// TALES FROM SHEET NINE


The fine art of reading ice


By David Garber, Emeritus Editor, dj.garber@tds.net


has become a mantra. What if standard, uniform ice everywhere can actually reduce the challenge level for modern curlers? Perhaps we ought to seek skill ice, predictable ice, ergo consistent ice. If your club has consistent ice, in my opinion, you can be proud of your ice whether it’s 24/4 or not. Can ice be too standardized, too uniform,


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reducing an important aspect of curling’s chal- lenge and character—reading ice, and perhaps being too forgiving of some deliveries? (Te term ice in this article refers to rocks and ice — the combination of which manifests as ice speed and curl.) Consistency allows players’ skill to be paramount. Inconsistent ice, or extremely slow ice (whatever the cause) is random ice, which is a competitive equalizer, luck maximizing, and thus undesirable. Here’s a postulate: Consistent ice that varies


within a sheet and from sheet to sheet makes for a more challenging and interesting game, while keeping the emphasis on skill: a consistent release, good weight, good line. All else equal, a better team should beat an inferior team by a larger margin on un-uniform, but skill, ice. Make no mistake: do not tolerate dirt, frost,


drip bumps, mysterious pipe runs and falls, negative ice, overly straight or drastically swingy ice, which result in random results (like a freshly aerated green in golf). Te effective playing field and shot options shrink. If ice is too slow, it is less satisfying and advantages strength over skill (but see “fling,” below!). Back to the old days


In the old days (I was taught to curl in the


1960s), learning to read ice was a huge challenge. Ice varied more within the club and especially from club to club. We were lucky to have nearly 20 clubs within a three-hour drive, and enjoyed super leagues and bonspiels. Anticipating differ- ent ice was part of the fun: “Beware of the snake effect at that club’s sheet three,” or “Watch out as your rock enters the house on that sheet, because if you catch it wrong, the rock slides sideways!” Most of the worst inconsistencies from those


4 )) usacurl.org


n the past 20 years, the standard of cham- pionship ice that is 24 seconds fast, with four-feet of curl everywhere on the sheet,


days have long been fixed. Straight vs. swing


Consistent ice is a necessity for attaining skill


ice. Uniform 24/4 ice everywhere is not! To use examples: On straight ice, coming around to hide is


harder, hitting a hidden or partially hidden rock is tougher, and accurate soſt tap backs are easier. Run backs seem to be the same on either surface because on 24/4 ice, a fast shot stays very straight, and it’s easy to throw fast and maintain release and line control on 24-second ice. On swingy ice, it’s easier to hide (unless pes-


ky guards are in the arc), but harder to get ac- curate line for a tee weight raise. On swingy ice, “turning it in” even a little is fatal; conversely on straighter ice, better not have the slightest “flip.” Point is, neither four-feet of curl nor 18 inches of curl requires more skill, but ice that varies is more challenging to read. Define “fling”


Predictable, skill ice is fast enough so that an


average person does not have to “fling” the rock to make a back line takeout shot. Tis speed can be measured as about 22 seconds or more, timed from first hog to tee.” OK, you ask, what the heck does “fling” mean? Well, with apolo- gies to Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart and his 1964 quote about obscenity, “I know a fling when I see it.” In other words, to get the speed needed, you gotta throw the rock so hard you re- lease sooner than desired, and/or your control of your slide and release suffers. (However, accurate up-weight hits are a skill and can be perfected through practice — therefore, ice that is too fast can actually reduce that skill advantage.) Short side treatise on sweeping intuition and judging weight


In judging rock speed, I recall expert front


ends I’ve witnessed over the years who seemed to me to be just as effective as today’s stopwatch- dependent teams. For one thing, they watched the shooter intently through the entire release, by which time they knew full well whether sweep- ing was needed or not. For interval timing, they weren’t distracted by clicking their stopwatch, then immediately looking at it, sometimes losing a badly needed sweep stroke or two! Moreover, irregularities in the slide and release oſten reduce


the effectiveness of interval tim- ing. It would be very interesting to set up contests among teams of sweepers, some with stop watches, some without, to test this hy- pothesis. Having said that, timing the rock speed is a


helpful way to report initial ice speed to team mates in the first end or two, to keep up with speed changes during the game, and to test dif- ferent paths. Caution: this requires one or two expert teammates to time virtually every shot, keeping a mental map of the sheet. If they are good, their teammates will come to trust their judgment. But, remember another old curling adage: first end in a new club, a good lead should be able to inspect the ice and pebble, frost or no, how the ice reflects light, the air temperature, and get his weight right on the first shot. Debate, of course, is welcome. To express your disagreement, wire Paladin, San Francisco. n


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