Lesson in Curling

Q: How do you stop the bacon from curling in the pan?
A: Take away their little brooms.     (Curling joke source)

In my curling lesson, I learned to shoot a stone from the hack, to sweep to help a teammate’s stone glide straight, and to takeout an opponent’s stone.

Learning to throw

I even managed to get the stone in the house once or twice.

The stone is in the house

And since all I had known about curling was a glimpse of it during the Olympics and a pile of jokes about how it is not a real sport, I can report: Yes, it’s harder than it looks.

Sweeping together

(Photo by Chris)

On curling: “There is athletic skill involved, as well as deep strategy. You need a keen eye, flexibility, strong nerves, coordination and, above all, you can’t be susceptible to chilblains.”     (Curling joke source)

Curling crew

We had a fun time and were able to play a game after a brief lesson. Unfortunately, my team lost in the last end after being up the whole game. Oh well. The Olympics will have to wait.

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The Nutmeg Curling Club in Bridgeport, CT, offers introductory curling lessons. They were very friendly and welcoming. It’s easy to learn the basics and hard to get that stone to go where you want it to go.