When I was a small boy I must have hung out with competitive bunch of guys , girls were not allowed to play with us ( that came later) but anyway competition started early by seeing who could pee up a lamppost the highest who could ride their bike down the steepest hill, that carried on with cars .
If I wanted to be good at something I would compete with the best in that given activity . I was rewarded with championships lap records etc.
Hangler the relationship between distance casting and fishing is based around that lamppost from earlier . If you can cast 150mtrs and the fish are in at 50m you have it covered but if you reverse that you are in trouble.
As far as rods go there has been a lot of high end rods sold up your way that could be way to much rod for the owners but if they choose to go to a casting day their learning curve would be much faster.