Skippin'

 I am happy to report that my Thursday night Skipping debut went pretty well. Final score of 9-2 in 7 ends. We won and we all had a lot of fun. Team Clog and Bash are blast to play against. They have a lot of fun together and are pretty hilarious. They are among some of my favorite people at the club.



I'm totally loving the red #7 rock on sheet A. That rock can do no wrong.

 I have determined that I don't like to Skip. Too nerve wracking. I was too tense all the time; I ended up giving myself a head/neck ache. While it was a lot of fun, you can't really let loose since you have to be the one in control and you may be the one that has to bail your team out. I leaned on the Husband and our usual Skip a little, mainly because I'm a little iffy on the strategy. But I learned a lot and I have a lot respect for the good skips at our club. Plus - it's too damn cold to play Skip! I was wearing two pairs of pants AND two shirts under my jacket AND I was still chilly.

 At the table afterwards, the Husband and I figured out that I am undefeated as Skip. Now before you go 'wow', I'm only 3 and 0. And I doubt either one of those numbers is going to get higher any time soon.


Look at me pretending like I know what the hell I'm doing!! :)

Gearing up for a fun March

 Gearing up for a fun March - both literally and figuratively! I am currently searching for new pair of curling shoes, since my current ones are pretty worn out. I have also purchased some new pants. Why all this for the last few months of the season, you ask? You see, this is what I call the our busy curling season. Between out-of-town bonspiels, friendlies (both home and away, this year), and Rochester's own International Bonspiel, I am going to very busy in March and April. I'm looking forward to it. It's going to be a real test of my nerves though; school is bound to only get harded and I may have to get good at doing homework on the road.

 Now, let me tell you about tonight! Since school is on break this week, I am rejoining my Thursday night team for the night. And for this draw, our Skip decided to "mix it up a little." To "just have some fun." Wait, wasn't having fun the point all along?? Oh riiiight, we get too intense. Sometimes it helps us, sometimes it screws us up.

 So! Tonight is all about fun. Not only are we playing one of the more fun teams in the draw (we have dubbed them "Team Clog and Bash"), but tonight is my Thursday debut at Skip. Oh yeah, this should be fun. Now, I've skipped before on different nights. And I've actually had some successes. But I've also failed horribly at certain things. I'm just going to have to remember to laugh the fails off, and just have fun right? Sure.

Long Time No See

 First things first - I need to apologize for not posting in a while. The month of December is a whirlwind for me; between the holidays and my birthday and vacations, it's a crazy month. Curling slows down a little bit too.

We are now back into the 2nd draw. My schedule has freed up a little bit and I am now playing on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays. In a few weeks my schedule gets more complicated and I have to drop playing on Tuesdays and Thursdays (so sad - more on that later.) But for now, I'm enjoying myself.

 Mondays I play with the Husband and some friends. Mondays are a night that new and inexperienced players can come to and get used to the game. Because of that, Mondays are a little lighter and not as competitive.

 Tuesday is with the team that I've become a Perma-sub for. We won the B division in the first draw, and that means we are now playing in the A division. And so far it's been rough. The A division is pretty good, and they don't let up on their opponents. We have played some really good tough games and won a few and lost a few. Last nights game was a real heart breaker. We were down 3 to 0 after two ends, and managed to claw our way back and steal some points to tie it up at 4-4 after the 7. In the 8th end my skip managed a once in a lifetime shot on his last stone, to draw around numerous guards into the button and nudge one of their stones out of the button - BUT! The nudge wasn't enough. A measurment was taken, and I don't remember the exact numbers, but theirs was sitting at something like .30 and ours was at .50. That was how close they both were to the button and how close they were to each other. Such a heartbreaker! But I didn't walk away feeling that bad, since it was such a good game to play. My team all played really well, and we forced the other team to play their best game. Personally I had an awesome game. I feel more comfortable with fast ice (something that used to rattle me) and am really comfortable with draws now. I was pretty good at finding my line fast and was narrow on only one or two. But even my narrow ones still ended up in a good areas. One thing I did not do at all last night was any hits. I'm a little iffy on hits, so I was hoping for some more chances to try it out.

Homework or Strategy Session??

