A Conversation with Dex

For those that don't know, Dex is the general manager for the St. Paul Curling Club and he's also a coach.  My guess is that every top curler that comes out of the Twin Cities (and probably Minnesota) has spent some time with Dex.  However, if he's not too busy, he'll sit with you too.  Some highlights from what ended up being roughly a half hour conversation. 
-I might have an opportunity to curl in international tournaments due to my parents being from a country where there's no curling (and I'm the most experienced curler found so far).  I asked Dex if I had a chance of winning a game in such a tournament.  He said no.  At least he's honest.

-Vice and I volunteered to do commentary for a game for the upcoming World Seniors and Mixed Doubles Curling Championships in April since they might stream it online.  Dex said no (awww), but mentioned that it's better that it's on internet streaming because you can curse.  Apparently, you sometimes have to be able to say, "That was a [stupid] move."  (Note: I didn't really ask permission to discuss this conversation with Dex in a public forum, but I don't think this was a particularly bad comment to reveal.)

-The opposing skip asked Dex about the drag effect which I had never heard of.  Dex gave us a good demonstration (using beer glasses), but if you've never heard of it, this youtube video should give you some idea on it.  Completely unintuitive.

-My team is comprised of scientists/engineers and we recently devised some technology that we think would be cool to have in curling.  (I'll talk about it on the blog after writing a provisional patent application.)  We pitched the idea to Dex and he thought it sounded like a good idea and thought it could be used throughout the curling community.  He encouraged us to make a prototype, so let's see where that goes.

By the way, if Dean Gemmel reads my blog, I heartily recommend that he try to get Dex on for an episode of The Curling Show.  (According to Google Analytics, someone from his neck of the woods spent some time reading my blog after I posted about his show.)  Maybe I'll put this on twitter and we'll see if he responds.  I think it'd be a good tie in with the upcoming tournament.

Dex recently had some medical issues and we're all trying to help him out as much as he can.  The club is charging for its end of the year party for the first time to serve as a fundraiser.  Also, they're selling raffle tickets (winner gets $500) as another fundraiser.  Just want to encourage people to do whatever they can for Dex.

Game 18 Recap

Last game of the season.  (We missed our playdown game, which was on St. Patrick's Day.)  I guess this time I'll hold off on telling you the results of the game until the end of the post.  This game is a rematch from Game 3, yet another close game that my team lost on the last shot.  Like the last game, this is an A level team so we got a one point handicap, but they were playing with a somewhat inexperienced sub.  I was happy to have everyone together on the team, which I realize now might have only happened half the time this past season.

I didn't really play particularly well and I think basically everyone, maybe more so on my team, had trouble with draw weight.  I had two opportunities early in the game to draw basically anywhere in the house to score and the first time, it went long and the second time it was short.  Geez.

This game also featured a blank end.  This has only happened one other time for me and Vice and this has never happened for Lead and Second.  That was kind of interesting.  My team didn't have hammer and we basically just played the takeout game and we made them all.  So it's my last shot of this end and I don't have hammer and I'm looking at this. 

I think you definitely want to have something in the house to force the opposing team to do something.  I was thinking that ideally, you have a rock that's biting.  This way, a takeout wouldn't be in the house.  Of course, I couldn't throw that weight and I was light.  I would've preferred to just have something in the house (maybe behind a guard), but oh well.  Faced with the decision of going for one or the blank, the opposing skip chose the blank.  However, they only scored one on the next end, so maybe Coach Bill is right about blanking ends. 

Anyway, in the situation below, we're now in the seventh end and we're down two.  We've already been buzzed so I know that this is my last shot.  My team is red and with his last shot, the opposing skip drew to the four foot.  He had wanted a guard or maybe a biter, but in the house isn't really a terrible result either.

So of course, I need a double takeout with this shot and my team would end up scoring at least two.  My wish was for the green arrow.  Unfortunately, the second yellow rock jammed on our own rock.  They scored one and that was the game (final score 9-6).  It was so close though and there was a lot of weight on my rock so if the second rock hadn't jammed squarely, it might've barely moved out of the house.

Oh well.  That brings our final season record to 10-7 (we never did a makeup game for game 9).  Not a bad season. 

