Curling is a sport that continues to grow in popularity. While it is widely recognised through the Winter Olympics, it has long had its own dedicated World Championships, with national and international competitions established well before curling became an Olympic sport. Therefore, it came as little surprise when World Curling announced in late 2025 that, from Season 2026-2027, “the World Men’s and World Women’s Curling Championships will expand from 13 to 18 teams”.
As the sport continues to reach new audiences and attract more players than ever, it is only natural that the athletic level and sporting performance of players continue to rise.
A curling coach’s challenge
Sande Curling was founded by Professor Gerry Sande, a nationally certified curling coach and academic who holds multiple curling-related patents, and has coached and worked with many Olympic and World Champion curling teams.
In the early 2010s, Sande began exploring how to measure sweeping efficiency objectively and how this can be used to improve technique. He wanted increased insight into factors such as downward force, sweeping cycles per second, performance efficiency over time, fatigue-related power loss and technique consistency, but the technology required to measure them reliably had not yet been developed.
Believing the solution could lie in pressure sensing, Sande researched the technology online and discovered PPS. He quickly realised that the company’s high-resolution repeatable pressure sensor arrays, supported by synchronised video and data capture, offered the precision he required.
Read the full article in DPA's April 2026 issue
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