although the hand is moving, the wrist is the fulcrum and stays in the same position. When more load is required for a longer cast, the forearm should move, which means the elbow is now the fulcrum.

Likewise, when you want still more load or greater speed, perhaps to cast a heavier fly or cope with wind, make a longer movement, using the upper arm. This means that your shoulder becomes the fulcrum.

When even greater distance and speed in the stroke are called for, since your hips are the next joint, don’t hesitate to turn your body. Some people may advise against this, but casting occurs in three dimensions, not flat, two-dimensional planes or one-dimensional straight lines.

As a physicist put it to me when I turned my body for a longer cast: “Because the leverage is coming from your hips, you never cast harder, you always cast smarter.”

You will have created a longer effort arm by making your hips the fulcrum, simply because that joint is farther from the hand supplying the effort. You will incidentally also bring your large back and leg muscles into play, helping you to make a longer loading stroke and move the load faster, without applying greater force. No golfer, pitcher, batter, tennis player, javelin thrower, boxer, or martial artist would dream of limiting their motion to their arms.

As I emphasized in my article on the topic of acceleration, there are no fixed rules on how to cast. It’s all a matter of physics applied in endless ways, depending on the result you want, after taking into account the endlessly changing conditions you’ll encounter when fishing. More than 60 years ago, still in the early stages of his career, Lefty Kreh intuitively understood this and, in the process, changed the world of fly fishing. Efficient casters and good teachers now think about casting based on the physics, not according to a set of outdated and limiting rules.

Categorical instructions such as: start here, stop there, move from this point to that, cast in this or that plane, and so on can make many casts more difficult, and some downright impossible.

Lefty paralleled this with other sports: “If I were making a short toss with a baseball, it’s fine to use only my forearm. But, if I wanted to throw from center field to home plate, I wouldn’t use the same motion. I’d reach well back and, using my whole body, make a very long throw at a high angle.” The longer motion adds distance and speed while spreading out the work load, making it all easier.

Consider how we employ rotation and leverage for different fishing situations. To make a short cast with a dry fly on a trout stream, cast by bending only at the wrist. At the other end of the spectrum, for making a long throw with a big Lefty’s Deceiver across a lake, or to cast well out into the surf, turning the torso generates leverage from the hips and makes the cast much easier to accomplish.

As I mentioned, avoid thinking in terms of fixed rules regarding where to start or stop, and so on. Don’t think categorically that there are simply right or wrong ways to cast. Whether the casting stroke is right or wrong, good or bad must be determined by the result and the efficiency used to achieve it, and to me that means using the least amount of effort you can to achieve the desired result.

Consider the distance of the cast you want to make, the amount of bend or load needed, the stroke length required, and the best direction before you move your hand. Obviously the size of the fly, wind, and any obstructions around you will also affect your moves. This all holds true for backcasts or forward casts. The same physics applies, just in different directions.

In the next article, I’ll explain another factor I call “the critical angle,” which makes casting still easier and more efficient.

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Ed Jaworowski is the author of Perfecting the Cast: Adapting Casting Principles for Any Fly-Fishing Situation (Stackpole Books, 2021) and coauthor of Pop Fleyes: Bob Popovics’s Approach to Saltwater Fly Design (Stackpole Books, 2014).