My Brother's Game 5 Recap

This was my brother's last game for this league.  Two of his teammates couldn't make it so he played lead while his skip played second (to practice sweeping more).  Two instructors played Skip and Vice.  Maybe a slightly unfair setup, but I guess it's still an instructional league, so it doesn't really matter.  He was impressed with the opposing team's strategy of throwing a lot of guards and really protecting whatever they had in the house.  However, my brother's team did win their game and they finished their 5 game season 3-2.  Not bad.

My brother felt a lot more confident in his new shoes this time aroiund so that's good.  If you haven't bought curling shoes yet, definitely look into that or make your own. 

His team got some shirts made and my brother got one for me too.  His artist friend drew it and it's very cool.  I'll post it when I get permission from the artist.  (It may also violate copyright, so I'm not positive I should post it.)

My brother's already planning on playing in the next five week league and is still trying to secure a spot for the Golden Gate Bonspiel.  In his words: "I'm surprised at how into it I've gotten." 

Game 15 Recap

This was a makeup game from earlier in the season.  (Yet another advantage to the dedicated facility is the ability to do make up games.)  Anyway, another late game and another close game.  Fortunately, this one didn't go into an extra end, though it almost did.  Our opponents are definitely a good team and are consistently among the top teams for our league.  A couple things going for my team was a one point handicap and they had someone new playing lead for them that had only curled a couple times.  And during the game, I think they had a little trouble with weight and a little trouble working with the ice, which curled a lot more in one direction than the other.

In the seventh end, my team is actually up by four against these guys and we're feeling good.  And then they scored 2 in that end and now my team has hammer for the eighth end and we're up two.  A good position, but we'll find a way to make this interesting.

In the scenario below, it's the opposing skips second rock.  We're yellow.  As shown by the arrows, he made an unbelievable raise double takeout to sit two.  Can you believe that? 

So now, I'm left with this, but I was able to make a very slight tap to raise our own stone.  (Kudos to Lead and Second for sweeping that rock all the way.) 

They scored one for the eighth end, but we won the game.  Phew.  That handicap really helped out.  The record's 10-6 now and we have a couple wins against a few good teams.  If momentum mattered (probably doesn't), that'd be good heading into our last game and then the novice bonspiel.

Hanging Out with the California Men's Team

While in Mankato for the Curling Club Nationals, Vice and I met several teams including the men's team from Orange County.  They asked if they could check out the St. Paul Curling Club and we were able to get some ice time before their flight home.  We split up into teams (Vice and I were on different teams too).  They had gone winless at the Club Nationals, but after that game, two of them got to say that won a curling game in Minnesota.  Tooting my own horn here (isn't that the point of writing a blog?), but I was on the winning team and the game wasn't even close. 

Of course, we didn't really follow rules officially.  They were all kind of sore (physically, but maybe emotionally too) from a week's worth of competitive curling.  Because of that, we (both teams) constantly rotated positions so that there wasn't just one player constantly sweeping.

Random things I learned after the game:
-The skip for the Alaska men's team at Club Nationals is 18 and took off a semester in high school for curling.  He's one of the top juniors, but none of us can imagine taking off from school for curling.
-At Club Nationals, all the teams trade pins with each other.  Kind of a fun tradition.  Two of the California guys bought pins from SPCC.  I didn't even know I could buy pins at SPCC.
-One of the guys had the Asham Carbon Fiber broom with the Boomerang Grooved Pad (earlier discussed here).  That might have been my first time holding a Carbon Fiber broom because I was surprised by how light it was.  I guess I have no idea if it made his sweeping better, but the broom certainly looked cool.
-It's difficult to run a curling club (some of them are on the board).  There's ice time and getting players and holding clinics and all that.  So I guess I want to say help out your curling club as much as you can, but get out of the way too so that things get done.

My Brother's Game 4 Recap

First, my brother's search for curling shoes is over.  He didn't like the Goldline Shot, and decided to go with the Ultima Sport, which he bought from Steve's Curling.  Funny how he switched from the $70 Eagle to a shoe that costs $125.  Of course, adjusting to the shoe was kind of difficult for my brother and struggled with throwing light enough weight.  However, he thought the shoes were comfortable.

My brother's team lost again.  Their opponents though had three instructors so it was kind of an uphill battle.  (My brother's team is the only one without instructors.)  After the third end though, the score was tied, but then the opposing team scored four in the fourth end.  (The Bond Girls call this the "Fourth End Curse".)  Also, my brother switched places with his lead so that they can get a little more experience at another position. 

