Registered: Nov 2012
Location: Toronto
Posts: 621

Just spent three days at the Team Howard Curling Camp.

The short version of the experience is easily summed up.

Exceeded expectations.

The longer version:

Imagine if you will any sport star with the same record as Glenn Howard. E.g. Nadal, Messi,Messier, Nicklaus, take your pick. Say they're doing an event of some kind. In their case it would have to be corporate cause no one else can afford them. Now imagine you're invited. What will you get? An hour? And then they are outta-there. Your face time? A hello and a handshake if you're lucky.

Here's the Team Howard camp by contrast. You are on the ice at 10 a.m. as is Team Howard. After a couple of hours you get lunch and the players join a different table for every meal. Then back on the ice and ditto for dinner. My first instructor was Savill, and over the course of the camp I had an hour and a half session with each of them at least once. As well as drills and video with their coach Scott Taylor.

Now that's a full day. By the time dinner's over they've been with us for ten hours, amazingly they're just getting warmed up. Off we all go to the hospitality room and an open bar. Team Howard are obviously the stars of this weekend, and that would be the same if Team Jacobs or any other top team was doing the same thing.

What might not be true for any other team is that the Team Howard guys are also the life of the party. They are the chattiest, and funniest guys you could ever want to meet. They clearly are best friends and they needle and laugh in equal parts pretty much non-stop. In other words off the ice they are exactly like they are on the ice.

Going in I was pretty sure that this was one of those things that you do once, tick it off your bucket list and that's that. Now that I've been through one I can't imagine missing it next year.

The above mentioned elements are of course just the icing on the cake. Albeit a heck of a lot of icing:-) The core of the camp is expert coaching and instruction. For all levels of curler. Here again they exceeded my expectations.

If you love curling, don't mind having a drink or two too many, and are o.k. with laughing a lot. I highly recommend the Team Howard Camp.

P.S. You also get some pretty great swag. A nice curling jacket and golf shirt. Plus on the very last day after we got off the ice for the last time they had laid out Team Howard/Ontario/Canada Brier and World jerseys and shirts for anybody who wanted one.

Favorite moment: Around midnight in the hospitality lounge on both Friday and Saturday night Craig shouting out over the hubbub, "We just ordered pizza. Nobody leaves till the pizza gets here." :-)

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Registered: Nov 2012
Location: Toronto
Posts: 621

We had at least one session with every player. In John's session he took videos of our slide and talked about what was going on.

As to him on the team, if this weekend is any indication he is fitting in with these guys like he's known them half his life.....wait a second he has known these guys half his life....lol....

Seriously though John is a perfect fit in terms of temperament. He loves to joke, and keep it loose. Though he did admit that some adaptation was required. I.e. He told us a story about their first spiel together 'The Shorty Jenkins Classic'. In one of their first games against a team they really should beat they were down. On one of John's shot that was in his words, "Kinda important", Craig and Rich were bantering back and forth about some story or other while Johnny was shooting. Not to be outdone he said while sliding, "Don't let my shooting get in the way of your story."

Unfortunately I was too diverted by his story to remember to ask if he made the shot:-)

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Registered: Nov 2012
Location: Toronto
Posts: 621

Actually they won that game. They lost the Semi to Adam Casey.

This weekend by coincidence they will be at my club playing in the Stu Sells at High Park. It will be interesting to see if they can apply what I taught them......lol......

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Registered: Nov 2012
Location: Toronto
Posts: 621

The cost of the camp included accommodation at the Royal Brock Hotel right across the street from the University of Guelph campus. I had a lovely walk on the campus grounds Saturday morning. Quite a pretty walk with the leaves changing and some impressive old buildings. Sadly they didn't keep as many as they could have.

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Registered: Nov 2012
Location: Toronto
Posts: 621

I don't have exact numbers on who came from where.

I do know that there was a 'who came from the farthest' curler. I.e. Chilliwack, B.C. At least one other came from Quebec, the province not the city.

The group I was with all curl in Milton and so are only an hour from Guelph. I live in Toronto.

Another thing I can tell you is that the demographic was the same one that exists at my curling club. i.e. Over 40 for the most part, and caucasian, pretty much exclusively.

Both factors going some way to explain the diminishing share of the population that curling has as a participation rate.

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Registered: Nov 2012
Location: Toronto
Posts: 621

At the camp I also spent $385 (before tax)

For which I got 1 pair of shoes and 2 broom heads. (broom heads were $45, the shoes the rest)

They were admittedly the top of the line Balance Plus shoes.

Considering that I have been wearing my Dak's since 1995 I figured it was time to invest in a new pair.

Interestingly the Dak's cost me $350 before tax twenty years ago. So $350/20 = $17.50/year. I'd say I got my money's worth:-)

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Registered: Mar 2009
Location: Burlington
Posts: 638

This is my 4th time at the camp and I think it is great! It is nice to get instruction from the people that "do" as opposed to what you hear from most coaches!

The guys are great and the camp is excellent. I got rid of the leg drift thanks to Scott and the set that destroyed my hit practice with Glenn (actually I don't know where that set came from) but I'm glad to leave it behind for the start of this season.

As to the cost, for a 2.5 days including food, ice and instruction as well as drinks at night, it's a deal in my book!

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Registered: Mar 2009
Location: Burlington
Posts: 638

I think it would be tough for the guys to do that ML, not that it wouldn't be a great idea to have more people exposed to this level of training. They have a pretty tight curling schedule and their home life is precious, the little they have! Remember, most have full time jobs as well. It would be nice if more government money went to the players and less to the organizations. It just seems wrong to me that the top level players need to work a full time job and second rate managers in CCA and CAC have a paid gig!

Same for coaches at the camp like Maurice, Scott and the others at this camp which are a good step above the average and I suspect, in demand yet still have regular jobs.

Last edited by lolar3288 on 10-11-14 at 09:14AM

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