 Now about my schedule - Recently I've planned a career change and that means going back to school. Starting at the end of January I am taking some classes part time and that means no more Tuesday or Thursday curling for the rest of the year. You have no idea how much this is killing me. I know that school and careers should be the most important thing in a persons life - but me, right now, it's not. I love curling. And I love curling on Tuesday and Thursday nights!! Tuesday nights are extremely competitive and I've watched and learned a little from some of the best players at our club. Thursdays nights are fun to play and there is a certain amount of nostalgia and setimentality I have towards my Thursday night team. So...just gotta roll with it I guess.

 The husband and I are planning some trips to out of town Bonspiels for the rest of the season, hopefully I get enough of my curling fix from those. Right now I am trying to put together a team to go to the St. Catharines Open in March. The husband is going up with some guys and I figured I would try to put together my own team. So far, I'm not having any luck, but I've got a few people thinking about it. St. Catharines is a cool town to visit, and I'm hoping to make a weekend of it. We'll see.

Highland Games Team Name

 After some discussion, we came up with a team name for the Highland Games coming up this Saturday. And no, the first two words are not euphemisms for...whatever. Get your mind out of the gutter. :) And the third word? Read and Learn.

 T-shirts have been made, so it's official:





Magic in the Air

 Cheesy title, I know, I know. But it's the only way I can describe what has been going on lately.

 Let me start with our last Thursday night game on 11/17, my regular night of curling. We were playing a tough opponent. A very good Skip (who also is the coach of the Juniors teams that play out of Rochester), and 3 other decent players. They were also coming into the game with us undefeated. So, I wasn't sure what to expect out of the game. But I left the house and headed over to the club with a positive attitude, and just wanted to have as much fun as possible. But then, something interesting happened on the way to the club...its SNOWED. And I mean real first of the season snow. And to make it ever better, it was Lake Effect snow. The best kind, if you ask me. Now, one thing to know about me is, I LOOOOVE snow. And especially the first snowfalls. So, I was super excited and giddy and silly in the car on the way to the club. And I thought to myself, that it was a good sign for the evening. Well, we all played real well, and we made them absolutely have to make the big shots. So - we won. Not only did we win, we shut them out. We won 12-0. The points went 2 in the 1st end with the hammer, then 3 in the 2nd (W/O hammer), 1 in the 3rd (W/O hammer), 2 in the 4th (W/O hammer), 1 in the 5th (W/O hammer), and 3 in the 6th (W/O hammer). Wow, was all I could say all night. To beat one of the better Skips in our club, and to shut him out, is pretty cool.

 Also that night, I witnessed an 8-ender. Yes, you read that right. We all gathered around the glass and watched the end unfold and it was pretty exciting. The Skip that got it is the man that does the ice at our club, so does that mean he has a little bit of an advantage?? hehe. Funny thing is, before that end, they were behind by quite a few points. 5 or 6 I think. So putting up the 8 was really the only option they had if they wanted a chance at winning the game! They held their little bit of a lead and went on to win.

 Then, two days later, we faced the fine folks from the Niagara Falls curling club. We had a promising mix of players, but since we have never beat NF in the history of the friendly between our two clubs, you never know. I played very well. I had some sweet guards, and my weight was pretty good. There were some wacky spots in the ice, which would make some stones go hay wire, but all in all it was some real good curling. I won both of my games...and as club we did really well. We won, 121-104. Very Nice. It was nice to send the canucks home with the ugly goose trophy. It felt good to have contributed to the win. I was told that my team and I needed to win our 2nd game in order for the club to win. I'm just glad that wasn't figured out and expressed to us BEFORE we went on the ice. Having that in the back of my head would have drove me a little crazy.

 Lastly, I'm happy to report that I am temporarily curling on Tuesday nights now. A team was looking for a female lead to be a perma-sub for the rest of the draw. I like Tuesdays, there is a fun mix of teams. I'm sad to say I can't do Tuesdays after Jan 23rd, since I have a class then. So, for now I'll just soak up as much Tuesdays as possible.

International Competition!

 The Niagara Falls Friendly is this weekend at the club here in Rochester. This will be my first international competition of the year. hehe. Friendly competition though.

