For the first time in almost a year we get to talk about major curling events. First, we preview the 2021 Scotties Tournament of Hearts with Jonathan’s 10 things to watch. Then, we preview the Swiss Championships and Japanese Championships and tell you why they’re intriguing this year. Finally, we interject with an update on the cancelation for the Women’s World Curling Championships.
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Previously, we discussed how to apply the traditional sales funnel to the recruitment of new curlers. In that article, we briefly touched on how we can diversify our curling sales pipeline rather than relying solely on referrals.
While referrals will always be your best source for new curlers, getting more organic traffic can supplement our curling pipeline and doesn’t require an advertising budget.
Continue reading How your curling club can get more organic traffic
We are honored to join Kevin Palmer of Curl with Math & Curling Legends fame for an episode of his new podcast, Rock Logic. In this episode, we discuss the strategy behind the power play in mixed doubles curling.
Kevin previously joined our podcast to discuss the 1997 Brier final.
Listen on:
Apple Podcasts
Google Podcasts
Spotify
Curling is in the process of maturing as a sport, going from amateur to professional. As we’ve talked about on Rocks Across the Pond, the sport has experienced growing pains since officially becoming part of the Olympic program in 1998.
When we’ve talked about this professionalization process, we’ve mostly talked about it from the high performance level. However, these growing pains are beginning to be felt at the grassroots level as well.
As curling matures and professionalizes, those of us at the grassroots level need to do the same in our approach to growing the sport by recruiting and retaining new curlers.
Continue reading How healthy is the sales funnel for your curling club?
In 1998, the Danish women’s curling team took home silver at the Nagano Olympics. They did this despite no dedicated curling rinks anywhere in their country. Since then, curling has grown in the country and Denmark has regularly sent teams to the Olympics. We talk to Danish curling president Henrik Christoffersen and Mads Nørgaard of Team Mikkel Krause about curling in Denmark, how the country is able to attract new curlers and the unique high performance model there.
COVID-19 Halts Danish Worlds Qualifier
Danish Curling Federation
Danish Curling on Facebook
Danish Curling on YouTube
Team Mikkel Krause
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What does it mean to be a member of USA Curling? What benefits does an individual or club get from membership? That’s now in the process of changing. USA Curling is rolling out a new membership structure where individuals, not just clubs, can join the national organization. In this show, we talk about what that means and the impact it will have on curlers and clubs with Mid-South Curling Club’s Evan Lu and USA Curling CEO Jeff Plush. Evan will also tell us the history of his club and how a small arena club in the south recruits and retains members.
Mid-South Curling Club on Facebook
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USA Curling CEO Jeff Plush was on the job for less than a month before the world changed due to a global pandemic. He joins us to discuss how USA Curling is navigating the pandemic and his plans for the future of the organization. He has high hopes to strengthen the sport in the US at all levels, from grassroots to high performance by drawing on ideas from both inside and outside of curling.
USA Curling Webinar on Diversity & Inclusion
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The World Championship Qualifiers in Denmark were recently suspended due to a positive COVID-19 test. Despite having similar protocols in place to the proposed Calgary curling bubble, the disease infiltrated the field of just four teams and spread quickly. Danish Curling Federation Chairman Henrik Christoffersen and Mads Nørgaard of Team Krause join us to talk about the lessons we can take away from what happened at the Danish qualifier.
Watch for a show on the history and growth of Danish curling in the near future!
Danish Curling Federation on Facebook
How COVID-19 Spreads at a Curling Event
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This is part of our series, “Run it Back,” which looks at key games during curling’s Olympic age. We start with the 1997 Brier Final between Kevin Martin and Vic Peters. Kevin Palmer of Curling Legends Podcast and Curl with Math joins us to discuss this game’s place in curling history. Among the topics: Warren Hansen and moving the Brier to big arenas, Rudy Ramcharan and diversity in curling, God Shammgod, 2000 Flushes Blue, Steve Nash’s Rookie Year and why you’d paint the free guard zone.
Kevin Palmer on Twitter
Curling Legends Podcast
Curl with Math
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We are launching a new feature on Rocks Across the Pond that we’re going to call “Run It Back”. This series looks at how curling has changed over the last quarter century. We’re starting in 1997 when the game was still largely amateur, Canada dominated the world stage and sweepers did not know how to carve a stone.
Each episode will focus on a single game. We’ll look at how things like strategy, sweeping, shot making, ice conditions, and even advertising has changed over the years. Each month from now until the start of the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing we’ll drop an episode looking at a different game.
For our first episode, we are going to look at Jonathan’s all-time favorite curling game: the 1997 Brier final between Team Martin and Team Peters. Coming into the game both Peters and Martin had each won a Brier. The three-rock free guard zone was relatively new. The game features a sellout crowd at the Calgary Saddledome (the largest live audience to ever see a curling game). The game did not disappoint. It featured several big ends, great shots and heartbreaking misses.
Kevin Plamer joined us to help analyze the game. Kevin is curling’s leading historian. He writes the “Curl With Math” blog, which uses analytics to analyze curling strategy. He published the book “10 Ends”, a statistical approach to watching curling. He also hosts “The Curling Legends Podcast” which interviews curling greats from the invention of the slide through to the modern era.
If you want to watch the game before listening to the episode you can view it here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JOjJXrHGMew
If you have suggestions for future episodes feel free to drop us a line at: rocksacrossthepond@gmail.com