FORT WAYNE, Ind. (WANE) – It’s still chilly and throughout the pandemic, it has been challenging to find new activities to participate in. The Fort Wayne Curling Club offers a new “Friends and Family” event for you to learn and new sport to enjoy in a safe way.

The Fort Wayne Curling Club is the only curling club in the state of Indiana that is solely dedicated to curling. It offers leagues for curlers of all ages and abilities, Learn to Curl sessions, private events, corporate events and activities for those with special needs. 

The Fort Wayne Curling Club’s website offers advice for those who are intrigued and interested.

On the surface, curling seems as simple as shuffleboard on ice.  A granite rock, a sheet of ice, a target 120 feet away. Finish with your rocks closer to the target than your opponents’, and your team of four wins a game in which keen competition mixes with a wonderful social atmosphere.

But there is much more to it…..

  • The stones are deceptively easy to slide down the ice requiring a high amount of finesse and fine motor control to deliver the stones with the appropriate weight
  • The stones curl as they decelerate thanks to a “pebble” of frozen mist on the surface of the ice.  This pebble combined with the rotation placed on the stones by the players cause the stones to curl one direction or the other
  • Players must predict the amount of curl that the stone will take based upon the ice conditions (which may change over the course of the game) and the weight (strength of delivery)
  • Sweeping allows players to impact the length and direction (somewhat) of the stone’s delivery by making the stone go further and straighter
  • Sweeping, when done properly, is incredibly intense (think of wind sprints), raising the sweeper’s heart rates above 160 beats per minute.  Players must often quickly drop their heart rate down to their resting heart rate in order to make their next shot
  • Like chess, you need to be thinking several moves ahead, employing complex strategies, to outsmart your opponent
  • Like billiards, stones can be bounced off one another to meet your goals.  Understanding the physics of angles and the transfer of momentum are keys to the advanced game

Curling is a game of finesse, strategy, physics and can be intensely physical…..there’s a lot more to the game than shuffleboard on ice.