 Every year our club and the Niagara Falls club play a friendly match and alternate between the clubs. Last year was my first time ever playing in Canada, and it is where I recorded my first win ever. I'll always be a little sentimental about curling in Niagara Falls. As a club though, we got our asses handed to us by the Canucks. And so we came back home with the ugly trophy. Hopefully it goes better for us this year on our home turf. If not, then at least we are now serving Strongbow Hard Cider at the club. Yum.




Interesting fact: According to the U.S.G.S. (United States Geological Survey) of Niagara Falls, it appears that almost 1/3 of the Canadian Falls lies within US Territory.



Thursday Night Roller Coaster

 Last nights match was wild. With a whole lot of factors leading to it, we lost. But it was still a fun game. It was fun because it was challenging. I had an awesome first end, personally, but after that I was just all over the place. C-O-N-S-I-S-T-E-N-C-Y is something I lack, clearly. We all struggled last night, and we all are in various stages of some nasty cold or Flu that has been going around. But even if I was 100% healthy, I still struggle to be consistent. I can't do two things at once when I deliver; I can't maintain proper weight AND line together. And it's extremely frustrating. What do I need to do? Go down to the club early on a Saturday morning and do drills that only focus on one thing first, and get good at that one thing?? Then move on to the next type of drill?? I'm leaning towards that, especially doing line drills. Nothing frustrates more than when I'm too narrow. Too often my narrow rocks will curl into a dumb spot and just make a mess and clog things up. They then become useless rocks. It's almost better if I didn't throw them at all!

 Like I said, last night was still fun to play. I got a hell of a workout (SWEEEEP HAAAARD was all I seemed to hear from my skip), and because we all struggled a bit; the challenges made things interesting. We weren't totally out of it, until the last two ends. And at one point we even had a good start on a 8-ender. But we foolishly talked about it, and sure enough the next rock didn't even make it into the house. First Rule of the 8-ender: Never talk about the 8-ender!

 The Thursday night team intends to play in the Highland Games at our club in December; my only hope for that day is that we all healthy. Playing sick is rough. If we are all healthy, it should be a good day. If you want to curl in Rochester, form a team and come on out. We'd love to meet you; Slàinte.

Son of a Biscuit!

 So...Thursday night curling started LAST Thursday, and I spent the last few days feeling sorry for myself and licking my wounds. It didn't go very well for us. We lost 6-3. As my husband put it shortly afterwards, we did play scrappy for the few points we got. But really we didn't capitalize on some good opportunities or on their mistakes. I didn't post anything before the game because I was a little nervous and I didn't want to get myself worked up. I didn't expect us to roll over them, but I also wasn't expecting it to be so rough either. Maybe I should have posted something beforehand, to get whatever I was carrying with me out of my system. The Husband and my Skip said I played all right - but I don't think so. I could have been better. People are quick to chalk it up to summer rust, but I don't know. The others teams Skip played pretty well. He had some wicked curl and seemed to have consistent weight. Where was his rust?

 So, this was a first for me. First time back after a long break. I just need to learn from it and move on, right? We'll see. As you can probably tell, I don't handle losing very well. I'm starting to figure out why I tended to shy away from serious competition when I was growing up. What are some of the cliches about learning more from a loss than from a win?

 I do know that I need to just relax and have more fun. This week we are playing a team of pretty new players. They were on the sheet next to us last Thursday, and it appeared like they were having a blast. So maybe this Thursday will be a good time. I just have to let it all go and try and have fun. And not use so many swear words directed at myself - hence the title of this post. I'm trying it out for a while. It's fun to say, actually.

Yum.

Shaking off the summer rust

 So, last night a few of us got out on the new ice. For me, this is the first time this season. I'll get the bad news out of the way first: I hogged my very first stone!

 In my defense, it was some VERY frosty/wonky/sticky ice. The last few days here in Rochester have been very warm, with high humidity. And it really shows on the ice. Our club put ice down a little early for the Senior Games this weekend. Unfortunately now we are experiencing a little bit of an Indian summer.

 Also, the ice was running extremely straight. I found myself begging out loud for even a little curl. But according to Team Canada (Alberta) who were practicing for the Senior Games on sheet D, 'green ice' (new, fresh ice) will typically run pretty straight. Sure enough, as the night went on, more and more of our stones were finally picking up a tiny bit of curl.

