We had a fun activity for a date night this evening! The Olympics inspired us to try curling! DFW has a curling club and they had an open house where you could go and try it out. They taught us the basics and let us try our hand at throwing a few "rocks".
As he watches his shot, Bryan yells "Hurry" and "Hard" to his sweepers.
Ok, just kidding. He's really just trying to keep his balance using his broom.
You can see our teacher helping us with some technique to the side. The rock weighs 42 pounds, and the sport gets its name from the way to try to spin and "curl" it to go the way you want. Sort of like trying to put topspin on a tennis ball. You are supposed to roll your hand over to make it go the way you want. I didn't worry about the spin so much...I was just trying not to fall down.
Here I am in "launch position". At this point I am supposed to be remembering to get my butt up, keep my sliding foot from going too far back, not put too much weight on the broom or the rock, and push myself forward really hard without falling down. Needless to say, it is tough. Oh, and the sexy bootie is not authentic footware for a curler. They ran out of the actual teflon coated sliders that you wear on your left foot, so they substituted with hospital booties with a strip of duct tape on the bottom. I'm actually glad...we didn't fall near as much as the neighboring groups who had the real sliders.
This was actually a decent throw. But, my right leg should be extended behind me. U.S. Olympic team 2014...here we come!
As he watches his shot, Bryan yells "Hurry" and "Hard" to his sweepers.
Ok, just kidding. He's really just trying to keep his balance using his broom. 
You can see our teacher helping us with some technique to the side. The rock weighs 42 pounds, and the sport gets its name from the way to try to spin and "curl" it to go the way you want. Sort of like trying to put topspin on a tennis ball. You are supposed to roll your hand over to make it go the way you want. I didn't worry about the spin so much...I was just trying not to fall down.
Here I am in "launch position". At this point I am supposed to be remembering to get my butt up, keep my sliding foot from going too far back, not put too much weight on the broom or the rock, and push myself forward really hard without falling down. Needless to say, it is tough. Oh, and the sexy bootie is not authentic footware for a curler. They ran out of the actual teflon coated sliders that you wear on your left foot, so they substituted with hospital booties with a strip of duct tape on the bottom. I'm actually glad...we didn't fall near as much as the neighboring groups who had the real sliders.
This was actually a decent throw. But, my right leg should be extended behind me. U.S. Olympic team 2014...here we come!
