A long-standing line of delivery (LOD) drill used in curling is one where the athlete delivers a stone by sliding between a series of markers (cones, cups, or stones) to practice line of delivery. We term this drill the “gauntlet drill”. When coupled with a point laser and video recording, the gauntlet drill is an excellent way to practice an athlete’s line of delivery and its use permits root-cause analysis of line of delivery faults that can materialize as competitive
This article is joint work with John Newhook of Dalhousie University. In curling, a point, or “dot”, laser is (nearly) essential to the setup of several drills, most commonly the “gauntlet drill”. In the gauntlet drill, the laser acts as the “target broom” to which the athlete throws their stone, and at the same time the laser shines a “dot” on the striking band of the stone so that it is much easier to observe lateral movement in the stone during
This article is joint work with Dr. John Newhook, Dean of Engineering, Dalhousie University. In a previous article, entitled “Dryland Training for Closed Brushing Footwork”, we described a simple, wheeled apparatus that an athlete could use to practice closed brushing footwork in the off-season. The closed footwork trainer assists an athlete in (1) keeping their hips closed to the trajectory of the stone while brushing, (2) holding their body upright with a considerable proportion of their body weight
This article is joint work, and part of a continuing research project, with Dr. John Newhook, Professor of Engineering at Dalhousie University. We are grateful to Alison Poluck and Monica Graham for their demonstrations of closed technique. Most importantly, we would like to thank Fraser Reid, former Canadian university champion and now a coach at Wilfrid Laurier University – and one of the best brushers in the game – for his demonstrations of brushing in the open stance. Introduction
Several Ontario teams have acquired or built dryland footwork trainers to better develop their closed brushing footwork technique during the summer months, so that they are trained and ready-to-go when ice becomes available in the fall. Note: the Junior curling season will be here before you know it; the first week of the Trillium Curling Camp at K-W Granite is only six weeks away! What follows are some training tips and coaching hints for those teams using a footwork trainer
Since publishing the first article about the footwork trainer in June, a number of people have asked for more detailed specifications and additional photographs so that they can construct their own. The trainer itself is simple to construct. The parts list is as follows: two 30-inch wood pieces of 2×6 glued and screwed together using 3-inch brass wood screws; one 30-inch piece of 2×4 attached to the top, again using 3-inch brass screws; two 18-inch 2×4 pieces for the trainer’s wheelbase.