 After we threw a few practice rocks, we split into two teams (3 on 3) and had a little bit of game. It was a lot of fun, and it was exciting to see everyone play so well for early season. I had a few killer shots. Some very nice weight. I was fairly good about staying on line. And I managed to pull a few good hits out of the bag as well. I was just trying to be conscious of all my movements. Sometimes though, a little TOO conscious. I noticed on some of the screwier shots of mine, I was thinking too much. I was actually talking to myself, running through all the pointers I've picked up. I think then I was distracting myself! When delivering, there needs to be a break in everything: Talk yourself through it, talk yourself out of your bad habits, get lined up, THEN shut up/shut your mind up, and then just do it. Ah well, just one more thing to work on.

 Also what I need to work on: The toe shift!! I was doing it again last night. I would line myself up in the hack, get ready, and then at the last second my hack toe would click over to a 45 degree angle! Totally an involuntary move. I would catch it out of the corner of my eye, and sometimes when it was quiet on the ice I would actually hear it happen. Then I would have to make an effort to click it back and hold it straight. I hate this. I hate that I don't know why I'm doing it. I hate it when I don't catch it, and then leave the hack a little off line. Hopefully I can work this bad habit out of me! We'll see.

 The Senior Games this weekend are going to postpone anymore practice time we can get, but my Thursday night skip is trying to get us all out there as much as possible before the season starts. He is trying to line up a practice game for his Wednesday night men's team (the Husband is on that team) for next week, so I'll probably head over then and knock around on the next sheet.

 Feel free to leave a comment and let me know how your transition from Summer to Curling is going. I'm curious to hear how people get into the right mindset. Good Curling! (It's fun to say that again.)

We have houses!

 It's getting closer...can you feel it???

 A bunch of us met at the club last Thursday night and painted the ice. The houses are Purple and Green. Yes, you read that right. And yes, it's a little odd when you first look at it. Purple and Green are in our club logo, and it grows on you after a while. The green is a very pretty, true, Kelly green. And the purple goes well with it.

An homage to our club logo? or the Joker??

 This was my first time painting ice, and it was fun. 3 out of 4 of our Thursday team painted together, so it was a little team building exercise. Gotta work together and stay within the lines!

Our team did the green in these houses.

 There is chatter amongst my teammates to get together soon and have some practice time. I'll let you know how that goes. It seems like everyday I'm mentally going over all the tips I received at camp. I can't wait to practice them some more.

Greetings From Oakville, Ontario

My husband is ready to get started!

  Hello from the True North! Hot Shots Curling Camp has wrapped up and I am wiped out. But in a good way. The organizers of the camp really gave us quite an experience. I feel fortunate that we chose to attend now; when we are still fairly new to curling, so we can absorb the tips and pointers better. As they say, you can't teach an old dog new tricks!

 I think my Thursday night Skip will be happy to hear that I found good HIT weight. And I mean, real hit weight. If I practice and work hard, I can really make it consistently good. This is HUGE for me!! I honestly didn't think I had any good hits in me.

 I'm also excited to report that I found a slight toe shift of my hack foot when I'm about to take off from the hack. Not exactly sure why I do this, but I just made a mental note to control that foot better. As the day went on, I got better and better at that. My whole delivery got a bit of an over haul. I'm VERY pleased with the changes. I feel like I can find my center of balance better. I can find more power when I need it (HUGE!!) I can find my line faster. I could go on and on and on about this...

Communicate, Communicate, Communicate!

 I was greatly encouraged by a few of the classroom sessions that we had. The ones about Team Communication and Team building were eye opening to me. I've sort of taken for granted the fact that the Husband and I have always found a team when we needed it. Now that the Thursday night team is forming again for this year, we have an opportunity to really link up and work together. Really try to build something. I think if we can do that, we won't have the bad collapse like we had in the end of the season last year. The biggest thing for me personally in all of this, is rising up to the role I play in the team. If I rise to my highest potential, that will help others in the roles they play. I'm looking forward to our first practice session!