A couple other notes:
-The guy that hit his head (described here) is OK, but is sitting out the rest of the league.  Let's hope he comes back.
-Out of the 30+ people who attended the original Learn to Curl clinic, about 20 are now in this league, so that's pretty good for the growth of curling over there.  All they need now is some rich benefactor to help build a club.
-My brother's looking for a spot on someone's team for the Golden Gate Bonspiel.  E-mail me if you know of any openings on any of the teams.
-The Norwegian curling team will be visiting the Bay Area and will be raffling off a pair of pants.  That's a fun giveaway.

Game 17 Recap

That was a late game.  We were on the late start and the other skip was on the slow side (I can't imagine what he'd do in a timed regulation game.)  And then, of course, we went into an extra end.  However, for the first time this season, my team won the extra end.  It helps to have hammer.  The final score was 8-7 but the game took 2 and a half hours.  Geez.  Vice was out again so I had to have a sub.  None of my regular set of subs was able to make it, but I found someone through the e-mail list.  When I met him, he told me that this game would be his fourth for the day since he has his other regular league earlier and then he played two makeup games.  Wow. 

I've never met the opposing team before and the skip is an older guy.  He had a toothpick in his mouth the entire first end and Second and I were imagining bad scenarios that might happen if he fell.  Anyway, in the third or fourth end, there was a takeout.  After the shot, the skip asked me if I had released the rock before passing the hog line (called a hog line violation).  It kind of felt like an accusation.  Now, I tend to slide behind the rock a little bit after releasing, so I can kind of see how it might look like I was still holding on to it.  I don't know.  I'd like to think that I can trust my opponents to not do that and in return, they can trust me.  (Would it have been really mean to respond with, "Why don't you stand at the hog line the next time I throw?")

Also, there was a situation about halfway through an end where there was one rock from each team biting the four foot and my opponent's Vice Skip tried to measure the distance with his broom.  I was really surprised to see this and just asked kind of incredulously, "Are you measuring?"  Neither the skip nor the vice knew that that wasn't allowed.  Both Vice and I were told not to do it very early on and I was surprised that these long time curlers never knew.  I wasn't trying to be prick about it, but I was just really startled when I saw him start to measure.  (I guess I doubt I'll ever win a sportsmanship award.)

Rant over.  Back to the game.  In the first end, my team basically didn't make any shots and their team made everything and got four points.  (By the way, no handicap for either team.)  In the second end, it was kind of the same thing, except my team had hammer, so I felt fortunate to come out of that end with one point.  I was worried that I might be conceding after like five ends if this continued.  But they started missing shots.  We ended up stealing two in the third end and then three in the fourth end (some of their raises promoted our stones).

I believe the situation below was in the seventh end.  The score's tied, it's my first rock, and we're red.  On the right side, we can see that there's a draw to the four foot available (red arrow).  On the left side, there's a raise (black arrow).  Lead and Second were thinking draw, but I just felt like the raise would be the easier shot for me.  That's definitely the better turn for me and I don't know; it's just what I wanted to do.  I do realize this may not have been the optimal decision.

As it turns out, I didn't hit the broom exactly for that shot, but I ended up with a double raise, with our rock in the four foot.  That was lucky.  On my next shot, I missed the draw to try to score two, but we were up one.  We had already played for two hours at this point and I was kind of fishing around when I said to the other skip, "It's getting late..."  Nothing doing.  They scored one in the eighth end on a nice draw through a port.  In the extra end, I had to make a takeout down the center, probably my most reliable shot.  Phew.  We escaped with the win.  The record is now 9-6.

Analyzing a Bond Girls End

There was no curling this past week, so let's take a closer look at the final end of a Bond Girls match vs. New Jersey.  As of this posting, New Jersey has the best record in the Curling Club Nationals and will be vying for the championship later today.  Here's the video in case you want to watch. 



I'm going to talk about the tenth end, which starts at roughly the 2:24 mark.  After scoring 6 points in the first 3 ends, the Bond Girls would give up 7 points over the next 6 ends.  Fortunately, the Bond Girls are only down one coming home and they have hammer.  That didn't work out for them in their earlier game against Wisconsin, but let's see what happens here.  (In case you didn't watch the movie, the Bond Girls are yellow.)  Also, I have no idea what the time situation was at that moment, but no one really seemed too rushed. 

