# Why is curling a young person's game? **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Created:** [February 20, 2014, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-curling-a-young-persons-game/681805 "2014-02-20T17:26:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2014, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-curling-a-young-persons-game/681805/1 "2014-02-20T17:26:23Z")
Why is curling a young person’s game? ISTM that it’s accuracy that matters more than fitness. Sure you need energy for the sweeping, but that’s in short bursts. ---
**Author:** ![Lukeinva](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lukeinva/32/17872_2.png) [@Lukeinva](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lukeinva)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2014, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-curling-a-young-persons-game/681805/2 "2014-02-20T17:34:58Z")
[It isn’t.](https://www.google.com/search?q=curling+for+all+ages&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=OzwGU8jALsa40AHY9IHgCQ&ved=0CAkQ_AUoAw&biw=1201&bih=837) Neither is golf, or hockey, or cross country skiing. But the young players are going to beat the geezers almost every time. ---
**Author:** ![doorhinge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a5b964/32.png) [@doorhinge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/doorhinge)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2014, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-curling-a-young-persons-game/681805/3 "2014-02-20T17:36:39Z")
Are you referring to the Olympic competition? Competition at that level is mostly a young person’s game. As I understand it, curling clubs are mostly made up of older participants. Not enough electronics and flashing lights to attract the younger audience. ---
**Author:** ![Bellhorn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/898d66/32.png) [@Bellhorn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bellhorn)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2014, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-curling-a-young-persons-game/681805/4 "2014-02-20T17:45:16Z")
> [@doorhinge](#): > > Are you referring to the Olympic competition? Competition at that level is mostly a young person’s game. As I understand it, curling clubs are mostly made up of older participants. Not enough electronics and flashing lights to attract the younger audience. Maybe curling should take a page from boxing and have scantily clad model hold up a card announcing each end. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Sitnam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Sitnam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sitnam)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2014, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-curling-a-young-persons-game/681805/5 "2014-02-20T17:49:28Z")
If there was one Olympic event you could do while holding a mug of beer or a cigar to your mouth its Curling. It’s too bad no one does, it’s not like that would be any more ridiculous than McDonalds sponsoring athletes. ---
**Author:** ![doorhinge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a5b964/32.png) [@doorhinge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/doorhinge)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2014, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-curling-a-young-persons-game/681805/6 "2014-02-20T18:29:34Z")
> [@Bellhorn](#): > > Maybe curling should take a page from boxing and have scantily clad model hold up a card announcing each end. 🙂 Olympic two-person beach volleyball competitions seem to attract a lot of attention from sports enthusiasts. Maybe going to a two-person curling team is the key. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Great\_Antibob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47c2d/32.png) [@Great\_Antibob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Great_Antibob)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2014, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-curling-a-young-persons-game/681805/7 "2014-02-20T18:33:05Z")
> [@Sitnam](#): > > If there was one Olympic event you could do while holding a mug of beer or a cigar to your mouth its Curling. It’s more or less shuffleboard or bocce on ice, right? Beer seems entirely appropriate. ---
**Author:** ![Bellhorn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/898d66/32.png) [@Bellhorn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bellhorn)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2014, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-curling-a-young-persons-game/681805/8 "2014-02-20T18:48:24Z")
> [@doorhinge](#): > > Olympic two-person beach volleyball competitions seem to attract a lot of attention from sports enthusiasts. Maybe going to a two-person curling team is the key. 😃 If the Swedish Bikini Team was any indication, then Sweden would win every women’s event they entered; the old-dude officials wouldn’t bother to measure but just eye ball it (and them). ---
**Author:** ![Bellhorn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/898d66/32.png) [@Bellhorn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bellhorn)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2014, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-curling-a-young-persons-game/681805/9 "2014-02-20T18:49:39Z")
> [@Great\_Antibob](#): > > It’s more or less shuffleboard or bocce on ice, right? Beer seems entirely appropriate. Nah, you spill too much when it’s your turn to sweep. That’s why I gave it up. ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2014, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-curling-a-young-persons-game/681805/10 "2014-02-20T20:49:30Z")
