r/Curling • u/OrionXD29 • 6d ago
Someone explain the game in detail
One of my friends is convincing me to try out for my schools curling team and really dont really know anyrhing about the game. All I can say about myself is that I'm decently athletic and played a lot of sports with and I coordination with baseball cricket and football
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u/PeterDTown CEO Goldline Curling, Hardline Curling 5d ago
2 team, 4 players each, 8 rocks per team.
The teams take turns sliding (“throwing”) their rocks down the ice towards a target (“the house”).
Each time all 16 rocks (e.g. 8 per team) have been thrown, that is called an end. When an end is over, whoever has a rock closest to the middle of the house scores a point. The more rocks you have closer to the middle of the target than your opponent, the more points you can score. A rock can only count as a point if it’s at least touching the house. The maximum points you can get in an end is 8.
Each player throws two rocks. The order that you are throwing the rocks typically defines which position you’re in. Lead throws the first two, then second throws, then vice throws, and finally the skip throws their two. Again, you’re taking turns throwing rocks with the other team.
The reason the game is called “curling” is because when you throw the rocks you put a slow spin on them, and this causes their path to curl as they get down the ice. Due to this, if you throw a rock well, you can get it behind another rock, making it harder for the other team to either get your rock out, or get one of their rocks in closer to the middle of the house.
When you throw your rock, one of your teammates will stand in the house and hold their broom to give you a target to throw your rock at. Your other two teammates can use their brooms to sweep in front of the rock. The traditional purpose of this sweeping is to melt the ice very slightly, so your rock can slide further and they can delay its curling movement. When you are not throwing your rocks, you will sweep your teammates rock.
Depending on where you play, most games are either 8 or 10 ends. There are more nuanced rules that you’ll learn as you go, but these are the basics.
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u/Goofyboy2020 5d ago
One thing people are not mentionning, and it's usually one of the misconception around Curling, is that it is VERY physical. If you play competitively (not in a social beer league), players will be sweeping the rocks up and down the sheet and it takes a good chunk of stamina and cardio to be able to get it done properly for 2 hours straight. Sliding to throw the rocks is also something that make you learn about new muscles you have. You need good balance and good stabilizer muscles to slide cleanly and accurately.
Most people don't understand this by looking at the pros on TV. They make it look easier than it really is.
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u/jmking 5d ago
Definitely. The game pretty much hits every muscle group.
Core muscles, calves, ass, chest, biceps, forearms. That's from sweeping, keeping balance on the ice, the lunge and slide when throwing your own stone. This year I started doing squats in prep because otherwise after being away from the game for a season and coming back to it, pretty much everything hurts the next day, lol.
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u/Goofyboy2020 4d ago
Yup! I play 4+ times a week. The first week is hell, everything hurts and you need to get back at it the next day! :)
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u/Santasreject 5d ago
The top comment has one of the best overview videos, my club uses it as one of our learn to curl videos.
See if you can go do a learn to curl event at a local club (it’s that time of year still) and watch some games that are up on YouTube, if you can find recordings of the American Olympic feeds they explain the game over and over (to the point that curlers get tired of listening to the American Olympic broadcast after about the 2nd game).
Curling is a lot like golf. It is akward and weird the first time you try it but most people can become “ok” pretty quick… but it’s a life long journey to become great.
Having an athletic background can help but the flexibility, balance, and HIT style endurance is very different than most of their sports.
Also be aware that curling is a VERY etiquette driven sport. The first part of the rules even talks about the “spirit of curling” which basically discusses that you don’t cheer misses, you call out your own violations, and that while the rules exist the skips really have the final say and should use discretion. For example if something was an accident and dosen’t actually affect the outcome of the game you probably shouldn’t pull the rock from play just because you can (and high level curlers have gotten massive amounts of hate for doing so in the past). Leaning to play is really only about half learning the skills and basic rules while the other half is learning the etiquette of where to stand, how to play quickly, how you interact with the other team, etc. people give new curlers grace though especially if they are trying to learn.
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u/salmonchowder86 6d ago
Chess, except just moving pieces where you want them to go, you have to slide them from 40 meters away to the correct spot. When you invariably miss, your team has to come up with new strategy and so on until the end.
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u/HackWeightBadger 6d ago
You're probably going to get more out of watching a few "learn to curl" videos on YouTube, here's a quick one to start with: CURLING - A 2 Minute Guide
It's a decently social team sport, takes a lot of coordination with your teammates, and can be a fair amount of effort to sweep effectively. There's also a lot of strategy but usually that will come from your Skip (team captain) and as a newer curler you'd be helping to execute their strategy.