It is surprising, I know but I have curled a total of twice in my life.
Growing up in Annaheim, I was four when the curling rink was torn down. Beyond that, there were not regular opportunity to curl for a family that mainly focused on hockey.
Curling has been synonymous with a Canadian childhood, even a Saskatchewan childhood.
Watching the Brier on TV, the Scotties and movies like Men with Brooms, they make it look so Canadian.
Watching it on TV, you get the terms; house, hack, hammer, guards, take outs.
But I honestly feel like I missed out on a Saskatchewan experience by not learning to curling.
To clarify, I did curl once or twice in university when my friends rec team needed another player.
I got the basic three minute introduction on sliding out of the hack and how to sweep.
There was a lot of slipping and sliding, even once being splayed out in starfish/snow angel form but very little curling from my end. I do not think I even hit the house once.
I was always either blowing it out the back or barely making it over the hog line.
So I went to Kevin Karlthoff from the Humboldt Curling Club looking to have an actual curling lesson.
Kevin himself is an avid curler and even has gone to a couple of Briers. He is always open to teaching anyone the game.
First off, there is nothing more Canadian than going into a curling rink to warm up from the cold outside.
Kevin said it is about 6 degrees in the rink on a day where it was minus 15 degrees outside. All I needed was a light sweater. I wore mitts but they really just got in the way.
Kevin is all for teaching people how to curl and like anything else, it just takes practice.
First part of the lesson, stretching.
You use muscles you do not normally use, says Kevin, especially in your legs and shoulders.
“When you’re sweeping for a game, your shoulders will get sore, your arms too.”
Next, getting in and out of the hack.
A new tool developed by Curl Saskatchewan for beginner curlers allows the new curler to push off out of the hack while getting your foot in the right position.
“It gives you a little bit of stability and then you realize, ‘okay, I got to get that foot in front of me and I need that balance, because if I don’t have the slider foot in the middle of my body, I’m going to go flying.’”
Once you have the form down, getting into the hack and throwing rocks is the easy part. Getting into the hack and throwing rocks into the house, that is the tricky part.
My best shot was about 5 feet from the first ring of the house which, considering my first trained curling, I was pretty happy about.
Noted, I did not have a specific target to aim for, I was just throwing rocks down the ice and hoping they got in the house.
There was also no one to sweep for me so really, if I would have had sweepers I could have easily made it into the house, said Kevin.
Along with aim comes spin. The way Kevin explained it is over spin and under spin will not get you very far. Your spin should either go from 10 o’clock to 12 o’clock for an in turn and 2 o’clock to 12 o’clock for the out turn. It is just that little spin that makes it go.
After the release, you should be in what Kevin refers to as the “handshake position.”
“When you let the rock go, you should able shake the other persons hand.”
Having a team of four, everyone has a specific rock to throw.
The skip is an important person because they are going to be the one giving you the target to aim at.
“He’s the guy directing the whole end, plus he’s the guy that’s got to throw last. So he’s the guy, he’s the leader.”
Out of eight rocks, the lead throws the first 2 rocks, the second throws the third and fourth rocks, the third throws the fifth and sixth and the skip throws the seventh and eighth.
One thing that I had trouble with my first couple times was sweeping. First of all, as a beginner, you’re constantly afraid of losing your balance, especially while trying to get ahead of the rock to sweep in front of it.
When I told Kevin that, he had an obvious piece of advice: if you can’t keep up with the rock, there is little sweeping can do to change its trajectory.
When the rock is going slow enough to sweep in front of it, sweep hard.
“You’re trying to create friction. That’s what makes the rocks go further.”
Leaning hard on the broom and sweeping fast, in other words, hurrying hard, is the whole point of “curling” and getting the rock to “curl”.
Waving your broom in front of it will do nothing.
Under the advise of a great teacher; thank you, Kevin, I was able to learn pretty quickly the basics of the game. All that’s left, like anything else, says Kevin, is to practice.
So what this whole experience has basically taught me is I really have to find someone to curl with. It was a fun sport to learn.
