How to Not Miss in the 10th End of the Worlds

In my Monday night curling league, I tell my team that one of the hardest shots to make is a guard. Our club ice curls about five feet, so a guard is really hard because we don’t often talk about how precise we have to be to throw it and sweep it.

Think about it... a draw to the top of the 12-foot rings is way different from a draw to the back 12.

Weight is so critical in making shots, which is why being specific about where you want the guard is critical. “Halfway or tight” is too much of a range to make a shot, and will often be missed. 

When you sit in the hack, you need to know the weight you’re throwing. When it is described as a range, it brings possibilities into the shot that aren’t always good.

It’s the 10th end of a qualification game of the world men’s championship, and Italy’s rookie skip Stefano Spiller just threw a peach of a shot. It was so good that Team Canada’s first-timer, Matt Dunstone, was flummoxed into a shot that was not his best. He overthrew it and bounced off (yellow stone in the full four-foot).

Time out, Italy. Out walks Italy coach Ryan Fry, Brier and Olympic champion.

(I should note that in the screenshot, Italy has a red stone icon that is blinking, right above Canada’s yellow icon. It happened to be blinked off at the time of screenshotting.)

Same shot, says Fry, with confidence. Remember, Spiller put his first red stone top button, then Dunstone bounced off it.

Same shot, says everyone. No one wonders what Canada will play if they don’t throw.

I’m not saying don’t throw; I’m saying, if you don’t throw, what will he play?

It looks like Dunstone’s only shot is an 18-foot runner on the high guard with down weight to score...?

Anyway, they are always gonna throw – because Kevin Martin in the 2009 world final –  and as Fry walks away, you can hear Spiller say that he can bounce a little bit.

I heard alarm bells. TSN analyst Russ Howard even commented, “No, you can’t.”

It’s not that you can’t bounce a little bit. Bouncing is a different shot and result. It’s an excuse to be heavy in a situation where the only way you can give Dunstone a shot is to be heavy.

This requires a team to support the skipper.

“Let’s throw the same shot. No bounce. We’ll get it there.”

I’m not sure the veteran brushing tandem of Amon Mosaner and Sebastiano Arman said that to their young charge, who was making his first world men’s appearance.

Be confident, as a team, in the shot.

If you’ve ever thrown a shot to win a game, you probably felt it in your hands and your heart, and your head. Curling “throw the same shot” is an easy game, until it isn’t.

You need a team for when it isn’t.

Hopefully Stefano Spiller doesn’t play that shot over and over in his head, and lets it go. But I also hope he has a conversation with his teammates, that they talk about this, and that they learn.

Good communication on a team, in the moment when it is needed, can help someone play the same shot.