The Science of Curling: technical, physical and practical aspects, with special focus on the development of young athletes

Abstract

The following work deals with the topic Science of Curling – technical, physical and practical aspects, with special focus on the development of young athletes. Since summer 2022, I have been working as a head coach for Brazil, while at the same time educating two coaches Tatiani Tamy Garcia and Vinicius Oliveira Fraga in various aspects of Curling. The last few years I lived mainly in Switzerland, where I studied at Rodger Schmidt's Curling Academy and had conversations with several athletes, international Curling federations and experts in Curling technique, wheelchair Curling, youth development and physiology, which flowed into this research. I chose literature review and exploratory interviews as a research methodology. Also, a small experiment was conducted to study a possible correlation between heartbeat and delivery accuracy. As a sports teacher and coach, my focus was on youth development; I have tried to give an overview of the current situation in Curling. There are areas that must need improvement, which I would like to discuss in this book, taking into account the various issues. In addition to the basics of the five technical elements, I have striven to look at the technique of wheelchair Curling. In this work the following questions are posed as an introduction:

• What elements are essential in Curling and how can they be promoted?

• Overview of the technical elements of Curling and how they could be applied to wheelchair Curling?

• What could help a junior coach to take into account the sensitive phases of development when coaching a young player?

• What didactics and methods could be used in Curling to integrate the physiological elements into training, especially for junior players, for example as part of an inter-school Curling subject?

• What could the practical implementation steps look like and which elements should be paid attention to depending on the age?

• What could practical training units in different Curling categories look like?

• Are there any special concentration techniques that could increase attention and accuracy in Curling?

• What could specific physiological performance diagnostics for Curling look like?

• What is the significance of physiological training in today's active Curling scene and what does it look like in practice?

• What about further development, progress in knowledge and self-critical reflection in Curling?

General information: The graphics are generally labelled in English.

Abstrato

O trabalho seguinte trata do tópico A Ciência do Curling - aspectos técnicos, físicos e práticos com foco especial no desenvolvimento da juventude. Desde o verão de 2022, trabalho como técnico para o Brasil, ao mesmo tempo em que instrui os técnicos brasilieros Tatiani Tamy Garcia e Vinicius Oliveira Fraga em vários aspectos do Curling. Nos últimos anos vivi principalmente na Suíça, onde estudei na Rodger Schmidt's Curling Academy e tive conversas com vários atletas, federações internacionais de Curling e especialistas em técnica de Curling, Curling em cadeira de rodas, desenvolvimento juvenil e fisiologia, que fluiram para esta pesquisa. Escolhi a revisão de literatura e entrevistas exploratórias como metodologia de pesquisa. Além disso, foi realizada uma pequena experiência para estudar uma possível correlação entre o batimento cardíaco e a precisão do lançamento da pedra. Como professor e treinador, meu foco foi o desenvolvimento da juventude. Ao fazer isso, tentei dar uma visão geral da situação atual no Curling. Há áreas que precisam ser melhoradas, que eu gostaria de discutir neste livro, levando em conta os vários aspectos. Além do básico dos cinco elementos técnicos, tentei olhar para a técnica do Curling para cadeiras de rodas. Neste trabalho, as seguintes perguntas são apresentadas como introdução:

• Que elementos são essenciais no Curling e como podem ser promovidos?

• Visão geral dos elementos técnicos do Curling e como eles podem ser aplicados ao Curling em cadeira de rodas?

• O que poderia ajudar um treinador júnior a levar em conta as fases sensíveis do desvelo ao treinar um jovem jogador?

• Que didática e métodos poderiam ser usados no Curling para integrar os elementos físico-técnicos no treinamento, especialmente para jogadores juniores, por exemplo, como parte de uma disciplina interescolar de Curling?

• Como poderiam ser as etapas práticas de implementação e quais elementos se deve prestar atenção, dependendo da idade?

• Como poderiam ser as unidades práticas de treinamento em diferentes categorias de Curling?

• Existem técnicas de concentração que poderiam aumentar a atenção e a precisão no Curling?

• Como poderiam ser os diagnósticos específicos de desempenho fisiológico para o Curling?

• Qual é o significado do treinamento fisiológico no atual cenário ativo de Curling e como ele se apresenta na prática?

• E quanto ao desenvolvimento posterior, progresso no conhecimento e reflexão autocrítica no Curling?

Informações gerais: Os gráficos são geralmente etiquetados em inglês.

