Perhaps without realizing it, Russ Howard has delivered an excellent instructional guide to curling that, in my view, is almost perfectly suited for older Little Rock and bantam-aged players. Entitled Curl to Win and published in 2009 by HarperCollins of Toronto, Howard attempts, and largely succeeds, to cater to both new curlers and to experienced curlers in a single volume. For new curlers, the book includes an opening chapter on how to keep score, what curling equipment and clothing you need, and so on, and also includes a glossary of curling terms and the Rules of Curling in appendices at the back of the book. For those with some curling experience, the interior chapters cover everything from delivery technique, to brushing technique, to strategy and shot selection.
Howard does an excellent job of explaining things simply and straightforwardly, and for this reason I think the book is appropriate for bantam curlers.
There are two particular bits of content in Curl to Win that set it apart from other books on the sport:
- Chapter 5 contains twenty shot selection scenarios, in which Russ describes the situation (end, score, hammer) and discusses the shot selection options and their tradeoffs.
- Chapter 6 offers detailed commentary by five other Provincial or Canadian champions on what it means to play the different positions on a rink: lead, second, third, skip, and alternate (fifth player):
- Lead: written by Kelly Scott, 2006 Scott Tournament of Hearts champion. While most of us know of Kelly Scott as a skip, as a bantam girl in Winnipeg Kelly played lead on a team skipped by Jill Duguid (daughter of Don Duguid) and with Jennifer Jones at third.
- Second: written by Mark Dacey, 2004 Brier champion.
- Third: written by Wade Blanchard, 2005 New Brunswick champion, who has played at the Brier as both a skip and as a third.
- Skip: Russ Howard, who’s reputation speaks for itself.
- Fifth player: Toby McDonald, now a national team coach but famous in Newfoundland for his Brier victory in 1976 in Regina, playing third for Newfoundland skip Jack MacDuff, Newfoundland’s only Brier win in history.
Each of these players add their considerable insight and experience to the text, substantially improving the book as a whole.
I do have some minor disappointments: with Russ’s breadth of experience there could be “more”. I suppose there could always be “more”, although that tradeoff would make the book less accessible to younger players. Another quibble concerns the section on sweeping, where Howard demonstrates sweeping with a slider, something perhaps that only very experienced curlers can do (and which is not taught by the CCA).
I recommend this book highly. At 180 pages it contains a balance of breadth and depth of material, and will help many Little-rock or bantam-aged curlers understand the game, and perhaps more importantly understand what it means to be a team.