This past June I wrote an article that described the use of a footwork trainer for brushing in the closed position. The trainer permits competitive athletes to train off-ice, on their own time, and I have been extremely pleased with the results with Team McKenzie over the past three months. Alison Poluck and Jessica Filipcic, […]
On-ice training for brushing footwork Read More »
This past week, on September 15 2016, Dalhousie University engineering students Devon Hartlen and Katherine Adye presented their team’s design for a sophisticated curling “smart broom” to the 2016 Engineers Nova Scotia Annual General Meeting in Halifax, by invitation after the students’ presentation at the CEEA annual student design competition. The project team included students
Dalhousie students develop new smartbroom prototype Read More »
Come September many active U18 curlers will make their way to Universities and Colleges across Ontario to begin their university careers as student-athletes. The majority of these student-athletes are already experienced players, many with several seasons of competitive play behind them and looking forward to continuing their pursuit of high-performance play by trying out for
Curling, university, and the student-athlete Read More »
In the Curling Canada High Performance Program coaching manual, under “Technical Development: Sweeping”, you will find the following quote attributed to Darryl Horne: Without doubt sweeping is the most under-coached, under-practiced, under-appreciated, and under-rated aspect of the game. I could not agree more. With nearly three years of smart-broom testing of bantam- and junior-aged players
Dryland training for brushing footwork Read More »
Last week, during my own club game, I was reminded in the 3rd end why a preshot routine is critical to a sound curling delivery. With my first stone of the 3rd end, I became distracted while cleaning my stone. Then, rather than placing the stone precisely in front of my hack foot with the
The importance of the preshot routine Read More »
Author’s note: This is joint work with John Newhook, Department of Civil and Resource Engineering, Dalhousie University. Over the past two years I have had the privilege to work on a number of different engineering initiatives related to the sport of curling. One of these is the development of an instrumented curling broom, a device
The research behind instrumented curling brooms Read More »
In curling, as in golf, the hallmark of an accomplished and successful player is consistency: simply the ability to execute repeatedly the act of throwing a curling stone correctly, that is on the line of delivery, with the correct weight, and with the correct and appropriate rotation applied to the stone. While there are a
Setup – the importance of the slide foot position Read More »
During a curling delivery the trailing (hack) leg can produce such significant drag that it can impact the ability of the curler to achieve what coach Bill Tschirhart calls an optimal “window of velocity” during the slide, and hence can impact both the speed and accuracy of the curling stone. Consequently many curling shoes arrive
Applying toe-dip to a curling shoe Read More »
