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Curling - that ridiculous Olympic "sport"

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<< Have any of you seen this waste of an Olympic Event?

If you don't know what it is, it's basically shuffleboard on ice. I can't believe they made a sport out of this.

Can't wait till the 2006 Olympics when we see championship snowball fighting. I hope the USA wins the gold in that. >>




I can respect your opinion although I strongly disagree. I understand where you're coming from because
I also feel there are certain sports in the Olympics that I don't enjoy watching. But they are "sports"
to the people who spend hours practicing them.

 
Eh, I guess its a sport/game/whatever... but I'm not entertained watching it in the least bit If you don't like it, don't watch it. If it becomes way too unpopular it will probably get taken off... snowboarding became popular and hence got put on....
 
Some basic strategy:

Eight rocks are thrown per side, per end. The 'lead', 'second', 'vice' and 'skip' each throw 2 rocks. Obviously, the teams alternate.

The skip holds the broom for the first three team members (first six rocks), and the vice holds the broom for the skip rocks. The skip has a broom, but almost never sweeps. The down side? Everybody wants to be a skip.

The team that throws second, "has the hammer". Makes no damn sense, I know.

If you score points while you have the hammer, you score points. If you score points without the hammer, it's a steal.

Once you score any points, the hammer goes to the opposing team.

Now, evenly match teams have no problem scoring a single point if they have the hammer (they throw last). If there are no rocks in the house (rings), they will throw their rock through the house, scoring no points, but the get to keep the hammer. If there are opposition rocks in play, the skip with the hammer (last rock) may be 'forced to take one' rather than give up the steal.

There, I'm done. You should now be able to watch curling and yell at them with something more intelligent than a Newfie, "HARD!" (sorry Eakers)

Regards,
Craig
 


<< What about Archery, Equestrian, Sailing, and Shooting in the Summer Olympics? >>



You don't see too many fat people in those sports. In archery the fatter you are, the more your stomach gets in the way. And you don't have fat horse riders because you don't want your horse to suffer. Fat sailors suck because they sink faster. OK so you might have fat shooters, so I dunno what to say about that. But curling? It's like the winter gathering for chunky people, them women curlers have about as much hotness as Barbara Streisand. There ain't nothing Citius, Altius, Fortius about it.
 


<< Eh, I guess its a sport/game/whatever... but I'm not entertained watching it in the least bit If you don't like it, don't watch it. If it becomes way too unpopular it will probably get taken off... snowboarding became popular and hence got put on.... >>


Except that curling is over a century old. My wife curls at the Granite Club in Toronto. Their oldest awards aren't trophies - they're tapestries.

Point being, I don't see it dying off anytime soon.
 
that was a real nice shot just now by the US vs. Germany .... even though I have no idea what is going on 😛

bah.. how did they lose that.... that was terrible
 


<< You don't see too many fat people in those sports. In archery the fatter you are, the more your stomach gets in the way. And you don't have fat horse riders because you don't want your horse to suffer. Fat sailors suck because they sink faster. OK so you might have fat shooters, so I dunno what to say about that. But curling? It's like the winter gathering for chunky people, them women curlers have about as much hotness as Barbara Streisand. There ain't nothing Citius, Altius, Fortius about it. >>



Please see Law, Kelley.

But disregard Werenich, Ed.
 
thanks again Chansen...great explaination! at least someone can put some decent input into the coversation! 😀
 


<< thanks again Chansen...great explaination! at least someone can put some decent input into the coversation! 😀 >>



You sound like the type of person that doesn't rate me😉
 
It's amazing how a good explaination of a subject effectively ends the discussion, while misinformed babble seems to go on in perpetuity.
 


<< Eakers- What are they trying to accomplish when they yell "HARD"? Are they trying to get it to curl more or less? >>



They are telling the sweepers what to do. Eg: Sweeping very fast but with not pressure polishes the pebble surface, this makes the rock go farther and straighter. When they are yelling 'HURRY', that's what they want. 'HARD' means use more pressure, when you sweep hard you wear off the pebble surface, this causes the rock to go farther, while curling slightly more than 'HURRY'. It's quite complex 🙂 You can also sweep on one side of a rock to make it curl farther or less.

