The proper grip is important. Keeping your thumb on top of the rod helps you apply greater force in a short casting stroke.

Grasp the rod firmly with your casting hand and place your thumb on top of the rod grip. When you are learning casting keep the rod butt under and in line with your wrist and forearm. That way the rod will remain in plane during your cast. If the rod comes out of plane during the cast the tip wanders and the line follows the tip, wandering and spoiling the cast.

Thread the line off the reel and up through the line guides and out the tip top of the rod. Tie a 9-foot leader onto the end of the line using the tube knot and tie a small piece of yarn to the end of the tippet. Stand on the lawn with your feet slightly apart. Pull about 20 feet of line off the reel and lay it out on the lawn to the right of where you stand (to the left if you are left-handed). Make sure the line is drawn tight on the lawn and is not lying in S-curves (number 1 in the illustration below) or it will not cast well.

Your First Practice
The casting principles remain the same for all casting positions. Start your practice with a sidearm cast then move to 45-degree casts and finally to vertical casts. Try to maintain good casting loops. Longer casts require a wider casting arc.

Using a horizontal sidearm cast, flick the rod tip forward from your right to your left (from your left to your right if you are left handed) and watch the line form a loop and roll out to your left (2) and then settle to the grass.

Using your arm and a flick of your wrist together (the way you'd throw a frisbee backward and a baseball forward), cast the line repeatedly back and forth in backcasts and forward casts (2, 3). Try to make the line form candy-cane-shaped loops in both your backcasts and forward casts. Loop formation is the intent of your casting--the tighter the loops, the better the cast.

Loading the Rod: Loading energy into the rod requires good timing, not strength. You should feel the rod bend as you cast.
 

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As you stroke the rod back and forth (2, 3), keep a firm wrist and stop the rod abruptly after each stroke. Stopping the rod allows the line to form a loop off the rod tip. It also allows the rod's tip to turn over to unload energy into the line efficiently. The energy in the rod casts the line. You must stop the rod when making both the forward cast and the backcast to become a good fly caster.

After casting sidearm for 15 minutes, or until you feel comfortable with the feel of the line and the rod, try casting the rod at a 45-degree angle (4) and then vertically (5). You'll use all these casting positions when you are fishing, so get used to them. You want to groove your casting stroke in the position that is most comfortable for you--sidearm, 45 degrees, or vertical. The casting principles remain the same for all casting positions. The sidearm cast allows you to watch the line and thus to teach yourself timing and loop formation.