New Jersey's first rock was in the house.  A good call to see if they can force a takeout game for the end. 

But Marissa called a freeze for Donna, which I consider the right call.  At least see what happens before doing a takeout.  Donna's throw was a little bit too heavy, but a good stone. 

After New Jersey missed their takeout completely to take out their own rock, Donna drew to the other side to split the house.  Good call and good throw.

New Jersey then missed freeze, which left a wide open takeout.  Jen made the shot. However, New Jersey, made a nice bump/freeze shot.  (There should be a better name for this.)

Marissa goes for the takeout, even if it takes out their own instead.  New Jersey's rock does jam against a yellow, but is open.  Still, a nice rock from Jen.  I would have called the same thing for Second and ask that he put lots of weight on it (and hope he hits the broom).

I'm not sure if New Jersey had shot rock after that.  However, they went for a draw, which ended up being more open than they would have liked.  I think if this were my game, I might have thrown a guard if I was shot rock, but the draw keeps the pressure on to make some takeouts.

Cindy missed the open takeout.  New Jersey then threw a guard (the right call in my opinion).  In the next shot, Marissa called for a runback on the left side to raise their rock inside the four foot.  However, Cindy's shot perfectly made it past the guard and the yellow rock to bump New Jersey's rock and take shot rock.  Wow.

New Jersey missed a takeout with their next rock and Marissa threw a well placed guard on the left side.

New Jersey has two choices here I think.  You have the draw on the right side.  Really, you have to be perfect on weight and line because you're either drawing to the button or hoping to bump the yellow stone.  Another, more interesting, option is the runback.  If the red rock is hit on the nose, it would go straight down the center.  Maybe it stays, but hopefully, it at least leaves you sitting one.  Of course, this is a dangerous shot and a number of things could go wrong.  New Jersey went for the draw.  (I probably would have too.)

They missed just a little long on weight.  This was good for the Bond Girls as it gave them an additional backstop if necessary.  Of course, Marissa didn't need it at all and drew perfectly to the button.

Whew.  That was a long post.  I guess that's what happens when you have video to remind you of every little thing.  But a very exciting finish and an awesome win for the Bond Girls.

Vice and I Do Curling Commentary

When I met up with the Bond Girls, I told them that I was thinking about tweeting during their upcoming Curling Club Nationals match (really just for kicks).  Their response was, "You should do commentary on our video."  As it happens, I had recently watched a curling match streamed from Rochester during their 5 and under bonspiel.  I would describe that production as a couple guys with a camera who are also able to tap into their club's house cameras and then they're just kind of rambling.  (I also loved the fact that they placed a small picture of MC Hammer next to the team that had hammer.)  I thought at the time that that would be fun to do with any of my teammates.

And the setup the Bond Girls had wasn't too different from that.  They had a camera set up on a tripod connected to a Mac Laptop.  No connection to the house cameras, oh well.  Vice and I thought it would be cool if we had real headsets so that we'd look like real sportscasters, but talking into the laptop's built in microphone worked too. 

But really, it was a lot of fun.  If you're ever asked to do something like this, I would urge you to give it a shot.  What made it nice was that there were all sorts of people around us contributing in the background and people in the chat window giving us feedback and asking questions.  And being able to interact with everyone was pretty cool. 

I know that American fans of curling sometimes lament the fact that televised curling is so rare, but we might just have to end up doing this ourselves.  So hopefully, more teams will set up streaming for their games.  Also, I guess I just want to ask all of you to support videocasts like the one for the Bond Girls, even if the commentary is just two guys hanging out at a curling club next to a computer and a video camera.

Meeting the Bond Girls

I was able to meet the Bond Girls for a quick bite and a tour of the St. Paul Curling Club.  I tried to get ice time for them, but the juniors were curling at SPCC and the Biff isn't open that early on Saturdays.  (I have a feeling that if the Biff was open on Saturday mornings a bunch of teams would love to use that time for practice and would probably even pay for it.)  Anyway, here are a few thoughts.

