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Curling: What the heck is it?
- Internet Curling Club
The Curling Rink
The
Very Basics
Curling is played on ice with (approximately) 42-pound
granite stones. The size of the playing surface (a 'sheet') is 138
feet long by approximately 14 feet wide. The goal is, after all
16 stones are played (8 by each team), to have
a stone of your team's closest to the center of the house, called
the 'tee' (see above). This is accomplished by sending your stone
to rest in scoring position (a 'draw'), by knocking
your opponent's stones outof scoring position (a
'takeout'), and by guarding your own stones
with others. The team with the closest stone, inside the house,
scores a point, or more if they also have the second closest stone
and so on. Each round is called an 'end' and consists of two stones
delivered by each player on each four-player team.
The stones are delivered from the hack on
one side of the sheet to the house on the opposite side. This consists
of the player pushing off from the hack with the stone and releasing
it with a spin, or 'curl', which gives Curling
its name.
The Curling Stone
The curling stone originated in Scotland from
large chunks of rock bowled across the ice, none having any particular
size or shape (see curling
history). They evolved into what are now matched sets
of fairly uniformly made stones. The are all made of pure granite,
and they are amazingly hard. The best stones come from a single
granite mine on an island off the coast of Scotland. Shipping
is quite expensive due to weight (16 stones in a set at 42 pounds
a piece, not including packaging), and manufacturing is expensive
because of the toughness of the material, which is ground with
diamonds.
The stone is concave on both the upper and lower surfaces. On
some stones, the degree of concavity is different on both sides
to allow for reversing the stone for 'faster' or 'slower' ice.
A handle, usually on a circular plastic disc, is bolted onto the
stone through a channel running through the middle of the stone
to a bolt on the other end, as shown in the red highlighted region
in the cross-sectional diagram. The figure on the right shows
the top of the stone, more obviously concave, but without a smooth
running surface. The handle is affixed onto this circular surface.
In the figure above, part A is the bottom of
a curling stone, which is concave, although you can't see it well
in this picture. The red circle is the actual running surface
of the stone. This allows the stone to go farther, more accurately,
and pick up more 'curl' than would be possible on a flat surface.
There is a lighter-colored band in a ribbon around the curling
stone. This is the 'striking surface'. In manufacturing, the entire
stone if very highly polished. This surface is dulled down for
the purpose of improving collisions with other stones, both so
that there will be a larger contact patch in the collision and
so that the stones will not chip.
(click here for a video demonstration of the stone delivery
The stone is delivered sort of similarly
to a bowling motion. Actually, it's not that similar, but it's
the only thing that even resembles it. You start off at what's
called a 'hack', or basically a block sticking out of the ice.
Your first motion is to take the stone and pull it backwards,
frequently lifting it off the ice in the backswing, then you swing
it forward into a smooth glide down the ice.
However, to deliver a stone well, you should glide along with
the stone as far as possible.
Good curlers usually glide very close to the ice, in an odd, very
stretched pose.
You must release the stone by the 'hog line' (see at the top
of the page, the diagram of the rink)
As you slow down, the stone glides on, to come into play on the
opposite side, beyond the other hog line.
The Game
Curling is always mentioned as a game of strategy
by curlers, partly because it is, but also probably because they
want to make sure that it's seen as more than throwing rocks and
slipping around on the ice.
Strategy is definitely the big thing in competitive
curling, though. A great deal of effort goes into planning an
end so your team's stone ends up closest to the center. There
are a bunch of different strategic moves, and here we show the
standards:
The Delivery
The Draw
A 'Draw' is obviously the most basic move. You send the stone
down the sheet, and with the help of the sweepers
and the direction of the skip, you somehow
get the stone to stop where you want it. Here is shown a perfect
draw into the Tee, the center of the House. This would be fairly
pointless as a first shot, as it could easily be taken out.
The Takeout
Here, the green stone is taken out by the yellow. The yellow continues
on, maintaining most of its momentum (usually takeouts are thrown
harder than draws), while also knocking the green stone out of
play. The yellow stone could, of course, remain in play if it
remained in bounds, but in a basic takeout, the only concern is
removing the other team's stone.
