Help with Tenkara casting technique
Dear community,
I'm a newbie to Tenkara and would like to receive some input on my casting technique. I bought a MaxCatch Triple Zoom rod (8'10''/9'9''/10'6'', 7:3 action) kit and I'm using a regular what looks like a #14 (?) sakasa kebari fly. The rod is extended to the max (10'6"), furled line is 11', 4x tippet is around 4'.
I feel that something is noticeably off. I've never fly fished Western-style in my life and, thus, there's no muscle memory to re-train. On the other hand, I've got nothing to compare with and no friends of mine are interested in fly fishing.
Have watched dozens of videos on YouTube on how to cast, have read some intros and guides. My main complaint is that the fly doesn't land like it should (or how I think it should). It smashes the water, it lands off target, it drifts towards the rod tip projection too hastily. The fly line doesn't unroll naturally (ideally I'd want to control it like a gymnast with ribbons, if that's a good comparison) - if I don't apply enough force it limply collapses, if I handle the rod too hard it starts drawing weird curves with terrible presentation results. It's hideous when it's windy (as seen in video).
What I have managed to achieve so far is the consistency - I miss the target by the same distance every time and the line's drawing the exact same shapes each cast. (I'm still practicing before going out to a river).
I understand that buying a cheap chinese rod that came with an unknown furled line and similarly doubtful tippet isn't the best way to get started with Tenkara, but I just don't want to spend extra on a hobby. It's not THAT cheap though, it's not from Temu, if you know what I mean. I'm thinking about buying a 10' furled line from DragonTail to match the rod length (likely be fishing either on 9'9" or max extended) and a level line (3.5#). But I fear something's wrong with me and not with the tool and hoarding extra won't improve the outcome much.
So here's the video of my practice (sorry for being boring). I'm varying the force and the abruptness/smoothness of the casts there. The videographer decided not to include the backcast unroll in the frame, but I'll tell you most of the time it's drawing squares back there (what a symmetrical rod!). Noticed that the line handles better when I grip higher up the handle.
Please, take a look and suggest. (Just don't tell me that the rod is crap)
Thanks for your time.