CURLING

Miguel Valcrcel Camila Upegui

Curling eh?

The Basics

The Ice Surface

House

In play region

Curling ice is pebbled

The Curling Rock

Rocks are 42lbs of solid granite Bottom of rock is concave as only a narrow running surface contacts the ice

The Players Equipment

Curling brooms are made with a variety of different materials (synthetic fiber, horsehair, corn)

Curling shoes have a slider underneath one foot (often Teflon)

Objective
Game is divided into ends Each end consists of two teams throwing a total of 16 stones Points are assigned after all rocks have been thrown based on how many of one teams stones are closest to the center of the house before the other teams closest stone.

Curling Scoring

Yellow scores 3

Red scores 1

Team with the most points at the end of the game wins

Curling Team
Teams consist of 4 members: Lead, Second, Third, Skip Each member throws 2 rocks per end with the lead throwing the first 2 and the skip throwing the last 2

First 3 members sweep teammate rocks when not throwing

The Delivery
The thrower kicks out of a rubber hack and slides on their lead foot (on which he has a slider) and trailing toe. A broom is used for balance/stability since the throwers weight should not be put on rock

Sweeping
Sweeping creates friction, thus briefly melting a little ice Rock can slide better with thin layer of water between surface and ice By sweeping, a rock travels further and the arc is extended, thus delaying curl and straightening the rock trajectory

Lets Get Technical

Curling Shot
A curling shot has 3 main characteristics
Weight: How fast the rock is thrown (or specifically how far it should travel) Line: The line on which the thrower should slide along and release the stone towards Turn: The direction in which the curl is desired

Types of Shots
Draw A rock thats designed to stop in the region of play Takeout A rock that will easily travel beyond the back line with the goal of contacting an opponent stone and removing it from play

Types of Shots
Draws
Guard: A rock that comes to rest between the hog line and the house Freeze: A rock that is thrown with the exact weight and line to sit directly in front of an opponent rock Tapback: A rock thats designed to bump an opponents rock a little, thus changing the angles in play, but not removing it entirely

Types of Shots
Takeouts
Hack/Bumper weight: A rock that is given enough weight to reach the far hack or back bumper to remove the opponent stone from play but give a high probability of keeping the shooter in play Hit and roll: When a rock takes another stone out of play and remains in play but spins (rolls) to a different area Peel: A very fast shot, often used to remove a guard and ensure that the shooter also rolls out. Peel weight is also necessary when the player wants to contact several stones Double/Triple/etc Takeout: Removing 2,3,etc. opponent stones from play

Goals
The team with hammer (who throws last rock in that end) always attempts to score multiple points and generally wants to keep play away from the center to allow for an easy draw with last rock to score a single point if things dont work out The team without hammer would either like to steal points (score without hammer) or force their opponent to take a single point and ideally forces play to the center line.

Strategy
Use guards: When a guard is placed in front, a rock can be drawn around it into the house. The latter rock is not easily removed since takeout weight will not curl around the guard. Use freezes/angles: By freezing to opponent stones, you can make it impossible for your stones to be removed. Teams want to set up favourable angles so that opponent rocks can be removed later while leaving several of their own when throwing a takeout

Strategy
Place your rocks in such a way that you dont give easy shots for your opponent to remove multiple stones of yours Keep draws in front of the T-line, otherwise opponent freezes will be able to outcount your stone

Next Step?
TRY IT!