Pebbles to Boulders: Let’s talk about the Little Rockers

Let us talk about the grassroots of curling. In fact we are going to talk about the shortest, the youngest and sweetest grassroots we can have in curling. That’s right, were going to talk about the Little Rockers. Well you ask, what is with this ‘Pebbles to Boulders’ thing. I have to admit, it is a quirky title for a blog, but what the heck! Let’s have some fun… and that is exactly what Little Rocks is all about …. It’s all about having fun. If you’re not having fun, then you had better look in the mirror and change what you’re doing, cause Little Rocks is suppose to be fun! Besides that, ‘Pebbles to Boulders’ is a cute title, and I liked it. Pebbles to Boulders is also a backhanded way of looking at what curling clubs ought to be doing; making little curlers into big curlers. Little pebbles grow to be big boulders. I guess if we are to be proper about this, those pebbles should be growing to be rocks, but again, with a little play on words and with a funny look at curling, we are really throwing boulders down that sheet of curling ice. There it is again, that word ‘fun’! Here is what we are going to do! Over the course of the curling season, we are going to look at Little Rock curling development in as many ways as we can. We will be looking at Little Rock curling in the traditional sense. We’ll be looking at Little Rock curling with just a bit of non-sense, but that’ll be ‘fun’… there is that word again. We’ll be looking from the top and from the side of Little Rock curling. We might get on our hands and knees to take a peek from underneath. You might say, ‘we’ll leave no stone un-turned’… ha, ha! Now let us face it, Little Rocks have been around for over twenty years. There are curling clubs, which are highly developed and organized with their programs. There are also curling clubs, which have not yet taken the steps necessary to create a Little Rock program or maybe do not know what steps to take. It is the intention of this blog to assist to communicate about the many aspects of operating a curling program and to share ideas and resources about Little Rock curling. The means by which we are going to communicate is not perfect. What I mean is, each week we’ll highlight some part of the Little Rock curling. It may not be the topic of interest for you that week, but it could be of interest to someone in another part of the country. So, you’ll have to check in the next week to see what we’re going to talk about. As well, there is so much to talk about; it is going to be difficult to cover everything in a timely fashion. The important thing is, we are talking! So please be patience with us, as we walk down the Little Rock path of exploration together. Here is a snap shot of the topics that we can look forward to sharing…. On-ice organization, off-ice organization, basic instruction, entertainment, administration, club support, volunteerism, scheduling, finances, promotion, history, trial and error, do’s and don’ts, club best practice scenarios and many, many success stories. Oh, I just about forgot! And we’ll be talking about having fun, for everyone. See ya next week. Mort Cooper