The Ontario Curling Council (OCC), along with its member associations, the Ontario Curling Association (CurlON) and the Northern Ontario Curling Association (NOCA), is seeking to add to our team of NCCP Coach Developers for delivery of NCCP coach education in Ontario. Delivery of coach training requires: The ability to connect with people in a positive …
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 …
This article is joint work with John Newhook of Dalhousie University. In curling, a point, or “dot”, laser is (nearly) essential to the setup of several drills, most commonly the “gauntlet drill”. In the gauntlet drill, the laser acts as the “target broom” to which the athlete throws their stone, and at the same time …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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, …
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 …