Abstrakt

Die folgende Arbeit beschäftigt sich mit dem Thema Wissenschaft des Curlings - technische, physische und praktische Aspekte, mit besonderem Augenmerk auf die Jugendförderung. Seit Sommer 2022 bin ich als Headcoach für Brasilien tätig, wobei ich parallel die Studenten Tatiani Tamy Garcia und Vinicius Oliveira Fraga in verschiedenen Bereichen des Curlings ausbilde. Die letzten Jahre lebte ich vorwiegend in der Schweiz, wo ich an der Curling Academy von Rodger Schmidt studierte und mit verschiedenen Athleten, internationalen Curlingverbänden und Experten aus den Bereichen Curlingtechnik, Rollstuhlcurling, Jugendförderung und Physiologie, Gespräche führte, die in diese Forschung eingeflossen sind. Als Methodik diente eine Literaturrecherche, explorative Interviews und ein Experiment, ob Pulsfrequenz und Zielgenauigkeit korrelieren. Als Lehrer und Coach, habe ich meinen Schwerpunkt auf die Jugendförderung gelegt. Dabei versuchte ich einen Überblick über die aktuelle Situation im Curlingsport zu geben. Es gibt verbesserungswürdige Bereiche, die ich anhand dieser Abhandlung unter Berücksichtigung verschiedener Aspekte erörtern möchte. Neben den Grundlagen der fünf technischen Elemente, habe ich versucht, mich im Bereich der Technik des Rollstuhl Curlings auseinanderzusetzen. In der vorliegenden Arbeit werden einleitend folgende Fragen gestellt:

• Welche Elemente sind im Curling essentiell und wie kann man diese fördern?

• Überblick der technischen Elemente des Curlings und wie könnte man diese auf das Rollstuhl Curling anwenden?

• Was könnte einem Nachwuchstrainer bei der Begleitung eines jungen Spielers helfen, die sensiblen Entwicklungsphasen zu berücksichtigen?

• Welche Didaktik und welche Methoden könnten im Curling angewandt werden, um die physiologischen Elemente in das Training zu integrieren, insbesondere für Nachwuchsspieler, zum Beispiel im Rahmen eines schulübergreifenden Curlingfachs?

• Wie können die praktischen Umsetzungsschritte aussehen und auf welche Elemente sollte je nach Alter geachtet werden?

• Wie könnten praktische Trainingseinheiten in verschieden Kategorien im Curling aussehen?

• Gibt es Konzentrationstechniken, welche die Aufmerksamkeit und die Zielgenauigkeit beim Curling steigern könnten?

• Wie könnte eine spezifische, physiologische Leistungsdiagnostik für Curling aussehen?

• Welchen Stellenwert hat das physiologische Training in der heutigen aktiven Curlingszene und wie sieht es in der Praxis aus?

• Wie sieht es mit der Weiterentwicklung, dem Erkenntnisfortschritt und einer selbstkritischen Reflexion im Curlingsport aus?

Allgemeine Information: Die Grafiken wurden in englischer Sprache beschriftet.

Image 5: This book was discerned with the support of Brazilian Ice Sports Federation.

