The Olympics are over, but the season for curling isn’t done. Drummie, the Potomac Curling Club president, will be competing this month in the national championships. She explains the sport.
What is a curling rink like compared with an ice skating rink?
There are no dasher boards. It is still ice, but we don’t use a Zamboni and we sprinkle the ice so it has the feeling of an orange peel so that there’s a lot of bumps, which means the rocks are sliding more on air than a truly flat service, which would have too much friction for the rock to go anywhere.
What are the brooms for?
When athletes are actually sweeping, what they are attempting to do is melt the very top layers of the ice briefly. That creates a path of least resistance so the rock will travel further and slightly straighter than the natural curve it is taking. So sometimes they are sweeping because they want to get the rock to a certain location, and sometimes they’re sweeping because they want to either go around something or they want to hit something on a particular angle.
What’s the biggest misconception about curling?
I would hope that people will get a better appreciation of how it’s a team sport, because some of the questions I get are whether I am a sweeper or a thrower. But being a team sport, we all actually throw, we all actually sweep.
Do you have a favorite part, throwing or sweeping?
I like the strategy of it. If both teams are of similar technical abilities, it’s the team with the strongest communication skills and the team with the most effective strategy that matches their skills that will win the game. So, as much as you want to spend your effort in improving your technical abilities, understanding your choices in strategy will have as much, if not more, of an impact on how the game plays itself out.
