There’s no ice, no rocks and not a broom in sight. Welcome to the off-season, Team Laycock-style. While most curlers are working on their golf game come summer time, the reigning Saskatchewan men’s champions are hitting the gym harder than ever before.
“We’re putting together a plan here this summer that I’m going to say no other team has ever done in the curling world,” third Kirk Muyres said. “The next three months is supremely important to kind of close some of the mental gaps we’re working on and even physical gaps.”
READ MORE: CrossFit is whipping 56-year-old man into the best shape of his life
To that end, every member of the team will spend several hours a week on strength and cardio training, as well as mental exercises.
“Pretty much every team we’re competing against is doing some sort of pretty intense physical training over the summer, so the key for us to differentiate ourselves is not only to match that level of effort but we also need to be more efficient,” skip Steve Laycock said.
Off-ice workouts have become the norm for the sport’s top teams and the Nutana Curling Club foursome is no different. Where they hope to gain an advantage on their rivals is by devoting extra time to individual bio-mechanics and alignment.
“The alignment of sliding at the hack, you’ve got to have the hips square, the shoulders square, so it’s important you have that when you’re doing every single exercise in the gym,” Laycock explained.
“If you’re letting your shoulders or your hips shift when you’re lifting weights, you’re obviously going to start doing that when you go to throw a rock, too.”
All the work is in service of the team’s primary goal: to qualify for and win the Canadian Olympic curling trials set for December 2017 in Ottawa.
“This next season’s definitely about starting to push that performance to the next level, so the ’16-’17 season is about getting a direct spot into the Olympic trials and that progression towards the ’17-’18 season where we absolutely need to be at our peak,” Laycock said.
Having a plan is one thing, executing it is another. But after enjoying its most consistent season to date the team believes it’s on the right track.
“The process is working better than we could have imagined and now we have to figure out that next layer to go and win those big events, because I know we can do it and we’re confident with the program that we have in place that it’s going to allow us to be that good,” Muyres said.
All of which makes this off-season Team Laycock’s most important one yet.