Learning about angles from Paul Balabuck

 I know it's going to sound like I'm gushing, but seriously, the weekend was great. It all came down to the AMAZING instructors. People that not only are at the top of their games, but also are excellent at instruction and teaching the proper principles of curling. Our very first instructor on Day 1 was Jill Mouzar, a former Canadian Mixed Champion, a World Junior Silver medalist and represented Nova Scotia at the 2007 Scotties.. Her analysis of my slide and delivery was very informative to me. The one thing she did with us is break up the whole delivery process into chunks. By slowing it down and concentrating on those separate parts, you really get a better sense of what you should be doing and why you aren't doing is. Another instructor, Hugh Murphy, offered up extremely valuable advice as well. You knew he never rests on his laurels, and wants to be the best he can be. Plus he wants YOU to be the best you can be. He is the ultimate competitor and just by being around him makes you excited to play. Our Team Building and Dynamics session with Earle Morris was extremely insightful. Since he has worked with some of the top teams in Canada, he has a unique view of what it takes to build a successful team. He emphasized that a lot of the things that those elite teams struggle with are the same as what we all struggle with. Your team is a relationship that takes work! No one person should be taken for granted. If you can really work together, get on the same page, and everyone contributes, then you can only get better.

 Overall, I am totally blown away by the whole weekend. The Husband and I learned a lot. Some of what we learned can be applied to our personal curling abilities, and some can be applied to our team. Obviously, I want to get better at curling. I want to improve every year. But higher up on my wish list is that our Thursday night team be the best it can be.

 I know you probably have heard this before, but Canadians are awesome! They are some of the nicest, most genuine people you will ever meet. The people at Hot Shots are truly passionate about the sport of curling. They have such enthusiasm for the future of the sport and want to share that enthusiasm with as many people as they can.

 To wrap it up - I am dying to get this season started!! I am looking forward to using what I learned at camp, but first and foremost I want to play and have fun.

To blog or not to blog...

 Ack, It's summer - It's hot out. And to be honest with you, I haven't really thought about curling since last April.

 The husband likes to point out every week how close we are to curling camp in Oakville, Ontario. 6 weeks, 5 more weeks, 4 more weeks, etc. Camp starts August 26th and runs through August 28th.


Where's my stabilizer?

 Since I haven't really thought about curling, I'm not in any mind set yet for camp. One thing I have vaguely wondered about is: How bad will that first release out of the hack be?? Is it like riding a bike, as they say? Will it come back to me quickly? Or will I be splayed out on the ice, flopping around like a seal.

 The header of this blog currently calls me a "first year curler." When camp commences I will no longer be a first year curler. But I still will experience a lot of "Firsts." Such as, first time back after summer break. Sooooo, it should be interesting on the 26th. I'll make sure the husband takes some pictures.

 I hope you are enjoying the rest of your summer. I'll post again, maybe, as we get closer to camp.

Arena Curling

 First, let me apologize for not posting in a while. It's the off-season!! So posting may be pretty infrequent. In August it will probably pick up again, since the season will be starting for the husband and I with a trip to Curling Camp in Canada. (More on that later in the summer.)

 This post is about Arena Curling. The husband got a letter in the mail from the Evergreen Curling Club in Portland, Oregon. They are soliciting donations for their new curling club, so they can curl on dedicated curling ice. Right now, and for the past 9 years, they curl on Arena Ice. For those of you that have not seen this before, clubs can rent ice time at a local hockey arena and curl on the hockey ice. As you can imagine, this comes with a whole host of problems. Evergreens letter highlights some of these problems: rental rates are expensive and the scheduling is controlled by the arena, the ice is consistently poor quality, there is nowhere for people to meet before or after a game and socialize together, a ton of work has to go into setting everything up before a night of curling can even happen, plus many more issues.

 Evergreens letter mentions that they have decided to lease empty warehouse space and convert it to a curling club. They note that this is really the cheapest option, and through various fundraising options they hope to raise $300,000. If you want that warm and fuzzy feeling, send a donation! I'm sure they would really appreciate it.

 Receiving their letter in the mail made me think how lucky and fortunate we are in Rochester to have dedicated curling ice. I remember how excited the husband and I were when we started curling, and I remember how awesome we thought it was that we could curl almost any night of the week. If we had to curl on Arena ice - would we have that same level of excitement? It's hard to say. Would I have stuck it out and worked through some of my bad habits if I could only curl once a week and on wonky ice?? It would have been pretty hard to do it.

 So far, curling has become a big part of our lives. And it is taking us to places we have never been before. Along the way, we have met some REALLY great people. I always like to attribute this to our home ice and the opportunities it has given us to further our game.

