Sorry, I have been away for the past couple of weeks with work but was back in full form last night.
We did a quick review of the past 2 weeks (which I missed), 'delivery line' and 'throwing at the broom'. What I thought as a pretty simple movement of sliding a rock down the ice, has now become quit technical and complicated. Repetition and some muscle memory will definitely compensate for that. Instructor Lisa, had a pretty difficult task of balancing the group, now ranging from people who are still in their infancy of learning the skills and the keener's who are now going out 3 or 4 times week to practice begging to starting playing full ends. Lisa made us do a some practice throws, throwing in turns and out turns (fancy names for turn left or turn right) and offer great critiques and guidance....then let us divide into 2 teams, chatted about basic game strategy and some etiquette (www.startcurling.ca/etiquetteRules.html), finally gave us the thumbs up!
Rob and I immediately started talking about strategy and taunting a couple of members of the other team...the game was on (only playing 2 ends)! It was great seeing the learned/limited skills put into game situation....everyone concentrated on proper technique or at least attempted to. Although not always succeeding, everyone was positive and encouraging. Remember if you point your shoulder, hips and toe at the target, you will end up at the target!
We started strategizing (pretending like we knew what we were doing), rocks were thrown, people swept, we yelled "hurry hard", just like the TV commercials (http://www.startcurling.ca/)
Our team did not have last rock in the first end (a disadvantage) and we gave up 1 point on a couple of almost made shots. Lisa was great at helping us formulate strategy...it is very much like chess, thinking about the current and future positioning of stones. What a mess we would have made without her help.
We were down 1 going into the second end. After gaining some confidence, there were some really great shots....WE LOOKED LIKE CURLERS! Rob's 'guards', David's 'double takeout' and I had 'draw to the button' then had to make a 'take out' and have my stone stay in the 8foot to get 2 points and win the game. I'm still fired up!
After, we all meet in the lounge recapping each shot like we were WWII vets talking of past glory. Classic!
Quote of the Night
"forget draw weight, I'm taking out as many rocks out as I can, I love they way it sounds"
Thought of the Night
If you lose, you can blame the skip for making bad calls...sorry but it's true
Paul
Wednesday, November 25, 2009
Thursday, November 5, 2009
week 4 - draw vs takeout weight
Hello everyone. sorry I am a day late with this one. Feeling quit sick yesterday.
I think it is a good time to add a video link to a simple breakdown of what curling is and some terms of reference....please watch
www.youtube.com/watch?vrmI_306U12k
This week was fun. We had our first session concentrating on throwing rocks down the sheet. As always we did some review and practice slides watched a few demonstrations and off we went.
Lynn Kreviazuk, this weeks instructor and Lead of Ontario's Provincial Jr champions team, went over the "rock back foot back, park, rock forward foot forward" routine. I am finding it easier when I'm not too mechanical in my thought process about the delivery.
Revelation of the Day - do what feels comfortable for you, then make small tweeks so that you are working on the correct technique.
Feeling quit comfortable with my delivery, I attempted to throw a couple of rocks down the sheet with the correct force (weight in curling terms) so they stopped anywhere in the rings (house). First attempt I was short of the hog line. This is like shooting a free throw in basketball and coming up 3 feet short. Next rock, I pushed much harder out of the hack....my rock made it over the hog line....YEAAA, through the house....NOOOO.... and took flight off the hack at the other end....OHHHH @#$%!!. This would be like a free throw going over the backboard and hitting the TSN camera. Not such a good start for me. I needed to regroup, watch others make the same mistakes. I felt better. I threw about 15 more rocks ...about half made it remotely close to where I wanted. Overall, felt pretty good with a 50% record.
We were supposed to be working on figuring out how much weight it takes to throw a draw (putting a rock in the house) and the weight it takes to throw a takeout (removing rocks in the house). As is stands now, one is throwing it harder than the other. I just can't do it properly. Once I can figure out what draw weight is, I think it is going to be easier to judge the weight of other shots. The only way that is going to happen is if I throw a lot more rocks....trial and error.
Safety Note of the Day - Keep your weight on your gripper foot and ALWAYS step off the ice with your slider first.
One the other instructors out it best...."You can only improve!"
I think it is a good time to add a video link to a simple breakdown of what curling is and some terms of reference....please watch
www.youtube.com/watch?vrmI_306U12k
This week was fun. We had our first session concentrating on throwing rocks down the sheet. As always we did some review and practice slides watched a few demonstrations and off we went.
Lynn Kreviazuk, this weeks instructor and Lead of Ontario's Provincial Jr champions team, went over the "rock back foot back, park, rock forward foot forward" routine. I am finding it easier when I'm not too mechanical in my thought process about the delivery.
Revelation of the Day - do what feels comfortable for you, then make small tweeks so that you are working on the correct technique.
Feeling quit comfortable with my delivery, I attempted to throw a couple of rocks down the sheet with the correct force (weight in curling terms) so they stopped anywhere in the rings (house). First attempt I was short of the hog line. This is like shooting a free throw in basketball and coming up 3 feet short. Next rock, I pushed much harder out of the hack....my rock made it over the hog line....YEAAA, through the house....NOOOO.... and took flight off the hack at the other end....OHHHH @#$%!!. This would be like a free throw going over the backboard and hitting the TSN camera. Not such a good start for me. I needed to regroup, watch others make the same mistakes. I felt better. I threw about 15 more rocks ...about half made it remotely close to where I wanted. Overall, felt pretty good with a 50% record.
We were supposed to be working on figuring out how much weight it takes to throw a draw (putting a rock in the house) and the weight it takes to throw a takeout (removing rocks in the house). As is stands now, one is throwing it harder than the other. I just can't do it properly. Once I can figure out what draw weight is, I think it is going to be easier to judge the weight of other shots. The only way that is going to happen is if I throw a lot more rocks....trial and error.
Safety Note of the Day - Keep your weight on your gripper foot and ALWAYS step off the ice with your slider first.
One the other instructors out it best...."You can only improve!"
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