Curling Secrets: How to Think and Play Like a Pro.

Liz Dennett is a public service librarian in the Science and Technology
Library at the University of Alberta.

Six-time Canadian champion and two-time world champion curler Colleen Jones shares her advice and passion for the game in this practical volume. Colleen advocates the importance of focused practices (and lots of them), mastering your slide, and keeping fit with strength training and yoga. Teamwork and team chemistry and cooperation are essential to success. She also emphasizes the mental part of the game and recommends using a sports psychologist to help curlers focus on staying positive and in the moment. Colleen’s three teammates provide specific recommendations for playing lead, second, and third, and Colleen offers tips on being a good skip. The last section of the book is on strategy. Likely scenarios are described, and Colleen then leads the reader through the available options. In addition to her own advice, Colleen relays advice on different aspects of the game from many other well-known elite curlers.

The book is full of sidebars called “Colleen’s Secrets.” They offer tips, reminiscences, or explanations on the finer points of curling. While the book claims to be geared for beginners in addition to experienced players, it is not the gentlest introduction to curling. There is only a short explanation of the basics of the game and it is full of curling jargon. However, for the determined beginner, there is a useful glossary at the back of the book. With Colleen’s celebrity and curling’s popularity in Canada, this is a book that no public library should be without.