With the hefty response of the scandal topic, may I add a new thread and get myself shot. I am not a coach, I don't do coaching, I make no time for coaching (who would need me anyway!), but the problem is there. With the elite structure coaches have appeared to take the strain (and a little money sometimes), and for beginners there are many volunteers who give many freezing hours to teach new curlers the essentials. Those on the up but not yet elite are left to cope, somehow. The value of coaching can be more specific, though, because no coach can turn a fumbling hopeful into a well-coordinated athlete, or a slow thinker into an instinctive genius.

Where does this leave hopeful players with at least some talent, if the better coaches are too busy with the elite? As OTB says, get off your backside, get fit, practise, play weekends. And focus on what you need to learn first: line and length. These are the essential skills on which to base your game, without mastering these you will not progress so well.

Ice technicians are not valued in coaching circles, yet they watch endless stones to see if the ice is behaving as required. They learn to notice flaws in delivery, line, technique, release, you name it, because if the player is at fault the ice is not. Or, if the ice is excellent the player has a flaw. I have watched many players of national standard and world class deliver stones, and it is very easy to tell -- within two or three deliveries -- who has good technique, as it is easy to tell where a player has a flaw (believe me, at least half of them had serious trouble hitting the brush!). I knew my ice and how it would behave, the rest is easy to work out. Likewise there are players who do not coach top teams but have the knowledge and skill to teach individuals -- when Celia started curling she spent a few sessions with Judy Mackenzie and she quickly became one of the most consistent deliverers of a stone that I have ever seen -- she had to be, I used her skills to test my ice!

So there is value in looking beyond the conventional, and focus on one thing at a time, with the help of someone who understands that one thing very well.

I'd guess most clubs have 8-12 coaches who coach on a regular basis. They do a wondeful job covering many different types of players i.e. come and try, curling cool P6-7, secondary school curling, after school curling, adult beginner coaching, improver classes, over 50 clubs, wheel chair clubs, resouce centre the list is almost endless. There will be people coaching at different levels most days at most ice rinks. This is before we get to the most advanced regional junior squads.

There are a lot of people putting in many hours coaching which doesn't always get recognised by fellow curlers ..