Wednesday, 19th of February 2020

Around the Rinks: 9 – 11 February

Introduction to Umpiring, Stirling, Sunday 9 February

Introduction to Umpiring was held in Stirling on Sunday 9 February.  Despite the awful weather conditions 10 attended the 1 day course.  David Melrose and Stuart Walker took the new umpires through sessions on ice and in the classroom, which included practice in measuring, timing and many other roles and responsibilities that an umpire has to undertake. 

Scottish Wheelchair Curling Association British Open 2020, Hamilton Ice Rink, Sunday 9 – Tuesday 11 February

Congratulations to Gregor Ewan, Jim Gault, Ian Donalson, Gill Keith and James Sellar who won the 2020 Scottish Wheelchair Curling Association British Open which was held at Hamilton Ice Rink from Sunday 9 to Tuesday 11 February.

Home-based teams including Paralympic medallists Gregor Ewan, Angie Malone and Jim Gault were joined by Team Germany and members of the English national team in an eight-team round robin format before plays-offs on Tuesday afternoon to decide the winners.

Defending champions Team Ewan entered the tournament as favourites and they delivered a wheelchair curling masterclass to go unbeaten through the round robin stage before playing Team Germany in the 1v2 final to decide our champions.  In a close final, Team Ewan held the upper hand throughout the early stages with Team Germany closing to within a couple of shots in the last end.

Our thanks go to Hamilton Ice Rink for allowing us to use their facilities and thanks to the ice staff, umpire Harry Brodie and all the catering staff as well as our army of volunteers.

Our next tournament is the SWCA Scottish Championship, Tuesday 17 to Thursday 19 March at The Peak, Stirling. Please see the new SWCA Facebook page here, for info on this great sport.

 

Physical Preparation for Curling – where to start

Earlier this month Scottish Curling ran a new workshop for coaches.  The workshop Physical Preparation for Curling – where to start, looked at how to physically prepare curlers before play.  It proved to be a very successful evening with 20 coaches attending from all over Scotland and at varying stages of their own development.  The workshop was delivered by Harry Booker, Senior Physical Preparation Coach at sportscotland Institute of Sport (working with British Curling and Wheelchair Curling).  Harry guided the coaches through the fundamental understanding of physical preparation including demonstrations of exercises, which everyone had the opportunity to practice.

The practical based workshop described ways of teaching fundamental movement skills in order to develop physical literacy in adults.  The workshop focused on how to equip coaches with the confidence to incorporate key principles into everyday practice irrespective of the age or ability of the athletes being coached.  Harry armed them all with the tools to reduce risk of injury and improve curling performance and longevity in the sport.

For the first time the evening was also filmed with the aim of sharing this information with all Scottish Curling coaches.  Due to popular demand information about another new workshop based on tactics will emailed out to all coaches this week.  Developing Playing Styles Through Tactics delivered by Alan Hannah will have its debut at the NCA, Stirling on Tuesday 3 March 2020.  Please see the website for more information on the workshop.

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