What puts the curl in curling?

March 15, 2018 12:31 PM

It’s shuffleboard meets Swiffer ad. [But:] “It’s way harder than you think,” Mark Shegelski, a physicist at the University of Northern British Columbia, and a recreational curler, told me recently. “It’s like golf: it’s easy to watch a guy hit a golf ball, and you think, ‘This isn’t very athletic.’ And then you get out there yourself and find that it’s incredibly difficult.” Also incredibly difficult: understanding why curling stones curl the way they do, a problem that Shegelski has been chipping away at for two decades. ... What curling rocks do is so complicated that there’s got to be more than one thing going on. [SL NewYorker]
posted by RedOrGreen (11 comments total)

What puts the curl in curling?

The Stonecutters?

Also I don't know about "incredibly difficult" - beginners are bad but it's not that hard to be a decent curler. Being an olympic-level curler, well, sure, that's hard.
posted by GuyZero at 1:46 PM on March 15, 2018 [1 favorite]

Yeah, apparently even for us Canadians.



Sorry, yes I'm still bitter.
posted by cacofonie at 2:56 PM on March 15, 2018 [5 favorites]

This seems like one of those minor, quirky anomalies that over time slowly drives one insane.
posted by mrbula at 4:13 PM on March 15, 2018 [3 favorites]

physicists, you still have a lot of your own field to figure out, apparently! leave the pontification about other fields alone! no dessert until you’re done with your vegetables!
posted by vogon_poet at 7:37 PM on March 15, 2018 [1 favorite]

My wife and I are taking a curling lesson next month. I'll report back about how hard it is, for 2 middle aged Americans.
posted by COD at 7:43 PM on March 15, 2018 [2 favorites]

Yeah, apparently even for us Canadians.
Sorry, yes I'm still bitter.

Hang tight. We got this:

Ina Forrest closing in on 3rd straight Paralympic curling gold.
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 9:39 PM on March 15, 2018 [3 favorites]

At least I have a few more technical journals to subscribe to now.
posted by RolandOfEld at 10:21 PM on March 15, 2018

Mr.T has been tweeting about curling recently.
posted by jiroczech at 5:03 AM on March 16, 2018

Yeah, apparently even for us Canadians.

But not for Duluth, Minn.
posted by nathan_teske at 10:38 AM on March 16, 2018 [1 favorite]

"It’s like golf: it’s easy to watch a guy hit a golf ball, and you think, ‘This isn’t very athletic.’ And then you get out there yourself and find that it’s incredibly difficult."

Oh my god yes. Curling is a ridiculous workout. You are basically doing fucking lunges for minutes at a time. And then you change directions on your knees while still lunging to move the broom or whatever (I don't know, it's been five years since I went to open curling night) and jesus fuck my quads hated my life for like a week after curling.

I suggest reviewing classic curling position and having a belated realization at how built up their quads must be.
posted by librarylis at 7:38 PM on March 16, 2018

Herr Vortex and I took a curling class yesterday. We both did fairly well...neither of us fell on our faces or our butts, and we even got the stone to go where we wanted, for the most part.

This morning, however, my quads are KILLING me. And my upper arms, from all the sweeping. It's a helluva good workout, deserving of the pitcher of beer that usually follows.
posted by Elly Vortex at 5:09 PM on March 19, 2018 [2 favorites]