Pebbles to Boulders: Attention Please! Attention! Part 3

Whenever I mention to curling organizers about agendas, they immediately think about the extra work to prepare the information. While this is true, prepping agendas takes more time, but in the long run the use of agendas is a time saver. Here is why agendas are very handy…

• Keeps the whole group informed about what is going on and what is next.
• Provides direction to all helpers.
• Allows the program to stay on time or at least provide guidance for timing.
• Shows organization to parents.
• Allows you to know how many volunteers you need that day.
• Agendas are a volunteer recruitment aid, when you can approach someone to care for a detail or activity and hand them a piece of paper which explains the exercise clearly.
• Agendas can be posted or emailed to your helpers, prior to the curling day, so they can prepare.
• Agendas can be repeated at a later date and in subsequent years, making a good portion of season organization already completed.

Here is an example of an agenda used in week 3 of the season for the 6 to 8 year old group, incorporating drill stations for skill development. This is after 2 weeks of introductory curling for the new curlers. Our Little Rock curling sessions were prepared on a 60-minute program.

• Warm Up – Indoors and Outdoors – 10 minutes
• Stations:      Time: 10 minutes per station
  1. Long slide…. Assign each curler a coloured cup or marker. Place the cup at the side of the sheet at the point where they finished their slide. The curler will try to better their slide with each attempt.
  2. Draw…. The curler will attempt to complete a draw shot using the ½ sheet ice surface.
  3. Hit…. The curler will attempt to complete a take out using the ½ sheet ice surface.
  4. Towing…. The curler will take the completed slide position (finish slide position). The curler will hold onto the head of the instructor’s brush. The instructor will walk slowly backwards, towing the curler to the near hog-line.
  5. Slide for candy…. The bucket of candy will be placed on the centre line at a point that is appropriate for each curler. The curler will attempt a slide along the centre line towards the bucket. If the curler slides straight to the bucket and can reach into the bucket, they can have a candy. Remember at the end of your time, if a curler has not received a candy to give him/her some candy too.

Over the course of this series of blogs, I will share with you more agendas, which we successfully utilized. A full set of 19 weeks of agendas are included in the Tim Hortons Little Rock Resource Guide available from the Canadian Curling Association. Keep in mind, each agenda is different, for the purpose of keeping the attention of the Little Rockers and keeping curling FUN!