Curling: A Sport of Teamwork and Skill

16 February 2018

There’s much more to the sport of curling that sliding a rock down the ice. A team has to work together, strategize, and have a game plan. What looks like shuffleboard on ice is really a mental game of wits and skill.

If you’re a fan of the Olympics, you’ve probably seen the sport of curling. One member of the team slides a granite stone toward the target while two others sweep the ice to guide the stone’s trajectory. Another team member stands behind the target and calls out directions.

Curling requires more skill than you might think. To succeed you need balance, strength, and stamina: imagine vigorously sweeping the ice in a match that lasts three hours. And like a chess match, curling requires that you plan ahead to create a winning strategy. Very little luck is involved.

When you think about it, being successful at curling isn’t all that different from being successful in the workplace. To succeed at work, you need to have the right skills, mental focus, and teammates to help you out. Let’s take a closer look.

Those teammates with the brooms aren’t just out there sweeping away according to their own plan. They are working together to ensure the best results. When you’re setting goals at work, find people who are positive and will offer encouragement to help you along. And don’t forget to ask God for help. Be specific in your prayers. Ponder the skills or talents you should develop, and then ask for the strength and energy to accomplish your goals.

A basic curling strategy is to slide a stone near the target to make it difficult for your opponent to get into scoring position. This is known as throwing a guard. Sure, the ultimate goal is to score, but throwing a guard protects you from being knocked off your goal. Let’s say you want to learn a new skill that will help you improve at work. To learn this new skill, you’ll need to set aside a lot of reading time. You could set up guards by not allowing yourself TV or social media time until you’ve read two chapters. Once you have a strategy in place, it’s much easier to set up guards.

A takeout is a shot that is designed to take out the opposition so that you have a clear path for your next shot. As you progress toward your goals, something will probably go wrong. When you encounter adversity, you can turn to a takeout tactic. The best example of this is learning how to push past negative thoughts to see the positive. When confronted with a new challenge, many of us immediately think of the negative consequences. Imagine yourself sliding the rock toward that negative thought and knocking it out of the picture. Now you’ve made room for a positive attitude, and you can look for the best solution.

Turns out that in curling, like almost everything in life, there is more to it than meets the eye.