You get to quit in curling

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One thing you never hear the commentators say in curling is this:

"Well Jim, you have to give them credit. They hung in there to end and played hard."

Can you think of another game where it's okay to quit? There isn't one. In curling, it's not only okay, it's sort of required.

Until that is, the final is on TV. The Dominion Ontario Curling Championships where basically over after the first end. Howard's team got three, but more than that, they got into the heads of the Balston team. You could see it in their body language that they knew they'd lost. Down 8-2 after 5 ends, the only requirement from then on in was to finish eight ends.

Since everyone knows it's over, then it's easy to phone it in. Fast shots, zero conversations, get in the hack fast and throw the rock to make it to the 8th end. Howard is already at the other end to shoot, Balston stands at the other end ready to throw. It's not an exhibition of curling, it's an exhibition of speed.

Glenn Howard is one of the best players to ever play the game. He holds the record for the most Ontario Championships, and his team of Richard Hart, Brent Laing and Craig Saville are arguably the best team in the world. They are definitely the most fun to watch.

That they are going back to the Brier is excellent news for the London organizing committee. And it's excellent news for fans of curling.

some thoughts about curling

(Thinking about making this an article for TCN.)

Back when I was coaching a competitive curling team, the team wasn’t winning, and I wasn’t sure how to turn the ship around. I asked Ed Lukewich, a former world champion, for some advice. He told me the story about a time when his team was on a losing streak. “So I sat them all down, and told them to make more draw shots.” Then he laughed and said, “Really. If they don’t make more draw shots, we weren’t going to win.”

I related the story to the team, and the smiles and sarcastic comments actually brought them closer together.

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Going to Bismarck, North Dakota taught me some things about myself, my team, and US Curling. The first is that I’m not in competition shape. I don’t mean physically, I mean mentally. I made some mental errors in just about every game, and those ended up costing us points and even games.

As a team, we can throw the rock with people, but we can’t manufacture game shape. Curling in the eastern Unites States in a city without a curling means that it’s hard to get games together. Before the eastern qualifier in Boston, our team played a grand total of 15 games together. In a deep American field, where teams are traveling to Scotland, and playing the Grand Slams, the notion that a team that has played 15 games together can win is really an insult to the caliber of teams at the event.

We think we can play the game, but can we really play the game at this level unless we play it at this level? The mental mistakes are without question due to the lack of game play. And it doesn’t matter how many draw shots one makes.

We were just as good as any team there, and yet we weren’t. We didn’t communicate as well as a Pete Fenson did (and he didn’t qualify). We didn’t grind as well as a Craig Brown. We didn’t finish like Shuster or Birr. But we played as well as them. We were in every game, even when we made mental mistakes. But as the mistakes piled up, the frustrations piled up, and the amazement that making shots doesn’t actually translate into winning more games. Fact is, it isn’t the draw shots a team makes that helps them win, it’s how they react to the draw shots that are missed that makes them win.

When teams have a history of playing together for more than 15 games, they have an ability to pick each other up. To point to times when things looked dire, but turned out well. To notice tendencies, or tells, in teammates, and know the right thing to say to get them back in the game. Play nine or ten spiels with a team in a year , and you’ll get a good feeling for the kinds of things that need to be said, when to say them, and how to say them. 15 games isn’t enough to learn all that. It’s not often long enough to learn the names of the teammates wives and kids.

Even though teams go by the name of the skip (a practice I think is as ridiculous as it is old-fashioned), curling is a classic team game. Each shot in an end is meant to build on the last one. Half of the shots a player throws are meant to be built on, while the other half build on a previous teammates shots. Individuals on curling teams are often not long for the team, unless there’s a tremendous amount of success (missed draw shots break up teams that don’t play like teams).

I was originally planning to write an article about the draws we had at both our regional qualifier and the second chance challenge round. About how in regional qualifier our draw was Wednesday at 8:00am, Thursday at 8:00am, Friday at 8:00am, Saturday 8:00am, 3:00pm, 7:00pm. I’m not making that up, but that’s not the reason we didn’t qualify for the trials in Boston, and the draw isn’t the reason we didn’t qualify in Bismarck, North Dakota at the second chance challenge round.

We didn’t have the greatest draw in the history of curling, but losing teams always complain about the draw.

