I'm not sure which member posted this comment;
"The statement that "a vital part of fly fishing is fly casting" is not even debatable. One would expect to see on the streams, lakes, and ponds, casters in approximate numbers who are good, bad, and indifferent; but amazingly there are mighty few of each of the two extremes and a vast army of the mediocre. It must be that Mr.Average Angler is so involved with habits, environment, approach and equipment that he postpones the day when he makes a science out of delivery."
This is a great comment! Today, and at least for the past two decades, there has been so much written about how important your leader is and how you must be using this, or that, fluocarbon tippet and how you should be using a super duper large arbor reel with a cork/teflon disc drag holding 200 yards of 20# backing. Then you can get all wrapped up in the choice of your fly line. Should it be a DT, or maybe a WF, or should it be a WF sink tip? Or maybe a shooting head, how about a finesee line for clear and low water? how about one of those pebbly finish lines maybe that is what you should be buying?
When I look the the tackle catalogs today I just can't believe how many fly lines are being offered!! When I started to fly fish, Yea, I know I'm a frigging dinosaur! there were just four lines being sold; a floating DT, a floating WF, a full sinker, and if you looked around you might even find what they called a "Bug" taper for heavy and air resistant flies. Heck when I started to fly fish the numerical system of defining line weights had not even been created yet. Lines were listed as GBF, HCH, etc and the letters defined the weights of the lnes.
Back in the early 1960's there were basically four fly reels to choose from; the Plueger Medalist series, the Martin fly reels, those goofy automatic reels that weighed about 10 ounces, and if you happened to be well heeled, or saved some money, you could buy one of the Hardy Lightweight series of reels. That was it! No large arbor reels, no billet CNC machined 6061 aluminum machined to tolerances of +/- .001".
My point to this long winded post is that when you only had a modest selection of tackle to chose from you could put in a huge effort to learn to cast well. You didn't have to worry if you had the newest zinger and gadget hanging from your vest because the streams and rivers had so many fewer anglers than they do today.
I remember reading Joe Brooks' book "Trout" and it had black line drawings of guys casting and explaining the mechanics of casting and where your arm should be and what happened when you dropped your arm back past the point where you could maintain line speed. I read it and re-read it many times and when spring came I was so excited to get out on the lawn to try it. I was young kid of 14 years old and was far more interested in learning to fly fish than I was in learning about girls (I did that later in excess) LOL.
I made many mistakes and it took me a long time to get even one good cast. I think lawn casting is very good for novices to get the feel of the rod and the fundementals of line management. Of course you can't begin to be adept at line management until you are in the water. But I could get into my backyard far more often than I could get to the water. I remember turning my head around to see where the line was and what a good loop looked like compared to one that was going to collapse.
Little by little I got better and when I was able to get on the water (my Dad had to drive me to a river and come back for me later) I was able to put those lawn sessions into use on the water and you can see how the fly line reacts when you have the surface tension of the water entering the equation of casting. I don't remember how long it took me to be able to go out and not look like a goofus but I know that by the time I was 17 years old my casting was at least as good as the old timers I was fishing with on the little New Jersey streams we were fishing.
If you are just getting into fly fishing don't think about all the limitless number of fly rods that are on the market, or the dozens and dozens of fly reels, or the specialty fly lines available. Find a local fly shop, not a big box store or even a Gander Mountain or Cabela's because those guys just work there and either aren't allowed to be spending too much time with a customer or they don't know how to cast themselves. A local fly shop might be offering casting lessons and the shop owner can surely help you in the correct selection of fly rod, reel, line, and terminal tackle for the waters you are planning to fish. Then go out there and practice over and over until you are good enough to hit a 12" target at 30 feet with just two false casts. You will feel elated!
Catskill fly fisher for fifty-five years.