You put the slider under your foot and start to push the stone back. You push the stone, let go, 

and the sweepers start to sweep the ice. It goes into the house, and your team cheers. You just scored a point in curling. I will be writing a reflection about when my class went on a field trip to Ardsley Curling Club. I will be writing about delivering the stone in my first paragraph, and sweeping in the second. I had a good time there but there were also challenges. For example, both of our teams couldn’t get the stone into the house until my team FINALLY got one, and then another but there were no more points afterwards. I think that curling is really fun if you follow instructions so you won’t hit your head since THAT is definitely no fun at all.

 

To deliver the stone, we practiced at school. There were these stones on wheels and there was a miniature house in the gym. We would practice like that and it was very easy, but it got harder when we did it on the ice. A lot harder. A lot lot harder. A lot lot lot harder. Ok, I’ll stop rambling, let’s continue. We had to use the stabilizer and I still fell but after a while, I got the hang of it. You had to sort of lunge/kneel when you were delivering it, while you had a slider underneath the foot opposite of your dominant hand, so if you are a righty, you put under your left foot, and if you were a lefty- basically you get the idea. You held the stabilizer in your non-dominant hand and the stone in your dominant hand. You put your other foot on a thingamabob and push your stone and foot with the slider backward, then forward and then slide on the ice. Wait! This is important. You might be thinking you can let go whenever you want but nope! If you let go too early or late, you will fall and the stone won’t go as far. It is very important so that you can get the stone into the house. When I fell a few times, I thought, Am I the next Sophie Foster? Sophie Foster is a character in my favorite book series, Keeper of the Lost Cities, who trips A LOT. A LOT LOT. A LOT LOT LOT. Ok, ok, I promise I’ll stop rambling in this whole reflection then. At once, when I tripped, my knees felt frozen though they weren’t, don’t worry. What a way to hurt my leg I thought.

 

Sweeping is a very important part in curling. No, you don’t take the bus back home and sweep the floor of your room so you can win in curling, though your parents will be happy and mad. Why? Your floor will be clean but your parents will be like “What the heck are you doing here? Aren’t you supposed to be at school?” When you sweep, you rub the broom on the ice, causing friction and the ice to be a little more slippery so the stone can slide on the ice farther. You can sweep a lot but don’t over sweep it! If you over sweep it, it can go out of the house, so maybe stop sweeping like a third meter away from the house? When we were waiting for the other class to finish, there was this really good shot but then people over swept it and I was thinking, Well, THAT is just so sad. Anyways, you might be thinking, if the ice is sweeped so many times by so many people, why doesn’t the ice melt? Well, you’re only causing friction to make VERY slightly slippery. It’s also cold there so it will turn cold again eventually, think of it as an ice skating rink, why didn’t the ice melt from all the friction with all the ice skating shoes? You also might be wondering, how come you don’t slip? Well, if you were running, especially with a slider, you would trip a lot. The thing is, the ice isn’t flat so there are bumps on the ice so you don’t trip as much and the stone can still slide. How the slider works is if your shoes are a little flat at the bottom, it will slide because, well, it is flat and can slide around the ice! This is why we have sliders, so we can slide more to deliver the stone farther. There is also more to curling that is kind of important to win for example, the hammer which is having the last shot so you can knock the other team’s stone away or knock your own into the house if it’s a little close to the house but not in yet.

 

This is why I think curling is fun, since you get to slide on the ice and score points when you get it in the house. It is also about good sportsmanship like every sport does. Before the game, you say good curling to the other team, when someone makes a good shot in the house, you say good shot, and when the game is over, you fist bump the other team and say good game. Not everything is about being competitive, it’s about having fun with everyone. What do YOU think about curling?