Canada Comes Back, Hands of Stone Doesn't

The end of the line for Hands of Stone's playoff hopes unfortunately. We shook hands with our worthy opponents after 7. I forget what the exact score was (intentionally by the way), but we did have a chance. We were 3 down after 6, and were lying 4 . Unfortunately a misplaced guard by myself and a couple of takeouts later, it ended up being 4 the other way.

Rather than drag all the rocks back to their starting place, I took the opportunity to throw all 16 of them back to practice for my $25,000 shot Saturday. I had some time to reflect, and concluded my issues during the game (several of my misses cost us) were because I "forgot to not think". Last Sunday I was able to not focus on my technique. Tuesday it worked fine. Thursday I couldn't forget about it and it cost me. I think it was because I was matched against arguably the best player at the club. Face it, I was intimidated.

While it was crushing to lose, I can now after a few hours say what a great time we had this season. We made the "A" playoffs and beat an old nemesis. If someone would've said a year ago we would've done either of those things, I would've laughed.

Way to go Team Canada! Down 8-4 after 8 ends, they scored 3 in 9, stole 1 in 10 and 1 in 11. They now play Germany tonight, with the winer going to Saturday's semis. All the best!

Time to get some pregame sleep. I want to be rested for tonight's game and Saturday's throw and wind-up party.

Regards,
Steve