We lost because we’re four guys from the east coast with lives. We’re chasing a dream that is achievable to part-time players that get on a run, and overcome the inevitable mistakes we’ll make that are so glaringly obvious with reflection that they are a little embarrassing.

Don’t let this come across as a knock on the team. We played great, and I’m proud of our team. I’m proud of the way they played, about how hard they swept, and about how positive they stayed. But the simple reality is, we’re not in game shape as a team. And that really was the thing responsible for the result.

My friend Chris Harris

Looks like he needs sleep.

From here: click on Wilson. I also heard, this weekend, that someone was up 5-3 (or merely up 2) on Middaugh playing 7 and gave up 7. I have a hard time walking through the shots, since Middaugh would have thrown a corner guard on his first. But I suspect it went something like this:

(other guy) Top four:
Middaugh: corner
OG: guard
Middaugh: come around freeze.
OG: Peel, miss, rock dead nuts jams on one top four
Middaugh: come around to lay three buried.

OG: draw to get our of end. Didn't go well.

The great thing about curling is that things can go from bad to worse in an awful hurry. I would have loved to have seen the end.

Update: Here's the line score. No wonder Middaugh scored 7. He was playing the cast of Zoolander and the sex addict.

Autumn curling

This is a case where the picture says it all.

A weekend away

From Thursday night until Sunday afternoon, autumn hung out with the family in Brampton. She apparently even went to Aunt Tracey's work on Friday (I have no pictures to confirm though).

She did come to the curling club a couple of times to watch 'Daddy curling.' She loves to say Daddy curling, which is good, because i can't wait to take her. I do have some good shots of her holding a broom which i'll share.

One last thing: I drove Autumn to Brampton in one car, then went to get her in another one. The second car had no ID for her. When I got the border and realized I had no idea, I figured I would simply plead stupid and hope for the best. For a number of reasons, this seemed scary, namely would they let her in? Would they let me in?

Turns out, things were okay. He gave me a stern lecture and then let me in. I think it helped that Autumn woke up right then and looked cute.

George Clooney reveals love of curling - The Daily Record

MOVIE superstar George Clooney has revealed he's a huge fan of curling.The actor has told how he got hooked on the brush and ice sport while filming The Perfect Storm in Canada.Coverage was never off the box when Clooney was in the country in 2000.And he soon became fascinated with the players' efforts to sweep granite stones on to the ice target.He said: "It was on every channel and I was like, 'What the hell? My God, have something more on'.

George Clooney reveals love of curling - The Daily Record

Sometimes I wonder if this kind of thing is good or bad from the game. I think it's good. Clooney was, after all, in Return of Killer Tomatoes, one of my favorite movies.

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making a call expecting a miss

sometimes in curling it's easy to think that the other team will miss. If someone plays 80%, which is good, that's 1 miss every 5 shots. Still, expecting a miss is fine for wednesday night Brodie (or other league play), but not so good when you're at the worlds. Take the first end of China/USA. China has last rock. This is the situation that USA faces on Skips first.


China might be sitting two, which is sort of scary. But the way this end went, this is actually a good situation for US. They could just freeze to the back one, and really choke off the scoring area. Instead, they call a peel weight over the top double.

Here's my real problem with the call. The perfect double leaves China with a come around to the top four. They would play the inturn, and that would open up jams on the back red.

I understand the temptation to play a hit, but this is such a hard shot. A better shot, in my opinion, is pushing the back yellow an inch, and sitting shot and third. China would be left wondering what to play to get two.

These little moments in games are the ones that add up to free points. Give them away, and it takes 90% to win games.

I'll never win the Lottery

Just testing my ability to be so wrong, so soon. I said the whole Asian wing of curling wouldn't win in Men's curling. Yesterday.

Today:

China Shocks Canadian Men in World Curling Championship.

In other news, I think the Iraq war will go on forever, John McCain will win the White House and the Republicans will win back their majority.

Asian teams at the worlds

This is going to sound sexist and a bit revisionist, but I did start this after the Women's worlds and kept forgetting to finish it.

At this year's women's world championships, China won silver and Japan won bronze. It's been hailed as a triumph of the asian pros. Meaning, the women from China and Japan don't have day jobs. They just curl (sort of like us back in juniors).

The thinking here is this: if you can simply curl all the time, you'll get good. it's the Rockstar curling theory. Take players, have them throw rocks 8 hours a day, and they can win.

