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!"