In sport of adjustments, Harnden fine-tuning his game

Curling is a sport of adjustments.

It’s far from uncommon for teams and players to make adjustments in game though the adjustments come for players in their own game as well and Sault Ste. Marie’s E.J. Harnden has made some adjustments to his game in the past two seasons.

It was the spring of 2022 when his former team, skipped by Brad Jacobs, announced they were parting ways at the end of that season.

Jacobs took some time off before returning to competitive curling with Reid Carruthers and then forming a new team this off-season.

Harnden’s brother Ryan proceeded to join Matt Dunstone’s Saskatchewan-based.rink.

E.J. then teamed up with Brad Gushue and his Newfoundland and Labrador rink, a decision that has brought with it some successful times in the past two seasons.

As part of the Gushue rink with another Saultite in Caleb Flaxey, who serves as coach for the team, Harnden spoke this season about making some adjustments to his delivery during his time with the team.

The adjustments really came to fruition during the 2024 Brier for Harnden.

Harnden said Flaxey was a big help in making some technical changes to his delivery and called the coach “instrumental” in his game.

“It’s been amazing,” Harnden said after the Brier win. “Just because I’m coming into an established unit where there’s three players that have played together for a long period of time and then myself. Having Caleb there, it’s a lot easier, because it provides a bit more comfort and familiarity for myself with our relationship.”

Harnden added at the time that Flaxey “was the individual that really helped me get through that.”

“Even when we won, I gave him a big hug and said: ‘Thank you so much’ because if it wasn’t for his assistance and support through those changes, I really don’t think I would have been able to perform at the level that I did during that Brier and at the level of where I’m at now,” Harnden added.

Late in the season, the veteran curler said the technical adjustments were something he’s put a focus on since he joined the team.

“That’s been something that since I’ve came onto the team that I’ve put a focus towards,” Harnden said. “That was something that we started to work on immediately once I joined the team just to make it obviously much easier for Brad to put the broom in the same spot for everyone, but also for Mark and Jeff to be able to judge my rocks appropriately and effectively; then for myself is to just build that consistency so that my low game is like an eighty per cent game versus something a little bit below that.”

Harnden added that the adjustment has been “a work in progress” and said that it wasn’t until the 2024 Brier that he really felt “confident in my ability to make any sort of shot without having to think about how I was delivering the rock.”

Gushue agreed that the Brier was a turning point for Harnden in his adjustment as well.

“The Brier this year was the first time where he looked like everything was effortless,” Gushue said when asked about Harnden’s adjustments prior to the World Championship. “The amount of effort he has put in over the last couple years has definitely been admirable. He’s always working at it and always asking questions.”