Experience

Curling, like golf, places a very heavy emphasis on "experience", the one aspect of preparation no coach can teach! You have to "get your nose blooded" from time-to-time (figuratively speaking of course) to really learn what works and what doesn't AND how to win. This post is not going to challenge that premise but I would like to make some comments about "experience".

Recently a coach contacted me citing an experience he had as a young civil engineer. He was charged with reviewing a construction project. When he did so, based upon his freshly minted engineering degree, he found the practices employed by the "experienced" construction crew somewhat wanting. When he questioned the project foreman (it was in the politically incorrect years) the foreman replied that they had been doing things that way for 20 years. In other words, he had 20 years experience. When our coach/engineer reported this to his superior he was told that the foreman really didn't have 20 years experience, he had one year's experience repeated 20 times.

How "experienced" are you? Are you doing the same things over and over again simply because that's the way you did them from the start? That's simply not good enough! If you're doing things the same way and are open to new modalities and find them inferior to the way you've been doing things, then you're OK on the experience front but never close your mind to new ideas. Give them an airing then make the decision to go with them, look for other ideas or stick with what appears to be working. If you're in a group/team environment, make sure you get the "take" of all the group members. You may not think a new idea is worthy but your teammates might see it quite differently.

If this is the first blog you've read on my site and find this topic of interest, I encourage you to read the post of July 5, 2012. And, your comments and thoughts are always welcome!