Brief Intro to Curling
If you're not familiar with curling, here's a brief description. The game is played in teams of four. Each member is outfitted with a broom and a slippery Teflon oversole. The Teflon helps you slide on the ice when delivering the stone and the broom is used for stability during delivery and for sweeping. Each player takes turns pushing, or delivering, two 42 lb. stones down a 138 ft. sheet of ice, to a 12-ft. bullseye-like target at the other end. Two players use their brooms to sweep the ice in front of the moving rock as it slides, affecting its deceleration and path of motion. Depending on the strategy, the stones can be placed in almost any location inside the house (the target), or in front of the house (to guard the stones inside). Stones may also be delivered with enough force to knock your opponents' stones out of play, in what is known as a takeout. The ultimate goal is to have more stones closer to the middle of the house, or button, than the other team at the end of an end (like an inning in baseball). The team with the most points at the conclusion wins the game. A curling sheet is depicted in the diagram below.
Some Websites
The Curling Schoolhttp://www.curlingschool.com/
Curling.ca 'Learn to Curl'
http://www.curling.ca/learn_to_curl/
Curling Rules
http://www.curling.ca/learn_to_curl/about_curling/rules.asp
Some Tips from Practice
On sweeping - Bob spoke to us about being a good sweeper. For those of you who weren't there - sweepers are an integral part of the whole shot process. They are the ones reading and controlling the weight of the rock. Even a good skip cannot judge weight until the rock is well along, so it's the sweepers who need to make the call on whether or not to sweep early. This is a sense you develop over time, but learn to watch your thrower's slide, release and pay attention to how the rock is running. Communicate with your skip and with your thrower. Also for throwers, learn to throw a few feet less than where your skip calls for, so the sweepers have room to work with. (01/14/07)
all content ©2007 Northwestern University Curling Club.