Joey Payeur
Ron Silver went looking for ways he could expand his coaching repertoire.
He most certainly found it in the form of a Canadian curling legend and one of the country’s best female curlers, both with Northwestern Ontario roots.
Silver, the Muskie boys’ coach and mixed co-coach, as well as the coach of rinks skipped by his son, Chris, at various amateur provincial championships in recent years, was chosen to participate in the “Quest for Gold Next Generation” coaching apprenticeship program back on Feb. 11.
It was held in conjunction with the Northern Ontario men’s provincial championship in Thunder Bay.
“It was offered to competitive coaches who are coaching provincial-calibre teams,” explained Silver, the president of the Fort Frances Curling Club who was one of five coaches selected to take part.
Leading the training program was Canada’s international men’s curling coach Rick Lang, who won five national championships as a player, including three Briers while playing third for Northern Ontario skips Bill Tetley and Al “The Iceman” Hackner.
After classroom sessions in the morning, Silver then got to watch a practice session for reigning and two-time defending provincial women’s champ Krista McCarville.
“We got to see how they run their drills, and Lang was sharing techniques about what they do and how they get ready for competitions,” Silver noted.
“I was quite thrilled,” he enthused. “It was a lot of fun and entertaining.
“They have a lot of knowledge and want to share it with you,” stressed Silver.
“Now they’re friends for life,” he added. “Rick said if I ever need help, he’s only an e-mail away.”
Consistency in how a player throws a rock was a big point of emphasis Silver picked up from both Lang and McCarville.
“They said this is something players should focus on from an early age because you don’t want them to pick up bad habits,” he remarked.
“You want everyone on the team throwing the rock exactly the same way with the same number of rotations going down the ice.
“They showed how they can make different things happen depending on the release of the rock where you can make it curl more or run straighter,” he noted.
Further classroom sessions maintained the importance of goal-setting–something Silver already implements on a regular basis.
“You want to make sure everyone on the team is on the same page,” he said.
“You talk about how you want so many more wins than last year, how many bonspiels you want to go, and where you’re going to place in those bonspiels,” he explained.
“They also stressed the importance to always encourage each other all the time, look for opportunities for positive reinforcement, and find ways for everyone to get along.”
