The Science of Curling (eBook)

technical, physical and practical aspects, with special focus on the development of young athletes

Boris Seidl (Autor)

eBook Download: EPUB

2024 | 1. Auflage
294 Seiten
Books on Demand (Verlag)
9783758335815 (ISBN)

Infos

Boris Seidl is a sports teacher and international Curling coach. His book deals with the Science of Curling - technical, physical and practical aspects, with a special focus on youth development. Since summer of 2022, he has been working as a national Curling coach for Brazil, where he has also educated two coaches and ice makers in Sao Paulo. In his new book, he has also included aspects of Wheelchair Curling. The methodology consisted of a literature review, exploratory interviews and an experiment to determine whether pulse rate and accuracy correlate. As a teacher and coach, he focused on youth development. He tried to give an overview of the current situation in Curling. This publication illustrates the potential for improvement, taking into account the sport motor aspects. This book is suitable for coaches, clubs, associations and athletes who want to improve in Curling as a competitive sport.

Boris Seidl has been active in Curling for over twenty years. He is a certified sports teacher, international coach and ice maker for Curling. Through his teaching activities, he has gained experience in the field of school and youth sports. He has worked for several years with Rodger Schmidt at the Curling Academy in Switzerland, where he has collected valuable knowledge and experience in the field of elite sport. In his opinion, top performance in Curling is only possible through the targeted promotion of young talents, preferably in cooperation with schools.

Textauszug

0.5. Technical Element 5 – Control of Head: Curling Intellect

Key Principles to Element 5

1. Build your ability to Know the shot

2. Build your ability to Feel the shot

3. Build your ability to Finish the shot 6

Certainly the most important element in Rodger's book is the Curling intellect. The intellect includes all the other technical areas mentioned earlier. An intelligent player is athletically more mature, professional and balanced. However, the question is what intelligence is in the general sense. Perhaps intelligent people are more immature, unprofessional and unbalanced in certain areas. Certainly, intelligent people can be unpleasant for people with entrenched opinions. In the past, intelligent people were sometimes marginalised or even imprisoned (think of Nicolaus Copernicus or Galileo Galilei). Even today, many intelligent people cause trouble for other people with their knowledge, for example, when they ask certain unpleasant questions or hold unconventional opinions. Some intelligent children are prone to behavioural problems because they are underchallenged in class. Intelligence is a profound word, a phenomenon that leaves an extremely wide scope for interpretation. Are humans intelligent at all?

Image 44: Will robots be playing Curling against each other in the future? Who knows?

The human being is at least intelligent enough to have the ability to extinguish itself. Stephen Hawking said: “Unlike our intellect, computers double their power every 18 months. Therefore, the danger is real that they will develop intelligence and take over the world.”

It is amazing that man's intelligence has reached so far that he has been able to program computers and machines that are ultimately superior to himself. In the coming years, artificial intelligence will determine our lives. The question is where the capacity of humans lies compared to computers or robots. One special feature is certainly that humans themselves invented or developed artificial intelligence, robots or computer programs.

A robot called Curly, which uses so-called deep reinforcement learning, makes progress by correcting its own mistakes. In three out of four Curling matches, it came out on top against a highly-funded South Korean team. Amazingly, the KI system demonstrated its ability to adapt to changing conditions on the ice.7

Image 45: Curly robot developed by a university in Korea

In my philosophy studies, a certain extraordinary professor once said: “Whether intelligence exists at all or whether it is just an idea of man. Intelligence falls into the category of metaphysical terms and is a word that requires a mental conception.” Consequently, every human being has an intensional different idea of what intelligence actually is. On the extensional level, we can communicate with and about this word. Lao Tzu simply claimed: “To perceive things is the seed of intelligence.” One possibility, therefore, would be to replace the word intelligence with experience. Staying with the fifth element, Curling intellect, intelligence needs to be defined specifically for Curling. Perhaps Curling intelligence could be summarized as knowing what you are doing. Or knowing what to do in a given game situation.

