Sportsing?

Yes- I curl, yes- it's a sport, and yes- you can watch it at the Olympics.

I’ve always said I’m not a sportsing kind of guy. While growing up my parents put a lot of time and effort into my older brother and his sporting endeavors which came naturally for him. Not so much for me, I did get a fifth place ribbon in springboard diving. (my brother competed in the Nationals around the same time). I played soccer on a very winning team- I played defense and rarely saw action since my team mates were always scoring goals. Then again I may not have noticed if the ball got close to me. I even tried swimming until I decided my mother calling me “Speedy” and then laughing hysterically wasn’t really meant to be positive. It was around that time that I decided to avoid sports like the plague. It was my brother’s thing, and I would focus on academics and drawing instead.

While in high school a friend invited me to go skiing. I had a blast and really enjoyed myself. Living in Indiana now, downhill skiing isn’t something I can really do, climate change makes it even more difficult. I’ve tried golf… let’s just say, you only need to be laughed off the course so many times to decide it isn’t for you. For the record my in-laws were very understanding of my attempts- they never laughed once, even though there were many occasions where they could. So my experiences with sports haven’t been great. Then, on a whim, years ago, Sue and I tried a night of curling. I really enjoyed it and (like skiing) it seemed to be something I wasn’t horrible at even after only one night.

Put the Rock in the House

Unfortunately the local club bounced around to various ice rinks and usually played late into the night. I’m not a night person especially with having to get up and go to school early in the morning for bus duty. So curling was shelved until recently. When I retired I signed up for a four week Learn to Curl League. The Circle City Curling Club had gotten “dedicated ice” which means they had a facility just for curling and didn’t have to share it with anyone. So we met on Saturday afternoons to learn how to curl.

Afterwards I joined the Wednesday morning “League.” I didn’t just step out of my comfort zone, I dove. I decided to treat curling like I had my work related obligations when I was in the classroom. The principal asked me to coach a robotics team- I didn’t do the minimum, I tried to become an expert. I haven’t gone that far with curling, but I am pushing myself. I finished the first year (which was really more like three or four months) and decided to try again the next season.

I have had bad experiences dealing with sports. In golf, being asked if I wanted to join the group heading out and having someone in the crowd shout out “NO.” Being teased at the same golf club because I had invested in a new putter and the older golfers would giggle about my “magic putter.” Basically golf showed me how not to welcome new players into a sport. Curling is a bit different, everyone is welcoming and really excited to help you improve your game.

The Wednesday morning league is a lot more laid back, for the most part we are there to have fun. There are some great curlers in the group who are very forgiving as the rest of us learn. Unlike golf, where I would get 20 different bits of advice before every swing. I might get one thing to focus on. Then when they see I’m trying that, and succeeding I’ll get another. I also get authentic positive comments as I keep trying. No one is grumpy or negative. We aren’t competitive in the least on Wednesday mornings. I know there are those who are very competitive, but they tend to avoid Wednesday mornings except to practice.

In an attempt to expand my horizons I decided this year I would join another league. Fortunately on Sundays the “5 and Under League” meets and it is for those who have been curling less than five years (not those who are under 5 years of age). The biggest change from Wednesday is that we have a set team. So you get to know everyone’s strengths and weaknesses. Also everyone has assigned roles. The roles in curling are Lead, Second, Vice, and Skip. Skip being the “Team Captain” and the one who decides the strategy and where the other players should try to place their stones. It also seems to be the role you are assigned if you don’t put down a preference on what role you would like… guess who didn’t put down a preference. So I’m the Skip, at least 35 years of developing a “Teacher Voice” comes in handy.

This year I also branched out more (being an Obliger) as the season went on. I started by offering to help prepare the ice on Wednesday mornings. You see the ice isn’t flat, it is pebbled, so before you can curl on it you need to scrape each sheet (playing surface) and then spray drops of dangerous chemical dihydrogen monoxide on the surface. This gives the stone the surface it needs to do what it does. It is an art and a science, something I still am working on, and will be probably for the rest of my curling career. At least I don’t have to worry about making the stones… then again a Whimventure® to Ailsa Craig might just make it to my bucket list. (full transparency: it’s #85)

Being a retired teacher I decided to see about becoming an instructor. This was for a number of reasons. First, I’m an Obliger and the “give back more than you receive” is ingrained in me. Secondly, I was pretty good at teaching and you never really stop being a teacher no matter how hard you try. I also know from teaching that in many cases the instructor gets better at something when they teach it. So I hoped to improve as a curler by teaching others and examining how I do things on the ice. One thing you need to understand is nothing prepares you for curling, there is nothing natural about the movement. Mankind did not evolve over millions of years to slide a 42 lb. rock across ice.

Fun Facts about Curling:

1. Curling started in the 16th Century in Scotland - I guess it was boring one winter when they couldn’t hit a little ball with a stick and try to get it into a small hole, so they came up with this.

2. A curling stone weighs 42 pounds and comes from Ailsa Craig in Scotland.

3. The ice is pebbled to help the stone curl.

4. A sheet of curling ice is 150 feet long the “target” at each end is called the “House” in the center of the house is the “Button.”

5. Sweeping helps extend the stones distance and can also assist in the direction it is curling. Brooms & sweeping have lead to some controversy.

Scoring in Curling:

Each player throws 2 stones in hopes to get closest to the button (so 8 stones from each team). Each match consists of a series of “ends” (you might call it a “round”) in which each team throws all their stones. The last stone to be thrown in a end is called the “Hammer.” At the conclusion of an end the stone closest to the button determines the winning team. Any stones of the winning teams color that are in the house and are closer to the button than any stones from the opposing team are worth one point.

It’s All in the Pants

The Olympics are coming and that means that people will become more interested in curling and maybe a few will want to try it out. I highly recommend doing just that. It’s one of the few Olympic sports where you can do just that- try it out without too much effort. See if there is a local curling club around you. If they have a dedicated facility, that’s even better. The best part is, there really isn’t any investment needed to try it out except for whatever fee the club might charge. You don’t have to order official Norwegian curling pants (although, even as a Swede, they are rather dashing). After my first year I bought shoes… one is slippery, the other isn’t. Next I bought a broom. I really didn’t need to buy either, although the shoes really did help my game. OK maybe not help, but made me feel a lot more comfortable on the ice. My other purchases are things like a club jacket (it’s not a gang, it’s a “club”) and stuff I would normally buy in the winter to do things like shovel the driveway.

So go out and watch this year’s Olympics with a bit more knowledge of the “ancient” sport of curling. If you are in the Indianapolis area and are a premium Geocaching member find GCBDZRK, a field puzzle where you have to understand the mystery of how to read a curling scoreboard. Then again if in Central Indiana you could also try out curling at my club. There are a number of Learn to Curl events scheduled around the Olympics from something short (one or two hours) to a four week league (how I started). In fact if you are reading this the day I posted it, I’m helping out with one of those right about now.