Curling,Mr.P. and the Olympics

The Official Poster of the 2010 Winter Olympics

I'm learning more about curling than I probably really need to but when you watch with a man who was the former skip of a curling team you can't help but learn. Actually, I find the game fairly interesting and am trying to learn all the terms, so I talk the talk, or at least, listen to the talk. Mr.P. talks to the TV all the time during the games. He yells at the skip when they make poor strategic moves and he cheers for good rocks no matter what team throws them. I watched while the Danish women played against the US and he was totally into the strategy, not just because they were pretty good but the whole philosophy of not playing with family members. He once was first on a team on which his dad was skip and apparently they argued all the time. This is bad. As Mr.P. said, "When I was skip, no body argued with me."

So I'm watching the Danish women and he's tsk, tsking about how the skip (the younger sister) and her older sister, who is pregnant, are bad for the team because they argue strategy (this is all in Danish, so are we sure about that?) and how great the strategy and shots are that the skip is making, putting the rock right where it needs to be. I'm getting the full run down on this bad strategy making processes. I keep wondering is this about them being women(?), because one's pregnant(?). You know, Mr.P. can be a little old school at times. But no,it's not only for this team and siblings but also for the US men's team who are loosing. It's just bad form for the skip to not have his team "under control." So, what exactly does this tell us about Mr.P's concept of team work, hum? Really it's kind of fun to watch with your own private knowledgeable commentator.