Social and super-fun, curling is a great activity for corporate team-building and/or seasonal office parties. You need not be experienced to have fun with curling. There are a number of ways to simplify things for groups made up of mostly beginners to make the learning process fun for all ability levels. This type of event is usually more about having fun and sharing a new experience rather than highly technical skills and high pressure competition.
When booking your event, if you’re not sure about something, don’t be afraid to ask for help from the curling club manager or pro where you’ll be curling. To get you started, here are some pointers and things to consider when planning your event.
1. Instruction and Safety – If your group has mostly beginners I highly recommend requesting a lesson with a safety talk with a qualified curling instructor inside to start, then with on-ice demonstrations and a chance to practice a bit before starting a game. Generally a quick lesson like this takes 30 – 45 minutes and greatly decreases the chance of injury to both the players and the ice surface.
If anyone feels unsafe or uncomfortable using the sliders (worn on the non-dominate foot in order to reduce friction with the ice when sliding out to throw a rock) please make it clear they are not mandatory and one can push out from the hack without a slider easily, the slide just won’t go very far. Again, fun is more important at an event like this than learning more detailed skills. If someone decides to take up curling regularly then I advise them to take the time and patience to get used to wearing a slider.
To ensure your group is prepared for the event you can email the document provided below entitled; Curling – Important Rules and Information. I would recommend sending it out when collecting numbers of participants, then again the day before the event so people remember to bring clean shoes. It’s no fun having to ask someone to sit out because their footwear is inappropriate.
2. Numbers and Teams– It’s important to know how many people will be coming to your event as it makes a huge difference in how your event can be organized. A game of curling can be played with a minimum of three people on each team. If you end up with a team of three the first three throwers play three rocks each and the last thrower on the team, the skip, throws the last two rocks. This works great for smaller companies and for evening out team numbers although, ideally, each team should be made up of four people.
If at all possible try to have one person on each team who has at least tried curling before. They needn’t be experts but having a little bit of prior knowledge on each team helps level the playing field and keeps the games moving along at a reasonable pace. It also makes things run a lot smoother if teams are assigned ahead of time.
If you have a larger group and want to have everyone on the ice at the same time and perhaps a short warm-up break part way through. You must have an even number of teams. Typically curling clubs have 6 – 8 sheets. Two teams play against each other on one sheet so if you have a very large company or you’re working with more teams than will fit on the ice at once you may want to work a rotation where each team gets a break to warm up and watch the others. You can ask at the club you book at for help working out a break rotation and draw.
I recommend playing two or four end games to make the event as social as possible. By shortening game duration you allow the participants a chance to socialize with a number of other teams.
3. Score Tracking – Keep in mind if you plan to give prizes to the winners, and you have everyone playing a series of three or four two to four end games, you will need a way to track the winner without using a traditional double or triple knock-out draw with finals as this eats up a lot more time and can be intimidating to beginners. I recommend using the score system document provided below titled Staff Curling Bonspiel. The sample document is set up for a group with four different teams but it can easily be modified to accommodate more.
To use the scoring system provided it is best to have one person in charge of tracking the score for everyone by having the players report their scores or you can post the score sheet and have everyone fill in their own scores after each game.
The score card provided (there are many variations of this way of scoring) works as follows: Teams earn five points for winning a game (record under the W-5 T-3 L-1 column)plus the points they scored during the game, these are called End Points on the score sheet. If a game ends in a tie both teams earn three points for tying plus the number of points they scored during the game. If a team loses a game they score one point for the loss plus any points they might have scored during the game. Once all the games have been played the points should be totalled, ranked, and prizes given accordingly. Ties can be broken with a draw to the button on ice if time allows, or a toss of a coin, or any other method you find works fairly and simply.
If you like you can add in other ways to earn extra points such as 2 extra points for making a double take-out or 2 points for the team with the highest or lowest combined age or years with the company. You could also have a trivia sheet worth points to work on while teams are inside warming up. The possibilities are endless; so be sure to have fun and be creative when planning.
4. Timing – You must also consider the length of the event. Typically two to three hours is more than enough time to get in a few shortened games and a lesson about safety and curling basics from a club instructor or manager. Allow half an hour to 45 minutes for the lesson and practice prior to starting the games.
For total on-ice duration I would not recommend going too much longer than 3 or 4 hours, including a lesson and a warm-up break; especially if your group is made up of mostly beginners. Curling may look easy enough on TV but it is quite physical and beginners often end up sore and tired quite quickly.
These are just a few ideas to get you started planning your corporate curling event. Remember to book ice and instruction with a curling club near you soon as the Christmas season fills up fast.
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