My Brother's Learning to Curl #3

"I feel like I'm getting better" my brother says.  That's good to hear.  They had 45 minutes of practice throwing during which my brother continually hogged his rocks.  As a result, during the following two end game, my brother was designated to play lead.  Of course, he overthrew his shots during the game and a center guard became a rock on the button.  Still, that's much better than hogging rocks.

My brother also learned one sign for T line weight.  His skip had actually curled before in Europe (What's he doing in a five week "Learn to Curl" class?) and had his arm across his chest when he called the shot.  The instructor had to explain to my brother what that meant.  Though it's not like one could expect my brother (or I presume any of the other students in the class) to really have that feel for T line weight.  That stuff is so approximate anyways.  On a somewhat related note, I remember my first year, one of my teammates (also a first year) just always seemed to throw as hard as she could.  This was good for takeouts (when she hit the broom), but I remember when I called a shot that wasn't a takeout, I would always be practically begging her to throw it lighter.  I guess I just want to say that if you're playing with someone who's new, I would say that it's easier to call weight relative to their last shot rather than expecting them to really know what T line is (or whatever weight you call).  And be happy that they reasonably hit the broom and that their rock is still in play.

Anyway, then my brother started talking about how they finished the game and then removing the hacks and putting the rocks back in the freezer.  Again, this is something that I can't even imagine doing.  Another quote from my brother: "You should see how ghetto it is."  Not to say that where he curls isn't nice, but I guess I'm really spoiled here.

My Brother's Learning to Curl #2

My brother had his second curling class and he liked that there was a lot of individual attention as all of the students continually practiced their slides.  There was a lot of discussion of the "ABCs" of curling which I had never heard of before:

• Alignment
• Balance
• Curl

A little hokey I think with curl as the C, but I guess if it helps everyone remember things.  One of the drills that helped me out early was sliding with two rocks.  When you're starting out, just being on a slider messes with your balance a little bit, and holding on to two heavy rocks helps you get a handle on that I think.

They also did some drills where they had to try to get a rock between two cups.  I first read about this drill in Colleen Jones' Curling Secrets and will sometimes use rocks instead of cups.  Also, if I'm practicing with one of my teammates, usually one of us will hold a broom a few feet past the hogline.  It's always surprising how sometimes you can still miss the broom even when it's much closer to you. 

One of the big surprises to me from my brother's description of learning to curl is that they spend 20-30 minutes each time setting up the ice.  This is something that I completely take for granted at the St. Paul Curling Club.  But my brother now knows how to put the hack in and things like that.  In his words: "You have it totally easy".

On the number of people with curling gear, only a few people came back with shoes and stuff like that, so I guess the instructors were off on their prediction.  However, my brother is considering getting shoes now, especially if he plays in a league afterward.  I also learned his opinion of curling shoes, which he considers ugly.  On curling shoes that have the velcro on top, he said, "They look like orthopedic shoes."  He has a point there.