Shout It Out Loud

Shout It...Shout It...Shout It out Loud! This was a Kiss song. I don't watch the Gene Simmons Family Jewels reality show, but back in the day, I was, like many others, a Kiss fan. They had the right idea with this Shout song, and if they were curlers , the song would still apply. (Although they would have a heck of a time gluing Teflon to the spiked shoes they wore). Members of Kiss would have made great front end players shouting down to their skip.

Skips can only call line. They can't really see the speed of the rock so they must depend on the lead and the second to shout down to them just where they think the rock will come to rest, OR, how fast the rock is travelling. Is it guard weight, back line, takeout, or parking lot? The sooner the skip has this information, the sooner a decision can be made whether to stick to the plan or find a "Plan B"

Strong front ends can make a team. Their good sweeping and their capacity to quickly relay information to their skip makes them an integral part of the game.

A good exercise for front end players is to start to relay information to your skip. Talk to your skip and make a plan for this. You will be surprised at how fast you become good at this. This information will benefit your team BIG TIME. Try using a stopwatch. If you take a split time from the back line to the hog line and then watch to see where the rock ends up, the next split time you take will tell you if it is heavier or if it is lighter. If it is lighter, you will have the time to jump on that rock and sweep it. If you are still confused about using stopwatches, talk to someone on your team and they will be able to advise you.

So leads and seconds, here's a challenge for you and an opportunity to become even more involved in the game. Communicate with your skip on the rocks coming down the ice. Shout out the information he needs. "This is Heavy, or "Tee-Line Weight" or "Light"...you can see how this will help. The sooner the skip hears this, the sooner he or she can react.

Yes, Kiss would make good front end curlers. I would make them lose the make up and wear a jacket. Those low cut leather shirts would make for a cold game...and certainly would allow too many chest hairs to fall on the ice. The only thing they would be shouting to their skip is "PICK!"

Rock On!

The Curling Chronic