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Mixed doubles: A good way to practice or a new Olympic event?


By Ben Tucker, U.S. Curling News columnist, tuck@usacurl.org


Dave Garber. It appears that he has been promoted from Senior Columnist all the way up to Editor Emeritus. I don’t remember all of my high school Latin, but I believe “emeritus” translates to “too old to do the job anymore, but remembers too much crap to kick out of the office and he still has his keys.” Well, congratulations to Mr. Garber … but that is enough of my trying to


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be funny by teasing Dave. It is now time for me to try and be funny by teasing Jon Mielke. Tis issue of the U.S. Curling News includes an article announcing that Jon has been selected to enter the U.S. Curling Hall of Fame. (See story on Page 25.) I would love to take this opportunity to gush about how Jon has been great for the sport and what a nice guy he is … but that would be neither teasing nor funny and we have 12 long months to gush before he is honored at the Olympic Trials in Fargo. So, for now, let it suffice for me to say: Congrats, Jon. You’ve made the very most out of your average intelligence and sub-par looks. I can’t believe you made it to Te Hall. Take credit for raising great kids … even if your wife really did all the work. Stay off your roof until you get inducted. (Jon fell off his roof this summer and really got hurt … which I find hilarious … I’m not a nice person … but Jon is a really nice person and wicked smart.) But, that is enough teasing of my fellow columnists, even if I need to take


some cheap shots at Dave Jensen. It’s time to tackle this issue’s topic. Mixed doubles is a quirky new spin on our ancient sport. A few people like


it. I don’t know of anybody that loves it, yet. Many curlers hate it, particularly front-end players who take deep pride in their sweeping. Love it, like it or hate it … that is not important. What is important, however, is that mixed doubles is on track to become an Olympic discipline. Tat is a fact. Facts can be incon- venient. Tey tend to get in the way of my opinions. So, it will soon be time to get serious about this mixed doubles stuff. Maybe


it is high time we get serious about it. Serious? Tat would mean allocating some of our most rare commodities to mixed doubles: time and money. We would need to start paying for more of the teams’ expenses at the national and world levels and I’d hate to see that money come at the expense of current programs like juniors. We would need to start adding mixed doubles into our camps. Serious? Tat would mean allocating another scarce resource: Coaching.


We have too few coaches and no money to hire many more, but if we are get- ting serious we’ll need to add at least one coach for mixed doubles. Tere are too many unexplored questions. Te questions include different delivery fun- damentals (e.g., How much harm is done when the shooter pops up to sweep a rock too early and ruins the follow through? Should the person in the house be the sweeper to avoid this? Does it change on draws versus hits? Should the stronger sweeper always be the sweeper and the other teammate be in charge


id you notice the big change in the U.S. Curling News? I don’t mean the glossy pages and the new look, although “real maga- zine” look did impress me far more than I had anticipated. Nope. I mean the change in title for my evil arch nemesis,


of reading the ice?) Tere are strategic questions. (e.g., Is a corner guard ever a good call in this format? What score and what situations should the players switch positions because they can switch every end? Should you always take the hammer or are there situations when it is best to elect trying to get to the button first?) A lot of thought needs to be put into this twist on our game and then shared with the players. Tat’s called “Coaching.” So, which is Te Cart and which is Te Horse? Do we start getting seri-


ous about mixed doubles now, or do we wait until (if?) it gets Olympic medal status? I suspect we will have to wait and hope we don’t fall too far behind the rest of the world. Most of our top players are already investing lots of their time and money to their regular teams and helping to build the sport. Money cannot be taken from the elite program, junior programs nor (most impor- tantly) programs that expand curling in America because those are already underfunded. We have no extra coaches to spare. Still, the time has come to give this some extra thought and attention. Te time has come to pay attention to whatever the Swiss are doing to achieve their mixed doubles success on the world stage. Perhaps a good “first step” would be to encourage our competitive teams to use this format in some of their practices. It is a good way for four curlers to get in some rocks and some fun. Junior coaches should strongly con- sider using it for their teams. If mixed doubles is part of our future, it will be today’s juniors who will be playing it under the bright lights of the Olympics. One last thought about mixed doubles and, forgive me, it’s mostly a person-


al thought. Dean “Duck” Gemmell, like most of our better front-end players, has stated that he is not fond of this format. Yet, as a member of the reign- ing National Men's Championship team, he will be playing in the Continental Cup where they use this format. Duck might get to change his thinking while playing in front of the entire curling world. I find this hilarious. Should it come to pass, I would consider it the birth of a new phenomenon that I would call Kurling Karma.


For Te Good Of Te Game: Curling lost a great man this fall when Art Tallackson passed away. Art


skipped the 1970 men’s national champions, who went on to a top-four finish at Worlds. A neighbor and a friend, Art was a man that I really respected in all aspects of life. I don’t need to hog the back page of the U.S. Curling News. If you have some-


thing to say, write me about 500 words. Tat will leave me some space to agree or disagree. If Brady Clark wants to argue for a World Mixed Championship, he can get his thoughts to me and I can share my thoughts. Or you can type up your ideas. Te USCA is YOUR organization and this magazine belongs to YOU. I might not use everything sent to me or I may ask you to make some changes, but I’ll read every word. My thoughts and prayers go out to the east clubs and curlers recovering


from Sandy. It is my fervent hope that, by the time you are reading this, recov- ery is complete for your clubs and for your lives. – Ben Tucker (but my friends call me Tuck, and I think of all curlers as my


friends). n USA Curling (( 31


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