First, the Bond Girls are all very cool and you should hang out with them if you get a chance.  Two of them work in film/tv and I think that if they win the upcoming Curling Club Nationals, that'd be a cool movie.  Ragtag group of girls from California (with a cameo from Katy Perry) beat the big bad teams from the midwest.  Like a female version of Men With Brooms, but you know, well written.  (It's worth it to watch that movie just for how preposterous all the curling stuff is.)

They really liked the curling club.  (Who wouldn't?)  And they took a picture of the upstairs men's bathroom, which if you don't know actually has a window above the sink that looks out onto the ice. 

I had never been to SPCC when the juniors are there and the youngest junior curlers are very cute.  The first thing they do is slide on the ice head first, which looked really fun.  They also practiced sweeping and for many of them, the broom was much taller than the kid.  Lead and Second recently had babies and I'll be a father soon too and hopefully someday, we'll all be there with our kids. 

Anyway, good luck to the Bond Girls and it looks like they'll be streaming their games so check it out:
http://www.ustream.tv/user/teambondgirls/shows

My Brother's Game 2 Recap

My brother is already on game 2 after being out of town for game 1.  They won their game and they're now tied for first in their league.  They play the other undefeated team next.  I believe they're the only team with all rookie curlers, so that would be pretty cool if they won their league.

My brother made a come around shot which he was really happy with.  Also (shhh), my brother broke a rule; he started sweeping his opponents' rock before it crossed the tee line.

But that wasn't really the interesting part about the game.  On what I believe was the last shot of the game, the opposing skip fell on the ice.  He was actually knocked unconscious and was taken to the emergency room.  Wow.  Fortunately, he's OK and one of his teammates went drinking with my brother's team after the game.  (It must not have been that bad then or maybe he's just not that good of a friend.)

Game 16 Recap

Finally, a win; the final score was 8-4.  We haven't had a win since Game 11 and that was roughly six weeks ago.  This brings our record to 8-6 with 2 incomplete games and I'm not sure yet if/when we'll get around to those incompletes. 

But before we get to my own game, I actually subbed in a game right before.  I warned my skip that I had a game in two hours so if they went long I might not make it.  Of course, as it turns out, in the last end, the opposing team scored three to tie up the game (my skip had some bad misses).  So we had to go to an extra end, but I really just had enough time to throw my own rock so I didn't sweep any rocks in that last end.  Fortunately, they were able to pull out the win. 

I want to spotlight one scenario from this game.  My team has hammer and is red.  If I recall, we were up by two or three.  It's the first shot for my team's third. 

Now, I tend to play a bit more of an offense game, but I thought the most logical shot was to take out one or more of the guards.  Really, I figured you would just throw the rock down the middle (shown in red) and you couldn't help but hit something.  My thinking is my team is up and this end is ripe for a steal if the other team can make a nice raise. Instead, my skip called the hit and roll off the rock in the house (shown in black).  For both of the third's rocks, we went for that shot and missed it on both sides.  Fortunately, the other team basically missed all of their shots (too bad after setting up a nice end).  Then, with his last shot, my skip was able to draw in a rock (shown in green) to score one, though I think that shot was more difficult than it needed to be.

On to my game.  I had hoped to have my whole team together for the first time in a little while, but alas, Lead was sick.  He had tried to call me, but I was subbing.  Oh well.  We just played with the three of us.  We started out pretty poorly.  In the first end, the opposing team was sitting four, but because we had hammer, I was able to cut that down to them just stealing one.  Fortunately, we settled down after that. 

I can't really remember any major strategy decisions, but here's a shot I should've made. I guess like most other skips (I assume), I remember shots I missed.

In this situation, my team is up two (I think), we're yellow, we have hammer, and it's my last shot.



The obvious goal is to take out the red stone and then we'd (hopefully) score four.  How to call it?  Well, we knew rocks tended to curl a little more to the outside on that side.  So I had Vice hold the broom on the edge of the four foot (as opposed to right next to the red rock) and then I threw takeout weight (the black arrow).  To our surprise, the rock curled all the way over to our own stone (the green arrow) so we only scored two.  Of course, in retrospect, I now wonder if I should've thrown an in turn (the red arrow) and thrown back line weight and used the red rock as a back stop.  I'm now thinking there would've been a greater chance to score three.  But I guess it didn't matter as we won by four.

Anyway, it was a good two games and it was good to get back on track.