When should someone start curling?

The “Little Rocks” programs start as early as 5 years old for children, playing with curling rocks that are 20 pounds rather than the usual 44 pound curling rocks. I started curling when I was 11 years old and broke my arm in gymnastics so decided to play around on the curling ice with my parents.

What should someone do if they want to start curling?

Curling doesn’t require any expensive or fancy equipment to start with. All you need to do is go down to a curling club near you, wear stretchy pants and a warm top and clean running shoes, and the curling club should be able to equip you with a curling broom and a slider to put on your shoe. Many curling clubs hold “learn to curl” clinics in the fall to introduce new curlers to the wonderful sport!

What do you like most about curling?

Curling is a fantastic lifelong sport that accommodates players of all levels and abilities. Curling has an individual component where you have to perform your position, while including the great aspect of playing with your team members. Curling can be recreational and social, or it can be competitive. Curling requires physical abilities as well as strategic planning and mental toughness. Once you start curling you will know how complex and challenging and fun it is!

Curling is becoming more popular in Japan. How is the level of curling in Japan? How do you expect they will do on the world stage?

We have played against teams from Japan for many years and each season they continue to impress us. We first started playing against Team Japan in 1995 at the World Junior Championship, as well as the World Women’s Championship in 2006 & 2007. Team Japan has fantastic technical abilities and tremendous work ethic and dedication to the sport of curling. The Japanese curling teams are spending lots of time in Canada competing in numerous tournaments against the best teams in the world, and these experiences and challenges will make them better and better.

Our team won the Canadian Women’s Championship in 2007 and won the right to represent Canada at the World Championship in Aomori, Japan. We were treated to fantastic hospitality and were able to see first-hand how the curling teams in Japan are viewed as celebrities!

Our curling team has also represented Canada in the 2002 Karuizawa, Japan tournament which was a super experience for us, learning about the Japanese culture, meeting school children, introducing kids to the sport of curling, and having the children cheer us on during our curling games – we have fallen in love with Japan!

What are you future goals?

Our goal for our curling team is to win the Canadian Women’s Curling Championship, as well as earn the right to represent Canada in the 2014 Olympic Winter Games. We will work hard for the next few season with our sights set on these goals.