Most spectators regard curling as a sort of sporting meditation in its own right, with the players gliding slowly and elegantly across the ice. Now Team GB’s competitors have embraced the practice in a bid to secure gold at next year’s Winter Olympics.
Eve Muirhead’s women’s team fell just short at the 2014 event in Russia, returning to Scotland from Sochi with bronze medals. It was the best performance since their fellow Scot Rhona Martin’s squad stormed to gold in 2002 and kindled a sporting love affair that regenerated the centuries-old game.
The female Team GB squad — all based in Scotland — and their male counterparts are hoping that meditation will give them the edge to reach the podium again when they take on their Swedish, Swiss and Canadian rivals in South Korea next February.
“The female Team GB squad — all based in Scotland — and their male counterparts are hoping that meditation will give them the edge to reach the podium again
They are being taught a condensed form of meditation, involving special breathing techniques entitled “three breaths”, to calm nerves during crucial performances as well as helping them to exclude negative thoughts. It is an extension of the sports psychology being employed widely across many sporting disciplines. Misha Botting, a former dancer with the Bolshoi Ballet who is now working as a sports psychologist, has been brought in to introduce the teams to mindfulness — a form of meditation that encourages users to focus on the present.
Russian-born Mr Botting claims that the technique has significantly improved consistency and swept away jitters. He said: “Curling involves a physical side, but it also involves a mental side. The players do everything from a physical point of view to align themselves with the stone and the target.
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“My job has been to teach them techniques which allow them to focus on the present, rather than thinking about a shot that didn’t work out in the last match. If your mind is jumping ahead, or thinking about the past, you put less specific effort into the present task.”
Britain’s elite curlers have been taught to focus on their breathing and visualise calming images before making crucial shots.
“My job has been to teach them techniques which allow them to focus on the present, rather than thinking about a shot that didn’t work out in the last matchMisha Botting, sports psychologist and former ballet dancer
Mr Botting, who is based in Glasgow and employed by Sportscotland, said: “The performance of the players has undoubtedly improved as a result of using these techniques. They focus more on their bread and butter skills rather than worrying about the possible consequences of what they are about to do.
“As well as becoming technically better and more consistent, they have also become calmer individuals. This greater calmness and consistency has had a positive ripple effect on everyone involved with the team.”
Mr Botting said: “Mindfulness is linked to eastern philosophy and a lot of the principles are borrowed from it. Team GB can definitely win curling medals in South Korea, but my job is to help them achieve optimum performance. Once they do that, and stop thinking about the wrong things at the wrong time, the opportunities are limitless.”
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The Royal Caledonian Curling Club, the sport’s international governing body, claims that the game was first played in Scotland — in the grounds of Paisley Abbey, Renfrewshire, in 1541. The sport was taken home by Dutch and Flemish merchants and is now played around the world.