"Maxie-mized" Training

Team Bond Girls have been pretty lucky to encounter a few guardian angels all across America who have taken them under their curling wings. One of which is Fred Maxie from Arizona. He has been one of our coaches following and advising us from the very beginning. We were honored with his presence in California last weekend as we spent some time practicing and drilling at the Orange County Curling Club. We took some extensive notes of curling strategies and training methods. I'd like to share a couple of our cool experiences here with you.

1) Between the Stones

Not sure what Fred calls it, but I'm giving it a quick and easy title. Fred lined up two stones parallel to each other with a space in between that was slightly bigger than a stone. It was located about a couple of feet away from the hack. Fred gave us a stationary broom to aim at that was either slightly right or left of the center line. He expected us to do a full delivery with a stone between the two stones without touching them. At first, it seemed like a really daunting task. The space is really, really small. And you have things like a broom sticking out, legs extended, etc. BUT if you do it right, you will perfectly deliver the stone without touching anything, and it's feels really great. This teaches you to draw back the stone without giving it a sideways motion. It helps focus you on your line. It keeps all the weight in the hack with shoulders square, and it makes you tweak your delivery until everything (rock, hips, leg) is one straight line. It's an awesome drill that all curlers should try.

2) The Short Game

At the end of our 1 1/2 hour practice, we played a short game. We split the team into groups of 2 (back end vs. front end, or random). We put all the stones right behind the hog line using only end of the sheet, and we "played" a game using different scenarios. For example: yellow team is down by 1, with the hammer in the 9th end. We could slide stones from anywhere behind the hogline as long as our foot doesn't cross the hogline. We had some really good lessons with strategy and working together as a team deliberating on the best shots. Fred would guide us with what the "normal" strategy would be at this point, and other options we could take depending on the situation. One important lesson we learned was that we have to know how to miss. Sometimes being too short or too long or hitting hard or too soft could affect the outcome of the game. This is something we have to keep in mind when making our shots. Overall The Short Game lesson was fast, easy, and fun.

So even though ice time is very limited for our "on-ice" training, Team Bond Girls had used each second to it's "Maxie-mum." We are so grateful for this experience, and it'll bring us one step closer to doing Hollywood Curling and Fred proud. See you on the ice!

Good curling!

-Domino