I just bought a salt water reel that has no brakes on it. I practiced casting it in the yard for a couple days with a few backlashes ( knock on wood, none bad enough to cut out the line.) I then found a tip on a salt water forum to take a water bottle with spray nozzle and wet the line every other cast. This for some reason works better, i guess it's kinda the lubricating between the line and your thumb that makes it easier to cast.Plus gives you real world practice over dry. Worked for me...I can now cast with no backlash nine out of ten times. Hope this helps someone out...

Would using some kind of line dressing work as well?  Curious as I haven't purchased any yet.

Less friction between your thumb and the spool = more control

Not to mention, dry line can really burn your thumb if you're casting something with some weight to it (if you aren't careful that is).

Old timers around here who catfished with Penn reels used to dunk them in the water every cast.