Some members have approached me over the years and recently, with concerns over inconsistencies with rocks and their travel paths. Although no two rocks are 100% identical, and ice conditions vary day to day with external influences (weather, outdoor temperatures, humidity, etc); you can still achieve consistent results with a few tweaks to your delivery and release.
Ice conditions and ice making techniques have vastly changed over the past 20 years. Gone are the days of dishing the ice sheet by building up either side to achieve curl from the outside in. Now the sheets are flat and the rocks and pebble do all the work. The rocks running surface are more cared for and conditioned on a regular basis. The pebble is much finer and ice temperatures are warmer. By implementing these techniques, we're trying to achieve "arena ice" conditions. With that comes weight sensitivity, big swing and risk of tracking or falling rocks.
What does that all mean? The onus is put on the curler to throw a rock properly. With the way the ice is prepped, it'll tell you what you did wrong in your delivery and your release. To make sure you get the most out of your shots and rocks; you want a nice clean release to the broom and a minimum of 3 rotations from release to finish. This will achieve optimum consistency from your rocks and it'll give you a better chance on reading the different paths in the sheet, especially on the tricky outside sheets. Next time curling is on tv take note that 100% of the curlers throw with a very positive handle. This helps to achieve consistency with all shots in the teams lineup.
REMEMBER - RELEASE & ROTATION
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