In curling, there is only one thing that you must be able to do. “Can you bend over? That’s all you gotta do,” said Richard Warner, a curler with 30 years of experience and member of the Potomac Curling Club.
For the average American, curling is bowling on ice. But it is a bit more complicated than that.
Basically, curlers are put in two categories: Throwers and sweepers, and skippers. The main players are the players who throw the rock and those who sweep in front of it to get it move farther. The “skipper,” for more advanced and experienced curlers, is the strategist behind the game, or the quarterback, Warner said. The skipper points out the target where the rock should go and makes aiming easier for the curler who is throwing.
And as the name “curling” suggests, the rock curls once it is thrown. It can curve anywhere between 2 and 8 feet, Warner explained. If thrown slower, it curls more. If the thrower is fast, it goes straighter. Sweeping the brooms in front of the stone makes it go straighter and further as the sweeping melts the small bumps on the ice.
While the stone is 38 to 42 pounds, curlers do not lift it, Warner said. So instead of strength, preparation and stretching is critical. And anyone from 8 to 80 can play.
“Stretching, just stretching … It’s a lot of quick motion. You are sliding on the ice so you gotta be pretty limber, make sure you don’t fall,” Warner said.
“The real workout comes once you start sweeping in front of the rock,” the 54-year-old native Canadian says. “Good upper body workout. You throw twice and you sweep twice.”
While sweating is minimal compared with running, curlers are competitive, with players joining leagues as soon as they step into a curling club.
The Potomac Curling Club in Laurel, for example, offers leagues ranging from men, women and juniors to a pizza league.
The season begins in October and ends in the middle of April, when tournaments finish up.
Warner’s favorite competitions are not the high-tension, adrenalin-rushed tournaments, but lower-key matches when players build bonds between games.
And even though he enjoys curling for the thrill of the perfectly thrown rock, it is much more the social aspect of curling that keeps him coming back to the ice. “I’m in for the fun of it. Win or lose, I’m having a good time,” he said.
Warner began curling 30 years ago in Canada with his fellow co-workers. Soon, the “take your mind off the office” recreational activity turned into a critical part of his daily routine for the next eight years.
Then he moved to Atlanta. “No curling clubs in Atlanta … yet,” Warner said. Fortunately for him, curling was making a comeback when he relocated to the District nine years ago. He had the chance to join the local club and continue the family tradition.
His parents curled, and so did his grandparents, but none of his three children nor his wife curl. “My wife is from California,” the Canadian explained.
The staff at the real estate company Warner runs, however, has to be more involved in his passion for the Scottish game.
“My secretary knows that no matter where I go, I have to be back at the airport on Wednesday by 5 p.m. so I can make the Wednesday night game.”
