Weeks 5,6,7 - Completed 2 full ends

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