At the beginning of October I had the privilege of participating in the Team Glenn Howard Fantasy Camp. Not only did we get the opportunity to learn from Glenn and his team, but they also brought in a number of National-level coaches including Bill Tschirhart, Wendy Morgan, Jim Waite, Earle Morris, Scott Taylor, Brian Savill (Craig’s father) and Jennifer Jones. During the camp I learned a number of new drills, coaching tips, and a wealth of new material about the game, and I will be using some of these new techniques during this season and posting about them in this forum.
This first post is about shot difficulty. I can recall my own father who claimed many times that the hardest shot in curling was a guard – but my Dad played in the 1940’s and 1950’s, usually on less than an ideal ice surface (natural ice in rural Saskatchewan) and, of course, using corn brooms.
As a skip, one of the things you must consider before calling each shot of a game is the relative difficulty of the alternatives. From my notes, here is the list, in ascending order of difficulty, of the “ordinary” shots of curling as presented at the Team Glenn Howard camp. You’ll note the list does not include circus shots such as the double-raise triple-take-out – but it doesn’t include a guard either!
Shots in order of difficulty
- Open draw to the rings
- Open hit on a stone in the 4-foot circle
- Double takeout
- Split
- Freeze to a stone in the rings
- Tap-back another stone into the rings
- Draw to the pin
- Tick shot (tick an opponent’s guard stone off of the center line)
- Run back (a raise take-out)
- In-off – hit a stone at the extreme side of the sheet and roll towards the middle
The In-off
Perhaps the most remembered in-off shot in recent memory was that by Jennifer Jones at the 2005 Canadian Women’s Championship, in the final game against Ontario’s Jenn Hanna:
Disagree with the order of the shots above? Post a comment!
It’s interesting to note, for those who may doubt that curling is a team game, that every one of these shots requires all four team members to execute. From the thrower, to the line call, to the sweeping – it’s all critical to success.
I disagree, I think the hardest shot is “same thing as your first shot”.
This is one of the best things about curling – anyone can make one of these shots. Maybe not as consistently as the pros, but it’s still possible. I will probably not be able to hit a homer out of Yankee stadium, but once in a while I can throw a draw to cover the pin.
In fact, my team was on the receiving end of TWO across the house in-off shots on Tuesday night. It was impressive (though hurtful on the scoreboard) to watch.