A knee slide delivery for the sport of Curling

There are thousands of people with bad knees, bad backs, a poor sense of balance, or are too heavy to enjoy this great game of curling but they do not want to use the stick   What is holding them back?    Could the  Knee Slide ( K S) delivery help them?

First let's consider the mechanics of the standard curling delivery   The curler slides out with two means of support from one side of the body and no means from the other side   The right hander has his left leg and left arm from the left side for support but no support from the right side   To compensate, the curler must contort the sliding leg under them   This is fine for many people and they should not change   Indeed, the best curlers in the world use it   But this is where some have trouble    Using this delivery the sliding leg and knee must support about 60% on the curler's weight and their center of gravity is on a narrow base

The ideal delivery should have one means of support from each side of the body   In the case of the right hander this could mean sliding out with weight distributed on 1) the right knee, 2) the left arm on a broom flat on the ice, and 3) the tops of the trailing left toes   The left leg in the left hack provides the push-off power   Balance is perfect because the body center of gravity is not over a narrow base but is inside these three sliding points that make a wide base   Nothing is more stable than a center of gravity inside a wide base   Balance is now a non-issue   The human body is the launching platform for the rock and the more stable that body is, the better the chance of making the shot   An easy low center of gravity curling delivery is the result   Left handers place their right foot in the right hack

Using this delivery the sliding knee only has to support about 45% of the curler's weight
Why didn’t the delivery evolve this way?  The short answer is that previously we had slow ice   The standard delivery is a carryover from those slow ice days   Because of the slow ice the shooter had to swing the rock in order to get enough energy on it   But if the right handers had used their left leg for push-off power the swinging rock would have hit the right leg   As a consequence they put their right foot in the left hack   That is history   This ideal delivery is now possible because of improved ice conditions including deionized water   It enables fast ice and the no-lift delivery

We don't have slow ice anymore so maybe it is time to stop and consider the way we deliver a stone   This method meets the letter, the intent, and the spirit of the World Curling Federation, the Royal Caledonia Curling Club, and the United States Curling Association delivery rules   It gives the user no unfair advantage unless you consider perfect balance for everyone including heavy and less athletically gifted people to be an unfair advantage   That rule should  not  change
         
If this delivery is so good why has it not caught on?   The reason is that misled instructors say it may not be allowed in elite competitions by a shortsighted organization thus attaching a stigma to it   The unintended consequence is that many do not take part in this great game

Notice how the best curlers in the world get quite low while using the standard delivery   The lower they get the more stable they are but they do so with the drawback of a very contorted leg under them With the K S it is possible to get very low but without the contorted leg   We had several people check their eye level while stationary in a standard delivery position   The  average was 31 inches   It was 18 inches for knee slide position   Their eyes were 13 inches lower using the K S delivery

In the standard delivery some raise their hips for extra power but that perturbation comes at a price  That raising up and then settling down upsets the smoothness of the delivery   It would be good if you could just push off smoothly without that perturbation   That is what you get with the K S

Now for the mechanics   The right hander puts the slider on the right knee and places the left foot in the left hack for the case of dual hacks or in the single hack   ( Left handers put their right foot in the right hack or single hack)   The left arm is outside the left leg on the broom which is flat on the ice     Carefully select a broom that can lie flat and yet not scratch the ice   The right foot is on the top inside edge the hack foot   The body weight is centered over the hack foot and the rock is directly in front of the hack foot on line to the target broom   Since the sliding knee supports less weight, the arm must make up the difference   A straight arm has no problem with supporting that extra weight on a broom flat on the ice

As the rock is pushed off the left leg straightens, the right knee comes forward and down, and the left arm adds support on the horizontal broom   The curler slides out with weight supported by the right knee, left arm, and the tops of the trailing toes   You inherently get extra power for two reasons   First of all for the first split second you have two legs driving and then because you end up lower than the standard delivery the driving leg can stay driving for an additional split second longer

Knee sliders, after release, do not have to put their hand to the ice for stability  They have perfect balance without a rock   Many using the standard delivery will often drop their hand to the ice after release for balance   This indicates that the shooter may have been riding the rock for balance help   If so, the shooter did not have a feather-light release   A feather-light release requires the body to be perfectly balanced    Incidentally what is that warm hand doing to the pebble?    

You might be inclined to comment “Well if that is the only way they can curl I suppose it is alright for them”   But you could also say “Gee, if it is better for heavy people and athletically challenged people, it should be better for everybody including great athletes“   One additional benefit is that a person afraid of falling never has to go out on the ice with anything slippery on their feet

The shooter will not veer off line as long as the body stays centered over the hack foot at and during push off   This is critical   The body center of gravity must be over the hack foot at push off   The release is the same as the standard delivery

This slide is for all curlers but is especially easier than the standard delivery for big bodied people and those that are athletically challenged   If you know of someone that tried curling but did not like it, you could suggest that they consider the delivery noted in this blog and the referenced video

There will be those that object to showing it to new prospects thinking that “they will be corrupted forever”    Nonsense, if some feel they that they would do better with the standard delivery  they could just change to it

 Knee pads are sold by Brooms Up Curling Supplies, Steve’s Curling Supplies, and Dakota Curling Supplies   You can fashion one yourself by use of a athletic knee pad and some Teflon bought on line  Stabilizers should be considered an interim fix