Let’s clear some things up, eh? Alright. Curling — which always takes its place every four years alongside speed skating, moguls, and other sports that Americans, without any sort of contextual knowledge, obsess over for two weeks during the Winter Olympics — is much more involved than you think it is. It is not like shuffleboard you play at happy hour, nor is it a game that you can do while drinking (at least, not that we recommend). Curling isn’t a constant cardiovascular activity, like most popular American athletics; but you’d be hard-pressed to convince this writer that your hamstrings and your arms are prepared to go 10 rounds of sliding on the most slippery ice you’ve ever been on, occasionally throwing 42 pound rocks at a one-foot wide bullseye, but mostly balancing on one foot to slide down said sheets of pure cold while avoiding obstacles and vigorously sweeping in front of said rock while someone is screaming instructions at you like a banshee.

So mock if you must, but curling is hard.

“There’s a lot of plan B involved in curling, you never really know what’s going to happen,” as one instructor put it. Yours truly got the chance to learn that first hand yesterday, inside the ballroom of the Hilton Garden Inn at 815 14th Street, the official hotel of U.S. Curling. DCist got an early peek at part of a big weekend for curling in the D.C. region — the hotel and the Potomac Curling Club in Laurel, Maryland will be offering free, open curling demos to the public today and tomorrow.