Kids learn to be rock stars on ice at FUN:)CURL
Parents looking for something to keep their young children active and entertained during Regina’s long winter months need look no further than the FUN:)CURL program, which teaches children aged five to eight the fundamentals of the sport of curling.
A weekly program spearheaded by CURLSASK, FUN:)CURL runs two sessions between October and March for a cost of $60 per session. “It’s starting them right at the beginning,” said Brandi Clarke, the president of Curl Regina and a FUN:)CURL instructor. “We just kind of teach them the basics and, even more so, the love of the game.”
The program is designed to ease children into the sport and build up the fundamental skills necessary for the game. “The big part of curling is your balance, so we do a lot of balance drills to get them with all their weight on their slider foot and getting their delivery down pat,” Clarke said. “I have a lot of additional props that I use on the ice, but, for the most part, it’s just getting them out on the slider.”
Full size, 44-pound rocks are used, so some of the games cen- tre around just teaching the children how to move their stones. “We do some stick curling so that they can get their rocks pushed down to the other end of the ice, and, at the Highland, we have rings in the middle of one of the sheets, so we play half sheets instead of full sheets,” said Clarke. “But you’d be surprised: some of those kids can push a long way.”
Fundamentals aside, however, the most important goal of the classes is simple enjoyment. “We just go out there and have fun,” Clarke said. “I’ve been told time and time again that they’re excited to come the next week.
“There’s really not much not to love about the sport, besides it’s cold out there, but I have yet to have kids complain that they’re cold. We try to keep them moving, try to keep them busy, so that, during the hour or hour and a half that we have with them, they’re focused and having fun out there. The love of the sport comes pretty much when we step out onto the ice. I think that anybody who gets a chance to throw a rock down a sheet of ice is all up for that.”
Once children have aged out of the FUN:)CURL program, they can continue to receive instruction through the Curl for Kids program until they are 13 and enjoy the sport through the Youth League until they are 14.
Clarke has found that that curling can help children to forge new friendships that may last a lifetime. “It’s a great social sport,” she said. “They can meet new friends. That’s one thing about the curling community: it’s always a big family, so, once you’re in, you’re in there forever
and everybody knows you.”
Consequently, curling encourages children to be aware of the effect that they have on others and to respect those around them. “It’s a gentleman’s sport, and that’s part of the ethics of curling: to respect everybody and everything out there,” said Clarke.
By teaching children to think about how they would like to position their rocks and anticipate their opponents’ throws, the game also fosters intellectual development and planning. “It’s like chess on ice, really,” said Clarke. “Not only is it a physical sport, but there’s a lot of strategy to the game as well. So, there’s lots of brain use as well.”
Perhaps most significantly for parents who have been following recent controversies around the lasting consequences of concussions, the potential for injury is quite low. “For the FUN:)CURL program, we do recommend that the kids do wear their helmets, but I think that, if you look back at the history of curling, the ratio of injuries are far less than any physical contact sport,” Clarke said. “We do train and teach how to fall properly on ice, and we’re constantly pushing safety, and what to do and not to do. We instill that in them pretty quick.”
Partly due to that high degree of safety, curling is a sport that can be enjoyed by virtually anyone, at any degree of fitness. “You don’t have to be athletic — anybody can curl — and it’s a sport you can do from age five until you’re 102 if you really want to,” said Clarke. “We never turn anybody away. We always want to teach anybody who wants to give it a try.”