In women's. The women's game of curling is different. I'm not sure why, but I am sure it's different. First of all, Men can throw it a lot harder. The guy currently representing Canada throws it harder, with more accuracy, than any player on the planet. Period. I would wager that the next 1000 people who throw it hard, and accurate, are men.

That makes it different. But there's another element that makes it different, because throwing it hard doesn't mean wins (see Howard, Glenn).

I dare say it's something in the noggin, but I've sat with really accomplished women's curlers who've talked in a smart way about the game. Women just think a bit different.

It's not a bad thing. I'm sorta glad Autumn will think a bit different than I do.

I've said all this for this reason: Asian teams will no medal at the men's world championship for a while. They might get so technically good that they can make a lot of shots, but in the men's game, that's only part of the battle. The other part is calling the right one. There's a bigger cost in Men's curling to the wrong shot being called than there is in women's curling.

I'm not sure why, but there is.

I think the Bear will get his world's, but you have to think there's a bit of pressure on him.

The bad ice at the Brier

The final of the brier was played on bad ice. Bad can mean a lot of things to a lot of people, but it was soft, and picky. But more than that, it was inconsistent to the point that not too many people knew where to put the broom. And these guys know where to put the broom.

Richie joked about it a little late in the game telling Glenn that he had no real idea where to put the broom. On the other side, Martin didn't know either, missing run backs and half-rock doubles at a rate that is alarming for a guy who can hit like he can.

Still, when someone raises the issue of bad ice, the normal response is this: both teams had to play on it. And that's true, but irrelevant. Imagine for a second that the 16th, 17th, and 18th greens at Augusta had huge potholes in them. Now imagine that the potholes appear after you shoot. You could argue that all players have to play on it, but inconsistent ice gives inconsistent results to both teams.

I know that my analogy is impossible. But it's also impossible to adequately explain why the refrain that both teams have to play on it isn't really true. It's obviously literally true, but bad ice is bad ice, and it wrecks the game.

If you're team Howard this morning, you're probably wishing that you could have Glenn's draw for two in the third end back. Somehow John Morris knew it was 5 seconds heavier on that side, so that one is on Team Howard.

That single point gave life to the Albertans and sucked it from the Ontarians. And even though they seemed jokey and loose, even they had to begin to wonder WTF.

Glenn has been in 8 brier finals. And he's won 2 of them. Four of those finals were with Russ, Middaugh and corner -- arguably the greatest team in the history of curling. What other team can boast that all players on it skipped their way to the Brier?

The Ontario front end has now been to 4 briers, and 4 brier finals. They are 1-4. Richard Hart has the least amount of Brier experience, but is now 1-3 in Brier finals.

Seriously, with stats like that, when the "greatest drawer in history" misses a draw to the four in the 3rd end of the brier final, even the most positive guy must just look to the roof and wonder WTF. And the bad ice made it almost impossible to bounce back.

So it goes. Alberta and Ontario play in a final that most predicted. We hoped for a game for the ages, instead we got a huge disappointment. Too bad, really.

Two more weird calls

This is BC versus Ontario in the 3-4 game.


I called this screen shot, "What are you guarding?" because I wondered, what are they guarding? The simple fact is, there is only one shot available at this point and it's the run back of the red center guard. It was Ontario's second vice rock, had Ontario had hammer.

If BC doesn't throw a rock, they are running back the red guard. If BC throws the rock where they want to (indicated on this screen shot), they are simply offering up a guard that Ontario can use. BC threw the guard almost to the spot drawn here and Richie made the run back.

And just so we're sure, I would never have left Glenn the little shot through the port for 3 later in the game. In playing the out-turn guard BC left a situation whereby Glenn had a shot to win the game that had no consequences. If Glenn misses, he still gets one and still has control.

The BC team should have looked over and noticed they were playing Glenn freakin Howard. The call to guard one side of the sheet is the kind of call you might make on Wednesday night Curling. you leave certain people that shot knowing it's hard and they won't make it. You don't leave the greatest pure thrower of the curling stone that shot, because he makes it.

I know the BC guys are young, and they don't spiel much, but how someone on that team didn't even ask if the hole was there is beyond me. Someone should have at least pointed out that they've been watching Glenn Howard make awesome shots for 20 years and that maybe he's got this one in him. It's the same as the shot I talked about above. Both guards are about not looking at what you're leaving. And that's inexcusable when you think about who they are leaving the shot for.

