A Rock Solid Program

By Gail Cabana-Coldwell

Reprinted from Sweep Magazine, Feb. 8/2010

Enough watching the promos on curling broadcasts. Get yourself to a school gym and check this out Rocks & Rings in person. It could be the best investment you make in your curling instruction this year.

Last season, Chad McMullan, president of Rock Solid Productions, teamed up with Capital One, the Canadian Curling Association (CCA) and The Dominion to launch a new school-based, phys-ed program, aimed at getting young children hooked on curling. Initially, thirty Toronto elementary schools jumped onboard the Rocks & Rings express.

But now, one mere year later, the program, which is geared for kids from Grades 2 to 5, has been presented to countless schools in Vancouver, Halifax and Winnipeg. In fact, the demand for Rocks & Rings has been so intense since its Winnipeg launch last September that the program's head instructor Adam Norget has hired two co-instructors to accommodate all the schools that want sessions for their students.With only a few open dates between now and the end of the school year, Rocks & Rings/Winnipeg also broadened its mandate to include kindergarten-aged kids and schools within 250 km of the city.

Rocks & Rings takes the CCA's 'Getting Started in Curling' program to a whole new level. Gone are the days of using wool socks and dance wax to teach kids the curling delivery in the gym. Using unique floor curling equipment (check it out at www.kurling.ca), students experience an organized, high-energy, 20- 40-minute workshop on the basics of curling. Yes, they learn about sweeping, scoring, game lingo and rock throwing, using various relay and team-building games. At the end of their sessions, participants receive a Capital One Rocks & Rings certificate, info on getting involved in curling in their area and a fun tattoo transfer.

Having seen the program live at a Winnipeg elementary school earlier this month, there are many things I love about it. Up to seven classes or almost 200 students from one school can experience curling during the course of one day. Corporate sponsorship has kept the price tag at $150 per school, making it an affordable curriculum-based program. The Rocks & Rings team brings all the necessary gear: a pair of plastic targets or 'houses', 16 'rocks' on wheels, special brushes and all the fun and passion good instruction requires.

"One of the goals here is to get kids interested in curling, for real, on ice,'' says Norget, a competitive curler, currently completing a marketing degree at the University of Manitoba's I.H. Asper School of Business. "Clubs are struggling. Curlers are aging.

The sport's demographic is changing. Not only do we need to get kids involved in the sport, but we need to offer curling to children who might not normally get to see or experience it,'' he says.

"Children who've had gym instruction amaze themselves at how easily they can replicate curling skills on the ice", he adds.

Like any good instructor, Norget uses simple explanations and basic visual props to enhance the kids' understanding of things like brushing and scoring. Getting them to rub their hands together quickly, he likens that activity to a rapidly moving brush on the ice. The kids make the connection between heat, ice and rocks. Practicing sweeping on the gym floor is less about proper brush grip and technique than it is about having fun in a relaygame situation. A flipchart detailing game houses with yellow and blue magnetic 'rocks' is his tool of choice to show scoring once an end is finished. He starts with a simple house and present slightly more complex scenarios. And the kids 'get it'.