Welcome back to the new NEFF. Take a break from Twitter and Facebook. You don't go to Dicks for your fly fishing gear, you go to your local fly fishing store. Enjoy!
Tom, I've only fished my Tenkara rod a few times (it's OK, and catches fish, but I'm not crazy about it) and never used the reverse soft-hackle style of flies. I just used Sawyer's Killer Bug and standard bead-head nymphs. My experience has been that the long rod lets you stay in contact with the fly in a more vertical manner, and that results in a subtle jigging motion on the fly, which would allow the Tenkara-style hackle to open and close in an enticing manner. I've heard of a few people using that style of fly with a regular rod, but I don't have any firsthand experience with it. I thought that I would like Tenkara fishing in very cold weather, because I could fish while wearing warm mittens, but it's been a hassle getting that 12-foot rod caught in overhanging branches when fishing small streams.