Scotland has the number one ranked men’s curling team in the world again.
That’s a big statement at any time but it feels particularly significant for Team Mouat at the start of this season.
By their incredibly high standards, Bruce and the boys had a bit of an up and down year last time around.
They had some big moments but the Scottish Championship was a disappointment and there were times when they didn’t look like their old selves.
Consistency at the top level is the Holy Grail. It’s the hardest thing to achieve.
But Team Mouat are already showing they’re back in the groove.
That’s two wins out of two to get things up and running – and at the Baden Masters in Switzerland and the Euro Super Series here in Scotland, they’ve beaten Team Whyte.
Ross and his team are third in the world so the standard of our top men’s teams continues to be as high as it has ever been.
But only one of them will be able to go to the next Olympics and we’re now past the half-way point in the four-year cycle.
The picture in the women’s game is different but equally fascinating.
Team Henderson, who I did some coaching with last season, had a fantastic win in the Euro Super Series.
They’re a team with real potential.
They’ve backed up their Scottish title at the end of last year by putting down an early marker at the start of the new one.
So many of the women curlers have an opportunity to get to the Olympics, if we qualify.
It’s an open field.
You help your team by helping yourself and I know my mindset in their circumstances would be that I’m going to make sure I go above and beyond what is expected of me to make sure I stand out.
My work with the BOA meant I couldn’t give Team Henderson the full commitment they needed over the course of a season.
But I am keen to stay involved with coaching and I’ll be helping James Craik’s team out at some competitions, starting in Canada in the near future.
Hopefully I’ll be able to keep them heading in the right direction.
It wasn’t nice to see Emma Raducanu fighting back tears after her first round exit in the US Open.
Saying she was “sad” and “down” was equally concerning.
Everybody – Emma included – seems to agree that she was under-cooked going into the tournament.
I know how tricky a balancing act it is to get things right before one of the big events – we see that all the time in golf.
Peaking at the right time is incredibly yard to gauge in any sport.
But it feels like a pretty fundamental error to only compete once between Wimbledon and the US Open.
Not for the first time, we’re left wondering about the advice Emma is getting.
Tennis players can move from one coach to another pretty regularly.
Andy Murray had plenty, for example.
Emma needs to get an injury-free few months under her belt but she also needs her support team to be making good decisions on her behalf.
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