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Craig Savill has won 12 Grand Slam of Curling titles over the past 10 seasons with Team Glenn Howard, but despite his rink’s success in the past he admitted there’s going to be a learning curve this year.

The team’s lineup underwent an overhaul during the off-season after third Wayne Middaugh decided to step away from competitive curling and second Brent Laing headed west to join Team Kevin Koe.

Savill will have two new teammates with Richard Hart returning at third after retiring three years ago and Jon Mead (formerly of Team Jeff Stoughton) taking over at second.

Savill, who throws lead stones for the rink, said the new team is preparing a lot off the ice with the season just around the corner.

“We’ve been talking a lot about how we’re going to play the game on the ice, our strategy playing with new guys that you know on tour but you might not know them that well sweeping next to them for the next eight months,” Savill said. “There’s going to be a learning curve for the first few spiels but the goal for us is to get as good as we can be immediately so we’ve been doing a lot of chatter and a lot of getting together to discuss everything under the sun about the game.”

One thing that’ll help boost the team is their curling camp. The Team Glenn Howard Fantasy Curling Camp — Oct. 3-5 in Guelph, Ont. – has been running since 2008 after the rink believed they could fill a curling school void in Ontario.

It’s not just the campers who arrive with open minds. Savill believes the camp is also beneficial for Team Howard as they’re able to brainstorm different strategies with their instructors and get the creative ideas flowing early in the season.

“At our camp we never have a set rule of how to teach anything so sometimes we get contradicted with sliding or strategy and it opens up the discussion,” Savill said. “There have been a few times when we’ve been talking about something and one of our instructors says, ‘Well, this is what I’ve seen, what we do with my team and what I work with.’

“It gets us thinking about different things so it’s great at the start of the year. It gets our minds back into the curling philosophy, we start to think about curling again and it gets our mind going about different options. Like any sport, you can’t stay stagnate on your beliefs, you have to keep evolving with the game and that’s what this camp has allowed us to do.”

The camp isn’t just for competitive curlers either as Savill said the lessons they teach can help anyone who plays the game from the amateur Wednesday night curling team to those with Grand Slam aspirations in mind.

“It’s a real wide range that we’re teaching,” Savill said. “It’s great. It challenges us as instructors to be able to flow with the information and to tailor it to both the novice curler and the competitive curler. … We really get energized by this weekend showcasing what we do.”

The Howard team has also had some late nights staying up socializing with the real keeners of the camp.

“We have some people that — right after our camp is finished at nine o’clock at night — are going straight to bed because they’re exhausted and then there are some campers who get their second wind and they’re up until two or three at night and we’re up there with them talking,” Savill said with a laugh. “It’s so much fun for us because they’re just full of questions.”

Savill said the most rewarding part of the camp is on the final day during the on-ice games when he sees how much the campers have improved over the course of the weekend.

“I really get something when someone comes up to me afterwards and says, ‘Hey Craig, that thing that you taught me on Friday or Saturday I started using it and I love it,’ and I’ve seen immediate results,” Savill said. “We’re throwing so much information at these campers at one time you can’t absorb everything.

“It’s one camp where we throw out everything and you have to pick one or two things that you really want to grasp and then you go back and practise that. … If we can get someone to improve in one aspect of their curling then the weekend is successful for us.”

The Team Glenn Howard Fantasy Curling Camp takes place four weeks prior to the Masters, the opening leg of the Grand Slam of Curling series. Savill said winning the Grand Slams is still one of the team’s top priorities.

“The Slams have absolutely changed curling and have made the top teams so much better,” Savill said. “That is our goal to get out of there and try to win every Slam. … We’re especially concentrating on those specific Slams and try to win against the best in the world.”