The last shot of the 1-2 game

You're Pat Simmons. You play the entire last end for one thing, a draw to the four foot to win. Then, the other guy throws it on the four foot.

So you have to think about it. You think about how this simple nose hit will get you to the brier final.

I'm not going to second guess Pat Simmons. He's been to Briers, won cash spiels. He's good. But here's what I would have done. I would have made sure to ice the shot in such a way that it can be swept the whole time. Give tight ice, don't overthrow it, and let the sweepers pound it all the way home. Pat's a great player and can make the shot, and he got really unlucky. But by throwing it a little heavy, it meant the sweepers couldn't sweep it, and that left a chance at a pick.

Like I said, a pick is unlucky. Saskatchewan deserved to win that game. But they also put themselves in a position to lose. And that's on them.

The fine line between good and great

Watch the teams that we knew should win at the brier this week, and you notice some things. Here they are in no particular order:

The sweepers sweep very close to each other and the rock.
When there's a discussion on the shot, all members of the team are in on it, and the front-end can and will talk the back-end into shots
Sweepers switch on come arounds and for hit and rolls (the guy closest to the rock is on the side of the roll)

Add to that the mystique of some of these teams, and I think they start the game up one with the hammer. Mentally speaking, of course.

How big is this game?

This morning at 10:30AM est, Howard plays Martin. If you're the guy making the schedule, and you look at Ontario with the reigning world champion, and Alberta with three of the best teams on the planet, don't you think you might have said something when this game was put on Thursday morning?

I know. You're in Winnipeg so you know that most people will call in sick (or call in well, saying to their boss, "dude, it's howard v Martin) which in Winnipeg is most likely code for "take the week off".

But still. Other people have most-likely chimed in about this, pointing out that this is the kind of match up that's made for the evening late in the week. It didn't take a rocket scientist to predict that these two provinces would have teams near the top.

But whatever. Not living in Winnipeg, I have stuff going on this morning and can't watch. I'll watch it later though, on demand.

And for the record, I don't think this game really matters. Both of these teams will be there at the end, and a win by one over the other will not amount to a hill of beans come Sunday.

Lead's first stone, first end

There are two options. A real tight guard, or a rock no more than half in the top-four.

If the guard is too high (like half way), the other guy has the broom up for the come around a second after the rock comes to stop. Get the guard real tight, then the other guy will have to make a come around that's closer to tee-line, thus 'chocking' off the rings as you see here below. Manitoba threw the yellow guard, Alberta made the come around and then Manitoba freezes to it, chocking off the rings.


Likewise, if you call it in the house, and the rock goes top twelve or anywhere tee-line or behind, then the other guy throws the guard.

What's really fun about this brier is watching that first rock and seeing how the end progresses based on where that first stone ends up. I admit it, I'm a geek, and I should get back to work.

Why should I care

I have limited time, and I've only seen two games of the Brier this week. True, it's only tuesday, but there have been a lot of games. TSN tells me I can watch QB v NB. That's James Gratton v Jean-Michel Menard. Even though Menard won this thing a couple of years ago, no one but his family thinks he has a shot this year. And Gratton has no shot. So why watch this game? If you've seen it, tell me why I should bother. I mean, TSN is also telling me I can watch AL v MB.

Matt.

My favorite four-rock rule call

You have hammer in a close game. They throw it top four, you throw a corner guard. They throw a really tight guard. Most teams elect to play the follow it down freeze, but I saw Howard's team play a board weight run back. You hit the guard (which you can't take out of play) onto a rock in the rings (which you can take out of play).

If you nut it -- in other words if you hit it perfectly straight back, then you leave a rock in the eight foot guarded behind your tight guard. It's not really a scoring rock, so you sort of have control of the end. If you hit the guard back on a little angle, you might even shoot it over to a wing, which is even better.

The real risk is trying the shot and missing the one in the rings. Since you're throwing board, you will remove the guard (even on the bigger ice surface), which results in a wasted shot.

But if you have confidence in your lead, I love this shot for a couple of reasons.

It will deflate the other team. Their lead just did the top four tight guard that usually means they control an end, and all of a sudden you throw the perfect counter punch. Plus, they will think twice about playing by the book shots against you because you seem to be playing from a different book.

it's a little thing, but it's the thing that's helping Ontario and Alberta steam roll. They make calls like this on a regular basis that rock most of the teams at the Brier into playing outside their games.