> [@Bellhorn](#): > > Maybe curling should take a page from boxing and have scantily clad model hold up a card announcing each end. 🙂 There was a competition in Las Vegas about a month ago called the Continental Cup. It was sort of like the Ryder Cup is for golf. Before some of the games, the teams were led onto the ice by showgirls. I think they’re trying to make it a yearly thing. > [@doorhinge](#): > > Olympic two-person beach volleyball competitions seem to attract a lot of attention from sports enthusiasts. Maybe going to a two-person curling team is the key. 😃 There is a form of curling called mixed doubles with two people on a team (obviously). It hasn’t really caught on at the top levels, yet. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2014, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-curling-a-young-persons-game/681805/11 "2014-02-20T21:05:58Z")
I know several forties-to-fifties-ish curlers. They seem to have fun. > [@Bellhorn](#): > > Nah, you spill too much when it’s your turn to sweep. That’s why I gave it up. I thought this was a civilized sport. Can’t you just hand your drink to a teammate? ---
**Author:** ![Freddy\_the\_Pig](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a587f6/32.png) [@Freddy\_the\_Pig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freddy_the_Pig)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2014, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-curling-a-young-persons-game/681805/12 "2014-02-21T20:59:39Z")
Curling is a young person’s game for the same reason that every sport is a young person’s game–after you pass your late twenties, your body begins to deteriorate in a thousand ways. Your vision starts to slip–especially your ability to change focus quickly to a different distance. Your eye-hand coordination starts to slip. Your muscle tone deteriorates, and you become more vulnerable more quickly to physical and mental fatigue. Practice becomes harder. Curling practice is more fatiguing than curling play. If you don’t believe me, come out and kick off the hack 50 times while throwing 50 rocks. Trust me, you’ll feel it. All of this adds up by the time you’ve taken a 12-hour flight and then curled nine pressure-packed ten-end games in six days. Your legs get a little weak, so you judge your kick-strength wrong, and bang, there goes your draw weight. Your mind wanders, because you’re burned out and tired, so you’re a second late in responding to your skip’s sweep call, and your teammate’s draw comes up six inches short–in Olympic play, a fatal error. All you get to offset against this is experience. For skips, who don’t have to sweep, that’s a big deal, so we see fortyish skips. For front end players, not quite so much, so most front-enders are in their 20’s and 30’s. No mystery, really. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2014, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-curling-a-young-persons-game/681805/13 "2014-02-21T21:12:21Z")
> [@doorhinge](#): > > Are you referring to the Olympic competition? Competition at that level is mostly a young person’s game. As I understand it, curling clubs are mostly made up of older participants. Not enough electronics and flashing lights to attract the younger audience. Lots of young people curl. But, logically, most people who curl will be older, because most people ARE older. The average Canadian is 41. Since you can curl - albeit not as well - well beyond that age, one would expect the average age to be high. ---
**Author:** ![Rysto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ecccb3/32.png) [@Rysto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rysto)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2014, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-curling-a-young-persons-game/681805/14 "2014-02-21T21:20:57Z")
The 2006 Olympic champions in men’s curling had a 50-year-old Russ Howard calling shots and shooting second. But that is very much the exception, not the rule, at the highest levels of curling. ---
**Author:** ![BrotherCadfael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@BrotherCadfael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrotherCadfael)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2014, 12:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-curling-a-young-persons-game/681805/15 "2014-02-22T00:15:11Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > I thought this was a civilized sport. Can’t you just hand your drink to a teammate? Certainly, and, under rare circumstances, there might still be something left when you got it back. ---
**Author:** ![Claverhouse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/13edae/32.png) [@Claverhouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Claverhouse)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2014, 12:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-curling-a-young-persons-game/681805/16 "2014-02-22T00:42:14Z")
The only curling I’ve seen in my life was in an episode of Corner Gas, where the adorable Officer Karen lost the Clavet Cup. No player seemed that young. ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2014, 5:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-curling-a-young-persons-game/681805/17 "2014-02-22T05:16:00Z")
Here are the skips of the last 10 Brier winning teams and their ages at the time: 2013 Brad Jacobs 27 2012 Glenn Howard 50 2011 Jeff Stoughton 48 2010 Kevin Koe 35 2009 Kevin Martin 43 2008 Kevin Martin 42 2007 Glenn Howard 45 2006 Jean-Michel Menard 30 2005 Randy Ferbey 46 2004 Mark Dacey 38 Average age: 40