"Truth" in my book means, "the facts as in physics
facts." That is, "facts," as I see them. One fact as I see
it is there are only about 50 teams in Canada
that are true "pro" teams and none are ladies, I'm sorry to say.
Why? Because women can't power brush and therefore can't compete with men. When
the gals learn Brushing-- Power To Control the rock -- vertical brushing, the ladies will have a
chance. The truth hurts, but isn't that the potential start of new
learning? It takes a smack sometimes to get a person's attention.
A pro team, in my definition, is a team that averages, as
a whole, 80+% of their shots for the active season. "Active" means:
"After a few weeks of play/warm up. If you consider the fact that the
pros only hit the brush 70% of the time within a 3"window of error, how do you account for their 80+%
shooting? Brushing will add up to 20% to a teams overall shot skills. This
percentage can be greatly increased with my taught brushing technique in
which you can stop curl and INCREASE curl!
TOO MEMORIZE LAWS: A No. No. No No.
In curling, the only two laws to memorize are:
1. Show up to the game on time.
2. Wear clean underwear in case you are in an accident on the way to/from
the rink.
I recently played 5 games with a dad and 2 aspiring
"juniors" about 16-18 years old. They were brought to the Nelson
Summer Spiel to learn new ideas, as their dad said, BUT.
The boys were playing 3'rd and skip (so they could learn). I
played lead. The dad offered me to play second thinking that second is
more important than lead. When I told him "lead" was as
important as 3'rd he looked puzzled....
They, the boys, will never, never, never have a hope in hell of
getting out of the districts much less win the provincials! Why? Because
they don't understand strategy. They memorized/understand CCA/ Ray and Linda
strategy but they don't know winning strategy. The few true pros do
not use the CCA and Linda and Ray's strategy PER
SAY.
What am I trying to convey here?
Linda's Law is a RULE of THUMB good
for about 50% of shots and not a
law. A law is enforced for every situation!!! A rule of thumb infers
"it works in some situations."
What happens in real situations which caused us to lose 4 of 5 games and
almost lose the 5'th is this: The boys:
Situation 1. Setting the double. Would
not brush an already heavy rock (a guard was called for-- top12') past our
partially buried rock leaving the angle-double against our nice
half burried shot
rock. They thought, "Linda says, "do not brush rock past
"T"-line."
Situation 2. Opposition has rock
slightly past "T"-line and they have hammer.
The boys would not brush our rock to freeze against the
opposition stone because that would put our rock behind the "t"-line. The opposition readily "picked" our rock out
and took 4 for that end after we were ahead by 5. We lost again!!!
Situation 3. Not brushing to bury no
mater how far back the rock must go. They have hammer and we have no
upfront guards and no rocks in house to cut end down!
Lind's Law says, "Not behind "t"-line," so
the boys
would not -- brush to bury. The rock was left in the open for
an easy hit and stick and they took another 4.
Situation 4: Inter an end with intent
to steal.
They didn't get this wrong strategy from Linda and Ray but from
a local CCA approved coach. We consistently put guards up front for the
opposition. They were not centerline guards 10 inches above 12' on
centerline because the boys refused to recognize a decided fall in the
sheet. They stuck with their home club's curl of 3' each way when our ice
curled 18" up hill and 4'-6" down hill--a fall at both ends, every defensive
guard (the opposition had hammer) was placed for the other team's offense.
Needless to say, there were many ends of 3, 4, and 5 given up. We were annihilated
and yet we had much better skilled curlers in every
case!!!
These young athletes didn't recognize a
mistake when I mentioned one to them as a "mistake" because what
I called a strategy "mistake" they had been taught their
strategy as a "truth," -- a proper strategy, and refused to listen
my views.
To make a long story short, while these boys had a very
good delivery and could hit the broom about 50% within 3" error and
they DID NOT ARM BOOST the rock at release, they none-the-less will never
get out of a small club level -- skill level -- environment and will
probably give up eventually because of un-knowledgeable coach (sincere but
ignorant of realistic strategy) ! Even the CCA doesn't know better. Their
manual is not all wrong but wrong in what it leaves out and not all what
they teach.
MISTAKE:
When is a mistake a mistake? When it is recognized,
by the individual you are attempting to teach, as a mistake/error in judgment. A mistake can be the non-selection of the
best of several GOOD possibilities.
To select the best answer requires an open mind to new
ideas and true evaluation of real physics facts and percentage chance.
What has happened to most curlers who are not professional and curl at
less than 80%? They have memorized three strategies to their downfall.
1. Never let a rock stop past the
"T" line (Linda's Law).
2. Always throw up a center guard if you don't have the hammer.
3. Always try to steal without hammer.
4. With or without the hammer, split the house.
Let's talk about the "Center Guard" when we don't have hammer?
If you are not playing one of the 50 pro teams in Canada, you probably
shouldn't bother to place a center guard because your team probably doesn't
have the skill to execute a 10" guard and you certainly do not want
to put up a centerline guard more than 2' above the 12'. Why? Because the
team with hammer will have a 60% chance of using that guard, or any guard,
to their advantage which means you have a 40% chance of using the guard successfully.
You can expect MANY 3-5 enders against you if you place ANY guard out
front.
When should you place a
centerline guard -- long to steal?
Only when you are tied or down 1 and it is the last end coming
home and you must gamble on one or more to win or force another end!
So in other
words, what I am saying, "if you do not have pros in front of
you; almost, never put up a centerline or any out front guard but draw
into the top house. If your lead rock stops just out of the 12' by
10"then great. That is a pro shot. If it slips into the house OK and
in this situation -- in
front of the "T"-line very good so the opposition can't use your stone for
backing.
When you do not have hammer and do not have pro skills: Do
not use Linda and Ray's/CCA strategy to control the 4' but put it high in
the house and make the opposition non-pro team hit or put up a 8'guard
(like the pros) which leaves your rock. You will guard protect or
split/tap behind their guard.
This strategy will:
1. keep the score low.
2. Hope for an error from the
opposition non-pro
team and -- it will come. You must get a rock in the house to force
the opposition to take one and only one.
To inter a game not having hammer and deliberately setting a strategy
to steal is ludicrous unless it becomes a necessity and then only
expect a 30-% chance of success with novice players. If play develops to
steal, then good, go for it as long as you have rocks in the house to
minimize multiple hammer scoring.
In summary, if you regularly have teams scoring 3 or
more in an END against, I can assure you, you are using the Linda and Ray/CCA
strategy and you will never be a winner.
Without
hammer and not being pro shooters (80+% with brushing), the attempt to
"Control the 4' "is going to cause you major grief just as it
did for me while playing the first spiel as skip with seniors and then the
second open spiel as
lead with novice players -- who refused to learn because they had
memorized the "right" CCA way and figured I was dumber than a
sack of hammers --with no handles?
Split the house -- Should this "rule" be a law?
No darn way!
I played with some juniors at one of my 5 home clubs
and we lost miserably. Why? For one reason,
very poor skipping. The young people curled as good as the competition but
lost it through very bad strategy.
Besides, what we discussed above, the young skip wanted
to split the lead rocks. There is a situation where this would be a good
strategy -- if one rock was buried and we could bury another away without
the chance for a double hit takeout.
Splitting the house is a basic guide to divert the
opposition to the hit scenario with the hope to gain 2 points, but if your
down in score, you need 3 or more points you must bury, bury, bury.
