Transcript Slide 1

MIT Curling Club
Intro to Curling
Curling… eh?
The Basics
The Ice Surface
House
• Curling ice is “pebbled”
“In play” region
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 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
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
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 (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!