Find your passion and have the discipline to pursue it.
Words of wisdom curling enthusiasts would be wise to take to heart from the guest-of-honour for Curling Day in Okotoks on Oct. 3, the face of the game and 2010 Olympic gold medallist Kevin Martin.
“For me, the first thing is get out here and have fun, but get out here as much as you can,” Martin said. “Bug your mom and dad to get you out to the rink and not just the curling rink either, all kinds of sports. I played every sport growing up and then you make your decision at 15, 16, 17 years old.
“And from a curling perspective find a university that has a strong curling program because that’s important.”
On an Oct. 3 spent at the Okotoks Curling Club coaching the Foothills youth the ins-and-outs of the roaring game, Martin reflected on his own start in curling as a seven-year-old in the village of Lougheed.
“What I loved about it early is the strategy part. I started skipping in the men’s when I was 12,” he said. “It’s tough to get a team when you’re 12. So my dad, and Brian Berg, a football kicker for the Saskatchewan Roughriders he threw second and an old fellow Francis Johnson was my lead.
“Now the kids have way more opportunities.”
From the introduction of age-specific leagues such as the Alberta Junior Curling Tour to the influx of collegiate curling opportunities across the nation, it’s a completely different landscape for those wanting to get into competitive curling.
“The discipline of trying to get good in a sport – putting enough hours in because of school, girlfriends, all the other stuff, if you put the time in it’s worth it,” Martin said. “Curling now, with it being such a big CIS sport, worldwide and college sport with the juveniles and the juniors and all the bonspiels… then you get past 25 and try and get into all the slams, it never used to be like that.
“There is definitely more avenues now, but there’s more competition.”
The recently retired Martin is no stranger to teaching the game he’s become synonymous with.
The 49-year-old has been involved with coaching since the early 1990s while his successful Kevin Martin Junior Curling Academy is well-established in Edmonton.
“The younger kids – just the energy they have. They’re so excited,” Martin said. “The best part is when you show the kids a certain technique and they try it and it works and their eyes just light up.”
On hand to announce Okotoks’ winning bid to host the 2016 Masters Grand Slam of Curling, the Foothills youth impressed the legendary skip.
“There is some good curlers here and we understand they’ve got some really good instruction and you can see that,” he said. “They’re quite advanced for their young age.
“From a curling standpoint, with the Grand Slam coming there are some players I got to play with on this (Okotoks) ice that will compete at the Grand Slam in a few years.
“That’s pretty cool.”
