Second thoughts:
Great learning experience is to stand right behind a good fly caster and put your casting hand lightly on theirs, close your eyes and feel the rhythm of their casting.
Work with short casts. Most of your typical stream or river fly fishing involves short casts anyway.
Like most fishing, success comes from learning where the fish are more than becoming a world champion caster. Positioning before casting by proper, unobtrusive, walking or wading is worth far more than being able to cast further than the next person.
Learn by observing where the fish are likely feeding, on top, down on the bottom, or in mid-water. If you cannot tell than as a beginner - move to a place where you can. This will tell you what kind of fly and what kind of fishing technique is most likely to be successful.
Do not conclude that what you see others doing is correct; figure out what makes sense to you and experiment until you start having success. There is a reason 10% of those fishing catch 90% of the fish.