How one coach is rethinking curling’s starting line

Leslie Anne Walsh has coached youth, wheelchair curlers, and newcomers of all ages. But the group she meets with every Sunday might be the most surprising: 40 women, most of whom had never touched a curling rock until recently.

The program is called Women on the Rock, and it’s part skills clinic, part social experiment. Launched in 2022 out of St. John’s, N.L., the initiative creates a women-only space for beginners to learn curling from scratch — at their own pace, without judgment. Walsh’s approach is grounded in technical development, but its impact reaches further: building confidence, connection, and an entirely new entry point into a sport that has long relied on generational ties.

Walsh launched Women on the Rock in 2022 after noticing a gap. She had run a youth program called Girls Rock, and often saw mothers sitting in the lobby while their kids curled. She wondered: what if the women went on the ice, too?

That first trial — a wine-and-cheese-themed “give it a go” night — drew more than 30 participants. Now, Walsh runs two eight-week sessions each season, with up to 44 women and a team of around 15 volunteers on the ice each Sunday at the RE/MAX Centre’s St. John’s Curling Club. The women range in age from their 20s to their 70s. Most had never curled before.

This isn’t a league. There are no formal games, no standings. Walsh sets up skill-building stations — string drills, speed traps, technical progressions — and rotates participants through, tailoring instruction to individual comfort levels. Some start with stabilizers, others with sticks. The point isn’t competition. It’s growth.

“Everybody supports everybody,” Walsh said. “If somebody slides a little farther, people cheer. If someone’s nervous, we walk with them. There’s no judgment.

Walsh’s sessions look nothing like a standard curling clinic. There are no crash courses or quick games. Instead, the focus is on building confidence through gradual, consistent technical instruction — often beginning with a stabilizer or stick, and only transitioning to a broom when the curler is ready.

That slow build is intentional. “A lot of people join leagues without ever getting the technical base,” Walsh said. “They’re just thrown in. This is different — we stay basic, and they get better.”

To encourage comfort and reduce injury risk, Walsh also encourages head protection and repurposes donated curling shoes to get beginners out of basic sliders as quickly as possible. The goal is progression — but only when it feels right. One participant spent three weeks simply walking on the ice, holding Walsh’s arm. She now curls regularly using a stick.

There’s no pressure to advance, but those who want to can. Some of Walsh’s original participants now compete in club leagues. Others come back to volunteer. The program’s design intentionally builds space not only for skill development but also for leadership.

“We tell them, if we hit the cap, you can stay — but you’ll help teach,” Walsh said.

Walsh started curling competitively in the 1990s and has coached juniors, wheelchair curlers, and men’s teams across Newfoundland & Labrador. She’s lost three provincial finals — all to Cathy Cunningham — but over time, she found herself more drawn to coaching than competing.

“If I had my time back, I probably would’ve been a teacher,” she said. “But this is how I get to do it.”

At 63, Walsh is still on the ice nearly every day. Her focus now is on making the sport more accessible, especially for people who’ve never had a clear entry point — and on helping other women prioritize time for themselves.

“I keep saying to them: your kids will survive, your families will survive. Take the hour and a half,” she said. “The more selfish you are — in a good way — the better you’re going to be as a human.”

The result is a rare kind of space in sport: one where beginners feel safe failing, women cheer for each other, and no one feels behind. “They come off the ice, they’re laughing, they sit down for a beer. It’s the best feeling,” she said.

The impact of Women on the Rock is clearest in the stories Walsh collects week by week: the woman who used to be too afraid to step on the ice now competing in Saturday night stick curling; the three daughters who joined Girls Rock, followed months later by their moms joining the Sunday sessions.

“We’ve got moms who’ve never played sports in their lives — now they’re curling while their kids coach them,” Walsh said. “One group even played a game against their husbands and won. Now the husbands want lessons.”

The program is drawing women from non-traditional curling backgrounds — runners, hockey players, and total beginners. Walsh meets them where they are. If someone’s hesitant, she offers a trial week free of charge. If someone is injured or nervous, she offers the stick, or even a chair. “We haven’t had to use it yet,” she said, “but if it gets them comfortable, we’ll figure it out.”

Some participants go on to join club leagues. Others don’t — and that’s fine too. Walsh is more interested in giving women a sense of ownership over the sport. “Even if they move away,” she said, “they’ll know how to walk into a curling club in a new city and find a place for themselves.”

Walsh is already thinking ahead: strategy nights for women who want to deepen their game; improved media promotion; more mentorship opportunities for younger volunteers. She’s working to build a self-sustaining pipeline — not just of curlers, but of leaders as well.

Her advice for others looking to replicate the model is straightforward: plan ahead, get enough volunteers, stay flexible, and don’t panic if the numbers are small at first. Most importantly, don’t be afraid to try something new — even if it flops. “Some ideas are brilliant. Some are brutal. You have to try anyway,” she said.

At its core, Women on the Rock isn’t about high-performance results. It’s about the shift that happens when someone steps on the ice for the first time and realizes she belongs there.

“They walk in nervous,” Walsh said. “Eight weeks later, they’re sliding better, sweeping stronger — but more than that, they’re just more themselves.”

Jolene Latimer is a member of the Women in Curling executive council.