The Bolt

I was at ice level for four games in total, watching and listening to the action that was happening about twenty feet from where I was sitting. The first thing that struck me was the absolute dead silence of the arena. Normally this is a hockey or concert arena, filled with 5,000 to 15,000 excited fans who are screaming and cheering. But not for curling! Although there were a decent number of fans in the arena, you could quite clearly hear the players on the ice, the calls that they were making, and even some of their semi-private conversations (the ones that they block out on TV because they're not suitable for broadcast due to offensive language)

Glenn Howard has a good sense of humor, and it was obvious his team was having fun and were relaxed on the ice. In one of the round robin games, Glenn called for a freeze, and his third Richard Hart called out from the hack, "what about the hit? Don't you like the quiet hit?" Glenn's reply was, "sure, if you make it!" A few people caught the joke and a subdued laugh could be heard throughout the crowd.

Contrasted to Team Howard's relaxed nature was team Carruthers, who did not seem comfortable on the ice, and were beating themselves up almost every time that they missed a shot. Their third slammed his broom down onto the carpet beside the sheet a few times. Now I can understand getting pissed off about missing a key shot or two per game, but when players are always upset every end, then that's a problem with their mental engagement. They're using the wrong stimulus to try and correct their on-ice performance.

I met up with Ole Ingvaldsen, the coach of the Norwegian curling team. What a great guy! We chatted while watching the Ferbey team play, and we both thought that Randy Ferbey himself looked "bored". He didn't seem to be interested at all in the game. I found him often times leaning on his broom, staring into space... or even watching the game on the sheet next to him. It didn't come as a big surprise to me that they did quite poorly.

I also watched Kevin Martin and John Morris together, and wow do those two ever feed off each other's emotions. When they're having a good game, they're both up and joking and life is good. But when either is having an off game they get pretty sour, and fairly soon the other is just as negative. Kevin also turned out to be a bit of a poor sport, attributing Pat Simmons' win against him to "a bit of luck". Nope, I watched that entire game, and Martin's team just got out-curled. The Simmons team did a great job, and Martin should have given them his proper respect.

I played a fun side-game with Ole as we were watching the matches: he would ask me what shot I would play. Then at least half of the time he would say "yes, but then in the next shot..." That is, I found myself thinking of the shot at hand, whereas Ole was thinking one or two shots ahead! As much as I'm deep into curling right now, it was enlightening and eye-opening to sit beside someone who's coached the game for a long time now, and talk about strategy.... it showed me just how much more I have yet to grow and learn.

Overall, volunteering at a professional curling event was well worth my time invested, and I'd heartily recommend it for anyone who's into curling.