 Guarding
Guarding is, as its name implies, placing a stone in front of
another (with a draw) to prevent a takeout. In this diagram, we
see two green stones and three yellow stones that have already
been played. To protect stone A, the yellow team has sent a draw,
stone B, immediately in front of A. This prevents a takeout by
stone C as would have happened here.
The Team
The team consists of four players, called the 'Skip'
the 'First', the 'Second', and the 'Third'. Terribly imaginative.
The Skip is essentially the team captain -- generally the most experienced,
well-tempered person on the team. Play rotates so that all four
team members get to deliver two stones each. At any time, there
is one skip, two sweepers, and one person delivering a stone. When
the Skip is scheduled to deliver his stones, the 'third' (so called
because he is the third in line to deliver stones) acts temporarily
as skip. From this, we can pretty much guess that the later stones
are more important to the outcome of the game. I'm not sure that
they couldn't deliver in any order they chose, but that seems to
be the way it's done. Sweeping is directed by the skip, and the
type of shot, as well as the placement of the shot, is called by
the skip (or acting Skip).
The Ice
A large element of the game not mentioned so far
is the 'curl' of the stone. As you can see in the above diagrams,
the stone is not coming in on a perfectly straight path. This is
due to the curl put on the stone by the curler. As the stone is
delivered, a slight spin is put on it, acting like a very, very
slow curveball.  The
pebble is what helps the stone pick up the lateral motion. As
is seen here, the ice is sprinkled before the game with a 'pebbler',
which creates a smoothly hilly effect on the ice, much like little
pebbles. Without the pebble, the stone would not be able to travel
as far. Our best guess, based on what we've been told by people
who know, is that the small travelling surface of the stone itself
combined with the small contact area of the ice (created by the
pebble) creates the same effect you get when you brake on an ice
patch. A thin film of water on top of ice creates a hydroplane.
Using brooms, the sweepers slightly warm the pebble and thereby
increase this effect, causing the stone to glide farther and grip
less (which also has the effect of lessening the lateral motion
due to curl).
Here's an explanation we got from a pamphlet
published by the United States Curling Association:
Each player shoots or delivers two
stones each end, or inning, alternately with their counterpart
on the opposing team. A twist of the handle on release makes the
stone curl, a little like a "hook" in bowling.
All four team members shoot two stones an
end and sweep for their teammates' shots. While one player shoots,
two sweep as needed. Sweeping posishes the ice so the stone
travels farther if delivered too softly, and vigorous sweeping
requires fitness. In a typical two hour game, a curler walks
almost two miles.
The skip acts as team captain and strategist.
Strategy is a major factor in curling, as important as shooting
skill. Some people call curling "chess on ice".
The playing surface is called "a sheet of
ice", and is designed to allow play in both directions.
The object of shooting is to get the stone,
or rock, to come to rest at a predetermeined place (a draw or
guard) or to move another rock (a takeout or raise).
The score is determined after each end of
16 stones. See the example illustrated at bottom right. A 12
foot circle, the house, is the scoring area. Stones in the house
must be closer to the tee (center) than any opposing stone to
score.
The maximum score in one end is eight points.
Typically, one to three points are scored. Games are 8 or 10
ends, lasting 2 to 2.5 hours.
So, there it is.
That explanation didn't include the very basics -- which are, basically,
that you use the hack (see below) to push off, you with the stone.
You travel with the stone. You must release it by the 'hog line'
on your side. To count as a valid shot, it must make it past the
hog line on the other side. The form is sort of shown on the previous
page, with our really pretentious "Ivy League Champions" logo. The
stick guy with the very long neck has just delivered the stone,
and it's on its way to the opposite 'house'. People who are really
good seem to move effortlessly halfway down the sheet after they've
released the stone. You use the broom to support your left side
(assuming you're right-handed). You slide on your left foot, with
your right leg stretched out behind you, dragging, as you lean far
forward to release the stone with your right arm. Pictures are coming
soon, but it's a bit of work to scan them, etc.
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