A long-standing line of delivery (LOD) drill used in curling is one where the athlete delivers a stone by sliding between a series of markers (cones, cups, or stones) to practice line of delivery. We term this drill the “gauntlet drill”. When coupled with a point laser and video recording, the gauntlet drill is an […]
The Gauntlet Drill Read More »
This article is joint work with Dr. John Newhook, Dean of Engineering, Dalhousie University. In a previous article, entitled “Dryland Training for Closed Brushing Footwork”, we described a simple, wheeled apparatus that an athlete could use to practice closed brushing footwork in the off-season. The closed footwork trainer assists an athlete in (1) keeping their
Dryland Training for Open Brushing Footwork Read More »
This article is joint work, and part of a continuing research project, with Dr. John Newhook, Professor of Engineering at Dalhousie University. We are grateful to Alison Poluck and Monica Graham for their demonstrations of closed technique. Most importantly, we would like to thank Fraser Reid, former Canadian university champion and now a coach at
Brushing footwork in the open stance Read More »
Several Ontario teams have acquired or built dryland footwork trainers to better develop their closed brushing footwork technique during the summer months, so that they are trained and ready-to-go when ice becomes available in the fall. Note: the Junior curling season will be here before you know it; the first week of the Trillium Curling
Training tips for dryland brushing footwork practice Read More »
Since publishing the first article about the footwork trainer in June, a number of people have asked for more detailed specifications and additional photographs so that they can construct their own. The trainer itself is simple to construct. The parts list is as follows: two 30-inch wood pieces of 2×6 glued and screwed together using
Building a dryland footwork trainer Read More »
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 »
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 »
