Curling
Last weekend I had a chance to do some curling with the folks at Telus for a team building evening. For those of you who haven't rabidly followed the Scott Tournament of Hearts (women's nationals) or sat glued to the telly when the Briar is on (men's nationals), curling is a national obsession in Canada not far behind hockey (all hockey in Canda is ice hockey, if you're playing on a grass pitch - unlikely - it's called field hockey). Like hockey it's one of those sports that looks like fun but is a little difficult to actually just go out and play, more so with hockey because of all the equipment like skates and pads and sticks etc. and the fact that you need to be able to skate backwards which I absolutely cannot do.
Curling on the other hand seems to be one of those sports that you can continue to play right up until you kick the bucket or break a hip, whichever one comes first. And it looks easy. Just throw a rock down the ice, brush the ice in front of it when it's in motion and try and get closest to the button. Kind of like lawn bowls on ice. Well it looks easy on TV. In reality it's really actually a lot of fun, just like lawn bowls, but also quite energetic, sweeping the broom in front of the moving rock is not as simple as it sounds and takes a lot of energy as well. As for being able to keep the right amount of weight on the rock as you push it down the ice and impart just the right amount of spin, well it's obviously one of those things that's easy to learn and nigh on impossible to master.
So I am now a curler, in that I have made it out of the hack (the foot blocks that you push off from) wihout falling over too much and landed at least two rocks approximately where I wanted them to go, which for a first time out is not too bad out of about 16 or 20 rocks thrown. And I want to try it again. Which is always a good sign for a sport if after one try at it you think you can do better next time round and also think that you're going to enjoy the process of learning how.
Curling on the other hand seems to be one of those sports that you can continue to play right up until you kick the bucket or break a hip, whichever one comes first. And it looks easy. Just throw a rock down the ice, brush the ice in front of it when it's in motion and try and get closest to the button. Kind of like lawn bowls on ice. Well it looks easy on TV. In reality it's really actually a lot of fun, just like lawn bowls, but also quite energetic, sweeping the broom in front of the moving rock is not as simple as it sounds and takes a lot of energy as well. As for being able to keep the right amount of weight on the rock as you push it down the ice and impart just the right amount of spin, well it's obviously one of those things that's easy to learn and nigh on impossible to master.
So I am now a curler, in that I have made it out of the hack (the foot blocks that you push off from) wihout falling over too much and landed at least two rocks approximately where I wanted them to go, which for a first time out is not too bad out of about 16 or 20 rocks thrown. And I want to try it again. Which is always a good sign for a sport if after one try at it you think you can do better next time round and also think that you're going to enjoy the process of learning how.
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