MIT Curling Club

Intro to Curling

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 Player’s EquipmentCurling 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 team’s stones are closest to the center of the house before the other team’s closest stone. – Only rocks that are at least partially in the

house can count as points. (empty house = blank end, no pts)

Curling Scoring

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

Yellow scores 3 Red scores 1

Curling Team

• Teams consist of 4 members: Lead, Second, Third (Mate,Vice), 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 REAL Team, ie: The Skip

• Skip is in charge of the team’s strategy and “ice reading”

• Holds a broom at far end acting as the target for teammates’ deliveries and indicates how hard each rock should be thrown and which “turn” it should be given

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 thrower’s weight should not be put on rock

The Delivery• Before the thrower reaches the near hog

line, he must release the rock by giving it a turn (spinning it subtly either clockwise or counter-clockwise)

• With a turn, the rock will “curl” as it travels down the ice (makes an arc)– Reading the ice amounts to knowing how

much curl (lateral movement) to expect

• Curling Delivery

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

Let’s 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 that’s 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 that’s 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 don’t 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 don’t 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

A couple of clips

• Jennifer Jones winning shot

• Glenn Howard shot

Next Step?

TRY IT!