 


<< But disregard Werenich, Ed. >>



WHAT!! Haha, 'The Wrench' Werenich. He actually played pretty well here at the '98 Olympic trials. He was the wildcard in our little betting pool.

Of course I'm a little biased, being from Manitoba, but if anyone wants to see some good curlers, check out some of these teams:
Kevin Martin
Jeff Stoughton
Kerry Burtnyk
Russ Howard
Wayne Middah(sp?)
Guy Hemmings
And of course the infamous 'Wrench' Werenich
 
It's Wayne Middaugh, though he's not exactly your prototypical athlete, either. Has less chin than Joe Clark.

Guy Hemmings, on the other hand, is wonderful. Here's a classic Guy pose - unshaven and hair that makes Steve Nash's look good. Very funny man and a great ambassador for curling.
 


<< It's amazing how a good explaination of a subject effectively ends the discussion, while misinformed babble seems to go on in perpetuity. >>

Have patience - it did not end the discussion. Your explanation is very good, and it detailed the skill involved in playing this game. But if a game of skill can be an Olympic event, why aren't games like Shuffleboard, Chess and Bowling in the summer Olympics? How about Robot Wars?

I have nothing against it as a game, I just think it does not belong in the Olympics. The Olympics are about the best athletes in the world competing for gold. Please forgive me if I don't consider a team of 40 year-old soccer moms to be among the best athletes in the world.

Look at every other Olympic event. Curling is a complete deviation from everything else.

And don't anyone give me this "It's called the Olympic Games, not Olympic Sports" argument. If we followed that logic, we would have Candyland and Go Fish in the Olympics.
 
Chess is an intellectual endeavour - no physical skill involved at all. Strike that.

Robot Wars is a design competition. Strike that.

Bowling and Shuffleboard? Hmm.

There is a shuffleboard world tournament, the 22nd annual, in Clearwater, Florida this year. Four continents and five coutries are represented, but there is no regular tour (amateur or professional) that I can find. Strike that.

Bowling has an international body, regular tours and a wide following. Though I believe it is a recognized sport by the IOC, their olympic.org site is down, so I can't check. By those criteria it could be included, and many believe it will.

But when these athletes have devoted a good part of their lives to a sport to become among the best in the world, why dismiss the sport and the accomplishment? The Olympic Games should be inclusionary, not exclusionary.

Finally, if you're looking for other Olympic events to cull, try shooting or archery. I may even support you on those.

Regards,
Craig
 
Although curling does look quite a bit like shuffleboard, I prefer the analogy to team pool. They both require excellent coordination, forward thinking, strategy, etc, etc. But curling, although it may not look very physical, it is really quite. The rinks that I'm used to playing in, the average air temperature is -5 to -10C. If your playing a frontend position where your sweeping lots, we're out there in T-shirts and even then you are too hot. Think about the level of exertion required to generate that much heat. As someone already said, it's not terribly easy to throw a 44lb rock down a sheet of ice in 6 seconds for a big takeout, and then your next shot throw a 25 second draw shot around a guard with 1/8" to spare.

The more you play, and learn curling, the more and more you begin to realise how much strategy is involved. I've skipped my own rink for 4 years now, playing in provincial championships, and the mens leagues. And even after playing that much I still get a couple situations every game where you have no idea what shot to play. You have to be thinking about what shot your going to try and setup 3 or 4 rocks down the line, then what the opposition is likely to do based on the rocks they see in play. All while at the same time the other skip is doing the exact same things. It's a tough game. 🙂

 
I'll be one more posts of people that said hey that sh!t looks easy as hell the only time that I was up north and got the oppurtuntity to play it. Man, is it ever hard, and it takes a great deal of skill, but also strategy (from the leader). I played for about 5 hours and honestly was no better than when I started. Some of the good curlers there said it takes many months to even become proficient for most people. I was really amazed at how enjoyable it was, given as stupid as it looked.

If you try it, you'll shut your fap, I guarantee that.
 
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