Become your own coach.   After many years teaching casting, we've identified some common faults that most beginner and intermediate casters make. The following examples will help you recognise these, and more importantly, give you the tools to fix them.   All you need is your eyes and the powers of observation. You may as well start to learn these skills now then soon you will have Phil  and the other cormorants shaking in their boots when you approach the water.       If you take note of the presentation cast at the exact moment the rod stops and the line makes it to the water, there will be certain telltale signs letting you know if you did it rightly or wrongly. You just have to learn how to read them.       Example:       Too much power early in the presentation cast.       # If you have powered to strongly and early in the presentation stroke the flyline will have kinks or shock waves in the front 6- 12 ft when it lands on the water. Not to mention the fact that you have probably gone through the cast too quickly, meaning that the rod will have stopped and you have to wait for the line to continue rolling out on its own with no further control from you or the rod.               Shock waves in the forward section of line .                   To much power late in the presentation cast.     # Consversely, if you have powered smoothly at first and then to quickly later in the stroke the line will lay out straight in the front section but with kinks or shock waves towards the rear of the line.           Showing the effects of a Smooth start with too much power late in the cast.   Effects:   Straight front on the flyline, with shock waves toward the rear.   The rear of the flyline will dump on the water first!           Stopping too high on the presentation cast.   # If you stop the rod too high on the presentation cast, you will land the forward section of line with a whack, or it will slowly float down, depending on the level of power you used in the stroke. Either way, again you will have no control because the rod has finished its movement well before the line has landed on the water, and it is now at the mercy of the wind as to where it lands.  Loss of accuracy and line control.     Above left.   Stopping the rod to high and too fast! Causes the front of the flyline to  whack the water.   Above right.   Stopping too high and too slowly causes the front of the flyline and leader to float down to the water with no control. It also causes the flyline to drift back towards the rod, losing 6-9ft in distance let alone accuracy. ( While it is drifting it is at the mercy of the wind!)        Keeping it in the plane.       One of the most common mistakes made by casters is taking the rod out of the plane. It does not matter if your style is the traditional upright style with the rod in the vertical or if you have a saltwater version with the rod leaning towards the water or almost parallel with it, or if you are somewhere in- between keeping the rod in the same plane is absolutely critical for keeping the tip loaded and transmitting power and accuracy to where you want the fly to land.     If you drift out of the plane on the back and forward cast, you will have washed off about 30% of the power you could have generated. Rods are designed to flex in a straight line not twist, which is exactly the effect of going out of the plane puts on the rod.      Accuracy is also lost here with the leader and fly landing to the left or right of the flyline depending on which side of the plane the rod travelled in       Right handers to the right and Lefty’s to the left is the general rule.           Take note if your leader always seems to kick out to the right or left of your flyline.       Generally most people go out of the plane at the end of their forward cast and this is the easiest to fix.   Usually they finish with the rod back in front of them, even though they cast slightly out to the side with the rod travelling in a plane on a slight angle. All you have to do is finish the cast on the same angle you cast it on and all will be fine, but this requires you to be aiming in the same direct line the rod is travelling in.   Most people tend to cast on an angle but aim directly in front of themselves bringing the rod  back in front of them at the last moment thereby taking the rod out of the plane when all that is required is to keep aiming in the same plane as the rod travels, which will leave you with the rod finishing pointing away on a slight angle rather than straight back in front of you.     Perpetual Tension       In the early days of casting instruction people where taught to keep tension by pulling the line down and across the body known as pocket to pocket “chest to hip” they then lent their body into the line which ended up slightly behind them near their back pocket to keep it taught for the forward cast, now they had to start there forward cast and somehow get there hand back to their chest pocket without losing tension, so they could do it all again for the next cast. The problem here which made it a difficult thing to master was that most people could get tension with the line across their body but then introduced slack while moving their hand all the way back some 2-3 ft to the chest, a difficult manoeuvre for anyone, it requires heaps of practice and even then it is still difficult to master and can only really be cast in the traditional upright and vertical position great for accuracy ( Competion casters still use this method) but not much use if you are going salt water fishing or casting in tight confines .       Don’t get me wrong here this cast is the most graceful and effortless to watch with a master on the wand, it just takes a whole lot of dedication and practice. However there is a much easier way to achieve the same result requiring much less effort and coordination.         The key to feeling what’s going on!       Tension is the most important part of the equation, if left hand is kept as close as possible to the first guide on the rod it makes it easier to keep tension on the rod via the line.   The greater the gap between the guide and the left line hand the greater the amount of slack that can be introduced, thereby releasing the tension and making us guess the timing of the next cast, because you have momentarily lost the tension (split seconds only)  most people start the next cast to quickly which causes the rod to overload and go through the cast to quickly to make up for the lack of feel.        Causes wind knots, shock waves, loss of power and timing on the delivery cast.