Sept. 29, 2009

The season so far . . .

21 Days Together.
Our season began with a 21 day trip covering three World Curling Tour (WCT) Events. The Shorty Jenkins Classic in Brockville, Ontario was first on the list.

The “Shorty” is the kickoff event of the WCT season for many of the world’s best teams. It was a great event. Curlers are treated to good ice and free golf at the Brockville Country Club. We didn’t golf very well, but got started on a decent note on the ice. We finished the event with a 3 win and 2 loss record, losing our final game which would have qualified us for the final 8. It was a good start to our year.

We flew directly from Ontario to our next stop….Oslo, Norway for the SAS Oslo Cup. The Oslo Cup is part of the WCT as well as the Curling Champions Tour in Europe. This would be the first of many events that would test our abilities against the top teams from Europe. We again had some success early and positioned ourselves to make the final eight with 3 wins and 1 loss, but lost a qualifying tie-breaker game to the Mike McEwen rink from Manitoba. We played well again and felt good about our progress. We had a little time to discover downtown Oslo and a bit of Norway. A very beautiful place but also very expensive!

Our next flight found us back in Lucerne, Switzerland for a few training days with our coach Rodger Schmidt. We have come to love Lucerne and were happy to be back in our favorite European burg! This time we trained in the Lucerne club and stayed in a small hostel –like hotel. We also took a day to ride up the gondolas to the top of Mount Titlis! What an experience! Quite possibly the most beautiful place we have ever seen, as evidenced by the photos! After a bit of shopping for chocolate and souvenirs, we were off again.

Our last stop on the long 21 day trip was the Swiss Cup in Basel, which is also part of the WCT as well as the Curling Champions Tour in Europe. Here we would see many of the same teams that we saw in Oslo. The ice in Basel was a bit more challenging than we expected and 3 of the 5 of us started to feel a bit under the weather. Needless to say, we struggled to play well and ended our trip with 2 wins and 3 losses at this event. With an extra day available to us, we decided to make the most of it and drove through Switzerland and Austria to Munich, Germany. It was a long drive there and back, but added some great memories of our European experience.

Home..but not for long.

After returning home from Europe we had a short week and a half to rest and recover. However, we still have had plenty to do with media requests and other obligations for an Olympic Team to attend to.

To break up some of the seriousness and difficulty of our schedule, we played in the St. Paul Cash Spiel in St. Paul, Minnesota. Although this is a serious event on the WCT, we used it as a way to relax, enjoy playing the game and catch up with local friends and family. We decided to draw cards for positions for the event and let people play whatever role they drew. It was a good thing for us. Not only because it was fun, but it also gave us a chance to work on a few things at different positions which hopefully won’t ever be needed, but it is good to prepare for. All in all we played well under these conditions and finished with 2 wins and 3 losses. You might not know it, but we were still making progress.

The following week saw us on the road again for one of our biggest tests. The first of three WCT “Grand Slam” events! The WCT Grand Slam events are invitation only and feature the very best teams in the World. This event, in the Toronto, Ontario area, was labeled the “World Cup” of curling due to the fact that the field was comprised of 9 of the 10 teams headed for Vancouver and the top 5 Canadian teams. What an amazing event and experience! We played 6 round robin games and ended with 2 wins and 4 losses. However, our record could easily have been 4 wins and 2 losses with 2 of our losses coming on the last shot. In the process, we beat Canada’s Brad Gushue rink (reigning Olympic Champion); took Canada’s-Glen Howard (#1 WCT Team) to an extra end loss; and lost to Scotland’s David Murdoch (reigning World Champion) on our last shot which missed it’s mark by a fraction of an inch! We had a ton of positives to take away!

After a couple of days at home, we found ourselves on a plane again headed for Canada! This trip would take us west for the first time this year to Brooks, Alberta which is roughly 2 hours southeast of Calgary. The “Cactus Pheasant Classic” is heralded as the best event on the WCT for its huge payout, great hospitality, and draw of the best teams! Once again we would be facing the best from Canada and Europe. Despite having only one win in this event and 3 losses, we were still able to learn a few things and make some changes to our approach in some situations. We’re sure that it will help us down the road.

So with 100 days and 5 events left before Vancouver, we are ready to really get to work and build toward that peak performance in February!