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Table of Contents

0. Introduction/Foreword

0.1. First technical element: COBW

0.2. Second technical element: Control of energy

0.3. Third technical element: Stone position

0.4. Fourth technical element: Release and finish

0.5. Fifth technical element: Curling intellect

1. First physical element: Health

1.1. Mind, body, health

1.2. Health diagnostics

1.3. Healthy nutrition

1.4. Nutritional protocol

1.5. Basic health-promoting exercises

1.6. Fitness app

1.7. Fitness protocol

1.8. Sleep and regeneration

1.9. Meditation

2. Second physical element: Muscles

2.1. Etymology

2.2. Function of the muscles

2.3. Constitution and type

2.4. Relevant muscles for Curling

2.5. Example fitness session

3. Third physical element: Coordination

3.1. Coordinative skills

3.2. Balance

3.3. Orientation ability

3.4. Rhythm ability

3.5. Anticipation and adaptability

3.6. Bilateral skills

3.7. Sensory perception and sensitivity

4. Fourth physical element: Flexibility and mobility

4.1. Flexibility, mobility, agility

4.2. Mobilisation and warm up

4.3. Flexibility and sliding

4.4. Flexibility, sliding and visualisation

4.5. Static and dynamic stretching

4.6. Positive effects of stretching

5. Fifth physical element: Endurance and cardiovascular training

5.1. Positive factors of cardiovascular training

5.2. Pulse

5.3. Heart rate of a Curling player

5.4. Sweeping interval training scale

5.5. Aiming accuracy and pulse rate

5.6. Experiment

5.7. The principle of overcompensation

6. Performance diagnostics

7. Implementation and practical realisation

8. Planning a Curling lesson

8.1. Introduction: Communication and understanding

8.2. Warm-up: Activity level and injury prevention

8.3. Mainpart: The five elements of Curling

8.4. Funpart: Creativity and fun

8.5. Stretching: Flexibility of body and mind

9. Interviews

9.1. Silvana Tirinzoni

9.2. Rainer Kobler

9.3. Anna Sidorowa

9.4. Felix Eberhard

9.5. Tina Rickenbacher

9.6. Curdin Albertini

9.7. Beat Heer

9.8. Bruno Schmidbauer

9.9. Brian Chick

9.10. Tiago Gorgatti

9.11. Ruedi Graf

10. Coaching - an epistemological approach

11. Conclusion and special thanks

12. Afterword by Rodger Schmidt

13. Articles for training sessions

14. Sources: Writings and images

0. Introduction

For the sake of better readability, corresponding terms apply in principle to all genders. In Curling in particular, but also in the English language, there is hardly any gender-specific difference. In Curling it can be seen in mixed teams that the different genders should not be divisive but can complement one another well.

Curling is a sport that is evolving. It is one of the fastest growing winter sports. This is generally seen as beneficial for Curling. The worldwide development is enormous, as small nations want to participate in the Olympics and so the teams become more and more professional every year. It is no longer enough to train a few times on the ice and just play a couple of tournaments. As a team or coach, you have to keep up with the rising level and continue to set new standards to stay competitive internationally. If you want to win, you should be one or more steps ahead. But which steps are essential for this?

To be successful in Curling competitions, you have to work multidimensionally and must take a holistic approach to the sport. In other words, a good technique and a sense of direction and length are not enough.

Image 6: Olympic gold medalist Stefania Constantini - I was able to launch my published book in Sao Paulo and coincidentally having chosen a photo of Stefania at the beginning before her great Olympic success.

In the summer of 2022, I was appointed Brazilian head coach with the main task of professionally educating two Brazilian coaches, Tatiani Tamy Garcia and Vinicius Oliveira Fraga, in coaching, techniques, physiology and ice making. The President of the Brazilian Ice Sports Federation, Matheus Bacelo de Figueiredo asked me to write a Curling book on the procedures in Portuguese. Since I wanted to develop my book The Five Physiological Elements of Curling, which was only published in German in the year 2022 and to translate it into several languages. The technique of Curling should therefore be published in Portuguese. The techniques were to be explained in a short and simple way. However a serious language barrier occurred, as I do not speak Portuguese and by chance I met the university professor for linguistics Dr. Anthony Kozlowski during my stay in Sao Paulo and told him about my Curling book project. When I told him about my linguistic barrier and my plans for various translations, he kindly assured me of his support. This book deals with Rodger Schmidt's technical elements of Curling. I have tried to capture the most essential aspects so that future, new coaches can work with the technical elements. I also give inputs on wheelchair Curling.

The Rodger Schmidt Curling Academy has been working for many years to discover what determines excellent Curling technique and training. This book features the unique experience of five-time Olympic coach Rodger Schmidt. He has been a major force in the development of the sport of Curling. With decades of experience, he is considered by many to be the best Curling coach in the world. There is currently no Curling coach who has experienced more games on the coaching bench and no one who has participated in more Olympic Games than he has.

My goal in autumn of 2018 as junior national coach was to learn from Rodger – for me the world's best Curling coach. I wanted to learn what professional Curling training looks like. I also learned a lot about dealing with athletes, psychological and mental support (coaching), as well as planning and organisation in detail. Now, fives years later, I find myself in the position of passing on the knowledge I have acquired to future Curling coaches in Sao Paulo. Five years ago, I would not have thought that I would ever be in this position myself. I am happy that I can pass on my knowledge to such a unique and rather exotic country as is Brazil. Brazil is known for football and summer sports, so I am glad that this nation has become passionate about winter sports.

Brazil is primarily associated with the Amazon, the rainforest, beautiful girls and the world famous Copacabana beach. The fifth largest country in the world is divided into different climate zones. In the south of the country, temperatures can be very wintry. Even in the largest city in the southern hemisphere, Sao Paulo, where South America's only Curling rink is located, it can get quite chilly. Until recently, it was hard for me to imagine creating optimal ice conditions in such a country as Brazil. This is still one of the biggest challenges of the Brazilian Ice Sports Federation. Winter sports nations such asCanada and nothern countries, have always had natural ice surfaces where they have gained years of experience in terms of ice quality.

