Women in Curling

Sean is joined by Elaine Dagg-Jackson, the Chair of Women in Curling, to talk about the initiative's re-brand. Formerly known as the Women in Curling Leaders' Circle, the re-brand has come with four new pillars that the group is focusing on to help foster greater women's representation at all levels of curling. More information - including on how to apply to be part of the executive council and committees - can be found here. The deadline for applications is November 17.

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How to Score a Game

In recent years, the guys have talked about how it seems like shooting percentages have been inflated, so today they talk about how percentages are calculated based on the instructions for scoring each individual shot. They discuss the Curling Canada guidelines for scoring a game and how that could be influencing the stats we see during broadcasts. Sean also scored a game using these guidelines and they discuss the difference between his score and the official stats from that game. You can find the Curling Canada instructions here.

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Biggest Differences Between Elite & Rec Level Strategies

This week the guys chat about the differences in the strategies you see on teevee compared to what is advisable in your regular leagues. What parts of strategy can you incorporate from the top levels and which ones should you leave the pros?

They also chat about the Pan Continental Curling Championship, which kicks off on Sunday, and the news that Curling Canada is still looking for a title sponsor for next year's Olympic Trials.

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A New Roster Trend?

The guys are back to talk about another week of bombshell news in the world of curling. They talk about Brendan Bottcher joining Team Gushue as second and what that will look like on the ice. They then chat about whether this is part of a larger trend in the sport and what that means for elite-level curling moving forward.

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What's the Value of Streaming & In-Season Lineup Changes

Sean and Scott chat about last weekend's Grand Slam before talking about the state of streaming in the world of curling, including the World Curling Federation's new season pass. They debate the value of streaming games and whether it's a good idea to keep all games behind a paywall. They then discuss a couple of big - and rare - in-season lineup changes for Teams Koe and Gushue and chat about what this trend could mean for the sport moving forward.

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Schedule Watch 2024

The 2024-25 season is underway and the guys are back with their annual look at how teams are setting up their schedules. They look at a couple of the top Canadian teams, some of the best international teams, and a couple of the 'middle class' and up-and-comers to see which events are being targeted and how teams are managing travel. They wrap up by talking about some of the early season results along with the other news from the world of curling (44:10).

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Women's Sports & Identity

Sean talks with Michelle J. Manno, author of Denied: Women, Sports, and the Contradiction of Identity. They talk about Michelle's personal experience with collegiate basketball, how personal identity mixes with team identity in sports, and how players navigate contested spaces. They also discuss how coaches police players' identities, the role of TItle IX, and how these issues exist across all women's sports. 

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Curling Trivia

Everyone loves a good trivia game, so this week Sean gives Scott some trivia questions related to the Scotties and Brier. Play along and see if you can beat Scott! If you do, be sure to let us know!

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We Sponsored a Team! How'd it go?

This week Sean talks with the skip of Team Davies, Zach Davies. You may remember that we sponsored a team for the 2023-24 season, so we wanted to catch up with everything that happened over the winter. Zach talks about the challenge of skipping his team while also playing front end for the Canadian Junior Men's team, how the team improved over the season, and some of the highlights they experienced along the way - including some surprising road trip music choices.

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Summer News Update

It's been a while since we caught up on all goings on around the world of curling, so this week we catch up with what's been happening. We talk the European C championships, some host city announcements for upcoming events, and the Canadian Wheelchair program selections. We also get into a report on recreational curling engagement from CurlON and finish the show with a special clip of what could Scott's big break.

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Behind the Scenes of the Canadian Junior Program

In 2021, Curling Canada announced that it was changing the timing of the Canadian Junior Curling Championship, allowing teams that win a full season to prepare for the world championship. That puts junior champions in a unique situation as they have access to resources that were not previously available to Canadian champions. This week, Adam Naugler, the lead for Team Johnson Tao, joined Sean to talk about the team's season as the Canadian junior champions. He talks about the challenge of balancing curling and school, the pressure of the Junior B championship to qualify for the world juniors, the resources available to them from Curling Canada, and the state of junior curling in Canada.

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2024 Curling Commercial Rankings

For the first time in a couple years, we were gifted with some new curling commercials for the 2024 Season of Champions! And as we love to do with a new batch of ads, we’re here to rank them. From agricultural products to Curling Canada promotions, there is a lot to discuss this year. What do you think of our rankings? Did we miss any ads this year?

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Brier Recap & Women's Worlds Preview

In the midst of the very busy Season of Champions, we're back to recap the week that was at the Brier and look ahead to the Women's World Curling Championship. We start by recapping the Brier, including Gushue's run of dominance, a great week for Saskatchewan, and some of the best stand out performances of the week. At 31:05 we look ahead to the Women's Worlds by previewing all 13 teams in the field, including Silvana Tirinzoni going for her 5th consecutive title. We wrap the show by talking about our attempt to watch curling at Montana's during the Brier.

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Biggest Brier Preview

The Season of Champions is in full swing withe the first ever Montana's Brier set to kick off on Friday. We talk about the format, the storylines, and all 18 teams heading to Regina before making our picks for who will stand tall at the end of the week.

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Scotties Recap: Passing the Torch

We join you nearly live from the Ottawa Curling Club, home of Team Homan, to talk about an action packed week at the Scotties. From Rachel Homan capturing her fourth title to Kerri Einarson's remarkable streak coming to an end to the retirement of Jennifer Jones, there was a lot going on in Calgary and we try to cover it all.

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Super Scotties Preview

It's our favourite event of the year, the Scotties Tournament of Hearts. To get you set for the week, we give our full preview, including the new playoff format, new rules, and the biggest storylines of the week. We also preview all 18 teams in the field, the expectations for each, and give our picks for how things will stack up at the end of the week. But before all that, we give our initial reactions to the news that this year will be Jennifer Jones' last Scotties as she steps away from the 4-person game.

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Best Active Rivalries

In the midst of the Season of Champions, we take a break from the on-ice results to discuss some of the best matchups that we're looking forward to seeing over the next few months. From cross Canada competition to international matchups, we go across the globe to identify some of the best active rivalries around the curling world.

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Cross Country Checkup

The Scotties field is set! The Brier field is taking shape! This week we go coast to coast to coast to discuss all the goings on in the provincial playdowns over the past couple of weeks! From first time champs to returning veterans, we discuss the teams that are moving on and how they got there.

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Provincial Playdown Excitement!

It's provincial and territorial playdown season across Canada, so we go coast to coast to coast to discuss some of the biggest storylines we're looking forward to following. From deep fields to up and coming teams to the CTRS points, we talk about what will be a fun few weeks as the Scotties and Brier fields are rounded out.

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*recorded Wednesday January 17

Bold Predictions for 2024!

In another one of our favourite annual traditions, we offer up some bold predictions for 2024! From who will win to big event changes, we offer up some thoughts on what could transpire in the world of curling over the next 12 months. We then wrap up with a couple great emails we received over the holidays!

Do you like our predictions? What do you foresee for the year? 

For more, visit us at GameofStonesPod.com