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April 11, 2006
A Curling Blog
Seriously, this may become a curling blog. Thanks Granite Curling Club!
I am in love! With the sport of curling. It rendered me speechless last night. About 20 times I just said in reflection "wow, curling." Last night J and I had our first real lesson and it was amazing. Any time the instructors go around the room and ask "and you've won the national championship how many times?" you know you are in for a treat. We got into a really good group for the physical instruction and that helped a lot since we were able to quickly move beyond basics to really driving our technique, espeically in throwing.
There was this one throw, where I squared my shoulders and really extended my form and from that moment on I was smitten.
Curling is such a delight for engineers, what a sport for lovers of physics. The instructor did some quick, hand-waving-filled explanations of why the rocks must spin and how the rate of spin can impact the curl and you could tell he could speak on the subject in depth if time allowed. The ice-bound ballistics and the careful manipulation of the path the stones take is just so fascinating and cool. While it does emulate some aspects of more familiar games, like pool or bowling, like J pointed out, there are also some delicate throws which add a unique element to the game. Of course I still can't even ensure the stone stays in the house when I want it to, so there is still much to learn.
And there is shoe shopping to be done! I am half tempted to go looking this weekend for a pair of curling shoes. Not that I need them yet (the club provides everything we need) but it would be fun to have a real pair.
Sadly the club is only open through April and then closes for the summer, so after these classes there will be quite a reprieve, but I am hooked. Now to just wrangle two more team members by September and we will be unstoppable...
Posted by fer at April 11, 2006 1:09 PM