Congrats and good luck Kim and Adrienne!!

Kim Irvine and Adrienne Kennedy have been invited to be part of the Senior Women's Team to represent Australia at the WCF World Senior Curling Championships in Korea from 21-29 April 2023. The championships will be held in the Gangneung Curling Centre, the home of Curling for the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics.

In September 2022, Kim and Adrienne were invited by the then President of the Australian Curling Federation, Kim Forge, to join the team representing Australia to compete in Korea. 

Kim and Adrienne are obviously thrilled and excited with being invited and we asked them about their preparation plans, travel arrangements and ambitions for the Championships in Korea with their responses below.

We have also asked them for some background information about their curling journey, when and where it started, people who were influential or inspired them, and memorable events and/or shots played. Have a look in our Member Bios blog.

We congratulate and wish them both good luck and good curling for this exciting opportunity - go Team Australia!!

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Preparation Plans

Fitness

• They plan to follow the regime used in preparation for Nationals in 2022 with a key focus on:
• Daily Tasks rotating between swimming, distance walking, running or boxercise
• Mobility Balance – practice on small heights holding hand weights
• Yoga or Pilates - depends on preference
• Plenty of regular muscle stretching

• Kim's job requires significant travel at times spending a great deal of time on planes, in hotels etc., but when away she still tries to focus on doing pre-game warm up as it's important to continually stretch the whole body regularly and is a great 20 minute exercise plan if time is limited

Food Fitness

• Maintaining a healthy diet where possible allowing for the odd treat at weekends is Kim's mantra
• Switching to no or minimal sugar-based foods, including alcohol, when training has been a real benefit switching to some great new products now available in the market

Mental Fitness

• Visualisation techniques are a great tool to practice for competitions and can be completed anywhere
• Visualising your delivery including your stance, posture, pushing off from the hack, the end release and executed shot all form significant parts to the outcome of where the stone ends up in the house -
  see it, feel it, deliver it!
• Kim often spends time visualising her preparation and delivery of shots to enhance her approach and focus on the game

Drills and Practice Sessions

• Due to the team members being spread across three States, they will all be training separately up until they arrive in Seoul
• Adrienne and Kim will train together in WA and will maximise the training ice available, using the first few games of the league to settle into their rhythm
• The whole team will, however, focus on the same agreed key elements including:
• our line of delivery
• our stone release, and
• weight calling of stones as we follow them down the ice

Pre-Tournament Practice Sessions

The Team

Coach(es)

• The team has no appointed dedicated coach for this competition

Team members

The likely line-up of the team will be: 

• Skip: Kim Forge (Vic)
• Vice: Lyn Gill (Qld)
• Second: Kim Irvine (WA)
• Lead: Adrienne Kennedy (WA)

Travel Plans

Travel Journey

• Fly Perth to Seoul and spend a few days to settle in and see the sights 
• Meet up with team members, Kim and Lyn, and move to a training venue for 5 days of intense practice
• Head to the competition venue and check into to the hotel near the curling centre 
• Kim and Adrienne are very excited to be staying in the hotel and curl in the rink built for the 2018 Olympics held in Seoul, seemingly its' amazing!
• Following the competition Adrienne, Kim and Kim's husband (David), their appointed mascot for the competition, will spend a few more days in Seoul to soak it all in before heading home

Additional Comments from Kim

• This will be a lifetime experience to not only play at a Worlds event but represent your country too ! (With Scottish and Canadian Accents)
• We plan to enjoy every moment and try and capture as much footage as we can during the trip
• We're really looking forward to curling in an Olympic venue
• We will be so proud and probably emotional knowing me when we pull on the uniform for the first time…. Cannot wait!
• We will of course be representing WA curling at every point throughout the trip.
• We have commenced filling our cases with Australian goodies as its customary to swap gifts, pins, banners etc at each game and it is suggested we take an extra top to swap at the end of the competition.
• At the moment Seoul feels surreal …but soon it will be a reality !