And FYI: Howard made this call versus Burtnyk. And even though it definitely didn't rock Kerry, I'll bet it rocked his lead.

The Brier: Ontario vs NL. Draw 2

This is the 5th end. Already I wonder a little bit about mystic. I'll bet that when most teams play Brad Gushue, Olympic Gold Medalist, Brad gets a few shots an end that the other guy plays because he's playing Mark Nichols and Brad Gushue, two dudes who can mash with the best of them.

However, when Gushue plays Howard (also Martin, Burtnyk, Simmons and Menard) he has to play on merit. And more and more I see him make tactical errors of judgement that his team doesn't seem to talk him out of.

In the fifth end of the second draw (available here if you didn't see it), Glenn's front end talked Rich and Glenn into a new shot. Rich made a double peel of two guards to leave this situation:

It's Gushue's first, he's yellow, he's down 3-1 and he doesn't have the hammer. He talks about a double on the front two red stones, but points out that a double would bring a blank end into play. He's right about that. So he decides to play a guard. But this is the key: he knows that the guard won't guard everything. He knows that Glenn can make hit the second red rock and slash it onto shot rock. So he wants the guard to be on the left side of center line in order to be able to make the double on his last one -- which brings the blank into play. Here's the guard with bonus arrow showing Glenn's shot:


So lets recap for a second: Brad didn't like the double because it brought the blank in play. He instead liked a guard that left a fairly easy shot for Cliffy that would leave him a double so Cliffy could blank. Glenn makes the shot and Brad tries a thin double that had he made it, would have defied the laws of physics, meaning he was resigned to giving up a deuce and the game.

Now, I would have played the double on the two reds on Brad's first. After Richie makes the double peel, you tell him good shot, you get mildly annoyed that the front end had to talk one of the most experienced back ends at the brier into a different shot and move onto the next end.

But lets say you agree with Brad that you don't want to leave Cliffy a chance at a blank. Then lets go back to the scenario on Brad's first and wonder why the team didn't come down and talk

Here's the end again:


Why not play a little split on your yellow? Remember, we're in the mindset that a blank end is bad. We want to be aggressive. You can't guard everything, so why guard? You clip yellow about 5 inches, and make sure your shooter is at least third shot. So picture the end with the yellow rock moved over so you can see the center line and another rock back four to the left a little. Glenn would most like play a little tap on the front rocks and hope he lines something up better and then you guard.

Maybe Brad's front end is scared to talk him out of shots because the last front end to do that got cut. I don't know, but I do know that this end was not well thought out by Brad. And he doesn't seem to have any help in that area.

Ah, the Brier

The Brier is my favorite TV event of all time. Don't get me wrong, I've been to a Brier, and that's also fun, but for me, there's nothing better than sitting alone, or with other curlers, and watching the Brier on the tube (or the computer monitor since TSN doesn't make it to the B'lo).

We're allowed into the conversations. Into the shots. And even though there will be people who argue that some provinces (or even the north part of some provinces) shouldn't be allowed into the Brier, there's something wonderfully open about people getting a shot to represent their province at Canada's best sporting event.

I can't wait. And since the girls are away this weekend, and they keep telling me that it's going to snow all weekend, then I suspect I'll have nothing to do but watch.

Yaaaa!

Oh, and thanks or the shout out Posada.

Curling

This past weekend was the Canadian woman's curling championships, AKA the Scotties. In the semi final on Saturday, the lead of the Ontario made two tick shots. If you know nothing about curling, know one thing: the tick shot is a hard shot.

Or, it was. You see, they were playing the final on the new international-sized sheet. This got me thinking about two things:

1. The Game is officially different at national and international events. The US women were playing their final at around the same time. Only, their final was played on the normal every day sized sheet that we all normally play on. Meaning, the Canadian women, and men, will have a leg up.
2. The tick shot is easier. Again, if you know nothing about curling, know this: the tick shot is easier now.

I think the first thing has some serious ramifications on our game. The great part of this game is that it used to be the same. Now, the very best teams in the world will be playing on ice surfaces that we normal players can't pay on. We can't go around corner guards from the outside in. We can't play the tick shot a little more aggressively. The better teams can. Does this mean the better teams are going to widen their gap? I think it does. I think I'll research this a little more.