I was particularly privileged to benefit from the nomination of the world-famous Canadian Curling coach Rodger Schmidt as Austria's national coach. At that time, parallel to our team, he also coached the US team Shuster, which became Olympic champions a few years later. It was no coincidence that we got such a treasured Curling coach. It was thanks to Günther Hummelt who also made a significant contribution to Curling becoming an Olympic discipline. He had the best international contacts as World Curling President and at the same time as our federation head at the time. Günther Hummelt hired Rodger, one of the most experienced and professional coaches, who built up the team I was playing in at the time and promoted us to an international level. In 2007 I qualified for the national team and participated in the European Championships in Füssen, Germany. There was a real euphoria in my team and in our Curling club Traun (cc-traun.at). I was very happy to take part in a European Curling Championship and to have the opportunity to learn from Rodgers' know-how as an athlete. In addition, the Traun Curling Club received a lot of support from our neighbours in Switzerland. Some members of the Curling Club St. Gallen, especially Heidy Wallner, supported us to grow as a team to become more successful. They helped us train and provided ice, equipment and qualified coaches. I should also like to mention the help of the Canadian Federation in our early years, who assisted us with a very good coach, Brian Chick, who organised special training sessions for our team over many days in the state of Ontario. After my studies, I started as a sports teacher at the St. Johann Gymnasium and at the Kitzbühel Commercial Academy. In addition to my work as a sports teacher, I was commissioned as a junior national coach. Together with my brother Manuel, who already had some experience in the field of junior sports, we set up a nationwide project for our Curling federation. My main focus was on the connection between a school's participation in the Curling sport. My father, who is also a sports teacher and cycling coach, helped me get more involved with this topic. He asked me the same question over several years, why does Curling lack professionalism and why was there no targeted youth training in our national federation. He underlined the importance of a special coaching education and wanted to know how it could look like in terms of physiological training for Curling.

After a few intense but successful years, I wanted to develop further as a youth coach. In 2017, I completed a training course in youth and sport at the Swiss Curling Federationbefore deciding to complete a professional internship as a coach and ice maker at the Rodger Schmidt Curling Academy in Central Switzerland in 2018. It was a very special and educational time and I was able to learn a lot from Rodger. I realized that apart from the basics of Curling training, it takes a lot more to become an optimal Curling coach.

Image 7: Changchun University

One day Rodger came to me and asked me if I wanted to travel to China. Of course, I gladly accepted the offer. Rodger had received an invitation to present his concept of the five elements of Curling at Changchun University at the Beijing 2022 Olympic Conference. He was too busy at the time to make the long journey and asked me if I could on his behalf to give the presentation in the name of the first international Curling Academy. I felt deeply honoured and agreed. So there was nothing left for me to do but to deal intensively with Rodger's concept of the five elements of Curling. The preparation time was short, but I still tried to understand all the contents as well as possible so that I would transfer the knowledge as correctly as possible. Of course, I already had experience in training theory, anatomy or biomechanics through my studies as a sports teacher. To present a subject a specific presentation on the elements of Curling was a huge challenge. Primarily, it was important to understand Rodger's learning concept in general. For this purpose, he explained me in detail the five elements he used in the academy. From here I started my sports science research.

I consider this book as the final work of several years of Curling experience, my studies at various universities and the first international Curling academy. When Rodger saw my PowerPoint presentation for my lecture in China, he was impressed. When I arrived in China, I was greeted and welcomed most warmly. I went from Beijing to Changchun, the capital of Jilin province. There I got to know the university and had many interes-ting conversations with the professors. At the beginning of my lecture, I was assisted by a translator who had studied my subject in detail beforehand.

This ensured that the content was well understood by the audience. The congress was well organised and the atmosphere was unique and very impressive. I was able to have many conversations with top athletes from other sports. It was a great opportunity and as such I was looking forward to the upcoming 2022 Winter Games in China.

Image 8: Skip of the Chinese women's team and World Curling Champion Bingyu Wang | Richard Gray - WCF

I should like to allude that there is a special focus on youth development in this book. I think that the foundation of a sporting future of a federation is based on professional youth work. Günther Hummelt has always been concerned with promoting young talented, motivating children and young people for sport, especially for Curling. He also made a significant contribution as the sport became Olympic, it is thanks to him that numerous Curling players can call themselves Olympians. Most of the members of our Curling club in Traun were still very young at that time and some of them were still at school. Therefore, the generous support of Günther Hummelt, who was the World Curling President from 1990 to 2000, was of great value to us. My Curling team Traun have benefited a lot from Günther and I should like to thank him posthumously for his unique support.

After twenty years of my experience with Curling, I am proud to present the complete work The Science of Curling and a continuation of the five elements. I am grateful for the invitation of Changchun University and the