I'm proud to call him my Skip.

 This is Chris Benway, my Skip for Thursday nights. We almost went undefeated during the last draw. If only he pulled this out during that last game...if only! haha.

 This was recorded during the Last Chance last weekend.

Last Chance Curling and Craziness 4/16/2011

Saturday was the Last Chance to Curl. It's really just a big party before and after they shut down the compressor for the summer. We had some crazy rules curling (All 16 rocks in the house, Red in left side only, Touch center line only, Delivering two rocks,etc.) then we toast the compressor. After the compressor is off, the fun begins - with skating and sliding on anything you can get your hands on. Here are a few pics.

Click here for more pictures.

Pittsburgh Rocks!!

Pictures courtesy of John Zavinski from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

                                                   My favorite pic of me. Go Steelers.    

                                                John I. and I digging in. Nice form.

    Hurry, Hurry, Hurry!!         

                                              Nick W. and I sweeping Johns rock.

Pittsburgh Curling Club      


PS: RIB pics coming soon!

Rochester International Bonspiel

 The RIB was tons of fun! We went 2-2 overall, and ended up competing in the C divison final game. We lost that, and as C runners up, we were given 50th Anniversary RCC pins. The final game was a tough one to swallow, since we were dominating early. We just couldn't hold onto the lead. The game against Machold on Saturday was rough, as you can see, but that one was against people WAY better than us and with more experience. Their skip is a National Play-Downs player!

 Sunday morning was a bright spot, since we beat the Raven team. Their skip is a very skilled player and the rest of the team was playing very well too. But we all dug deep to play real well to make up for being so far behind after the first 3 ends. I really enjoyed this game. And playing against the members of the Raven team was nice, they are real good guys.

 So, aside from some fun nights of curling coming up this week (the club shuts down for the summer this coming weekend), the husband and I are done with being 'First Year Curlers'. Kind of weird...The husband said that the RIB felt kind of like a graduation ceremony. He's not that far off. The organizer of the event made note of recognizing that we are all pretty inexperienced and still played some good games, and we got a round of applause for that. That was nice. Except like my husband said, we can't use 'First Year' as an excuse anymore!

This is how we did:

 *Disclaimer: The husband made this graphic late on Sunday night, and we both were very sore and tired, and our memorys were shot - so the ends might be a little off. But we are 99% sure it's mostly correct!! The final scores are right at least.

 At some point this week I will post pictures from the RIB.

We lost last night. 6-1 for the draw. Came in 2nd place overall. Ugh.

And I completely and totally suck.

I have 24 hours to wallow, and I'm going to take full advantage of that.

Then I just gotta somehow shake it off - tomorrow we start the Rochester International Bonspiel.

Good news is that the club has both the Whipped Cream AND Cotton Candy flavored vodka.

One more to go...

 So, tomorrow night is our last game of the Thursday night draw. We are currently 6-0, and have most likely secured a glass (the top two teams get a glass for winning the draw.) But honestly I would much rather brag about being undefeated in the draw, than brag about a glass. Going 7-0 wasn't really anything I considered until we had our 5th win, so to be this close to it is a little nerve racking. Though, also a little fun!

 Our Skip sent one of his pre-game strategy emails to all of us and in it he said "Keep it simple and play an open game. Do whatever we need to do to keep it a nice open clean game. Get out your hitting shoes." I like his perspective. If we dig deep and play well, that puts a lot of pressure on the other team to match that. I've always liked games like that in the past. You can even feel when the atmosphere on the rink changes, and you realize you have the other guys a little shook up.

 So, no getting lazy tomorrow night. Head up. Steady breaths. Keep thinking. Play hard and we should be all right...

Pittsburgh Friendly

 The Yinzers came to town on Saturday! And the husband and I had a blast. Rochester won, and we sent the Rooster back to the 'Burgh. One tidbit of cool information that we heard was that the Pittsburgh club is taking our clubs on compressor and condenser after everything shuts down in a few weeks. Our club is installing a new one this summer.Pittsburgh is working on building their own club (they play on arena ice at Robert Morris University now.) I can't want 'til they get up and running. Going to Pittsburgh for curling sounds awesome!! They have some really great people, and I can't wait for the next friendly.



Me channeling Jerome Bettis to move that stone.

  

The husband delivering.