Simply worded for Curling: The more Curling experience, the smarter. If this experience is already gained in childhood, then this is certainly a great advantage. It is about individual game situations and sporting moments with different players, in differentiated conditions. There never will be absolutely the same game moment or the same ice. Every game develops differently, so a wealth of experience is necessary to get to the top in Curling. It is primarily about playing, technical and tactical experience. In my personal opinion, it is also about social experiences, which above all characterise our Curling personality. As is well known, there is social intelligence in addition to cognitive intelligence. In the Curling scene, the social guideline of the Spirit of Curling is particularly upheld. But what does this code of ethics look like in practice? Is the Curling clientele really that social and so moral? In this context, the quote by Hermann Hesse spontaneously comes to mind: “Only the thinking we live has value.”8

On the social intelligence point, I think that as a coach you should, for example, ask your players how they see themselves. In a specific training session, the players could write a Curling CV, for example. As a coach, it is very important to learn as much as possible about each player's Curling past. Sport and life shape a personality and also shape a player. If the coach might get some personal information, then it will be much easier for the coach to understand the athletes better and be more empathetic towards them. I find the idea of a Curling CV very suitable to transition to the field of wheelchair Curling.

Image 46: The personal conversation with the athlete to get to know his personality is just as important as the technique training itself. The photo shows Joao Barelli with the Italian Olympic champion Stefania Constantini during the training session in Brazil in August 2022.

Input Wheelchair Curling:

It is an absolute necessity to request a CV of the disabled athletes. Or at least to find out as many details of their individual stories as possible in a personal conversation. The coach has to get precise information, especially about the individual determination personally and independently. These physically disadvantaged persons have to struggle a lot with everyday life and usually have to live on very little money. For the coach, it is a privilege to be able to experience their individual stories.

The coach should write down the individual details of the players in a small notebook, preferably after the conversation. Respect for the wheelchair curlers must be extremely high. In this particular area of sport, I would definitely put social intelligence above cognitive or even Curling intelligence. You have to keep in mind that for these people, sport is like an anchor that gives them great hope.

Image 47: Tiago Gorgatti is a very experienced coach in disability sports. On the photo the winning team of the Brazilian Curling Wheelchair Championship 2022 with Maria Liduina Patricio de Souza, Glauber Marcos Oliveira Santos, Yezza Santos Sousa and Andre Gomes de Campos.

Image 48: Supporting each other is an essential prerequisite for success. The empathy as a coach with the players is very important. Vini is an exeptional qualified Curling coach and has always taken perfect care of each athlete. In the photo you can see Claudio Portilho Magalhaes and Geronimo Carlos Gabriel during the stone delivery.

Handicapped people certainly struggle mentally and emotionally as they may feel excluded or maybe even not needed. The sport gives them hope again to find meaning in life and to be appreciated. Whether it is wheelchair or standard Curling, I should like to add a practical tip on the topic of Curling - intelligence, that every coach should have a notebook or digital notebook where they should write down improvements, ideas or interesting things regarding the training. It should serve as a personal development tool.

Image 49: The first Brazilian Wheelchair Curling Championship took place in December 2022. Congratulations to all participants and all medal winners!

Besides the development in the social area, I consider the technical development in the area of equipment for disabled Curling as highly precious. I was very impressed by the idealism of GTX Curling and I hope that the status and development of disabled Curling, including Deaf Curling, will progress.

Image 50: GTX Curling tool makes life easier.

The Five Physiological Elements of Curling

Image 51: Five physiological elements of Curling

1. Health

2. Muscle Mass

3. Coordination

4. Flexibility and Mobility

5. Endurance and Cardiovascular training

With the simplified diagram, it is easy to remember the five physiological elements of Curling. Before explaining the five elements in detail, there are some general questions:

• What physical training makes a curler a top athlete?

• What general physical training is suitable for women, men, juniors, seniors or handicapped athletes?

• Is physiological training generally important for Curling?

• What role do age and gender play in Curling?

• Are there any advantages or disadvantages in Curling due to body type?

Who is a top athlete?

Is physiological training necessary in Curling if you do not necessarily need the figure of a bodybuilder to become an Olympic champion? What does a top Curling athlete look like? Is there even a perfect body type for a curler? Is it possible, for example, to be overweight and still become an Olympic champion? Does age matter?

Image 52: Rodger Schmidt

A well-known method for determining the optimal body weight is the body mass index (BMI). BMI calculates the most suitable body weight of an athlete in relation to his height. According to this method, the most suitable body for an athlete can be calculated...

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 6.12.2024
• Reihe/Serie: A Ciência do Curling
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Sachbuch/Ratgeber ► Sport ► Ski- / Wintersport
• Schlagworte: Boris Seidl • Curling • Curling Academy • Curling Coach • Science of Curling
• ISBN-13: 9783758335815 / 9783758335815