Teach me everything I need to know about Curling

**Firetacoma** · 27th February 09, 10:35 AM

I'm going to the US olympic curling trials tonight and know very little about the sport. My knowledge: The stones come from Scotland. It's played on ice. There are brooms.

Give me a crash course. Scoring, terminology, etc.

**Canuck** · 27th February 09, 10:46 AM

Rent "Men with Brooms"

Two teams 4 players on each
The "House" looks like a bulls eye on each end.
The goal is to get as many of your rocks near or on the centre of the target.
The rock slides down the sheet of ice, depending on where you want the rock to go you will put a curl inside turn or outside turn.
The sweepers can assist this by sweeping in front of the rock....depending on how "Hard" the sweep can affect the path and speed of the rock.
One also tries to place the rocks to guard the high-scoring rock. The other team tries of course to gain control of the house put up their own guards.
Each member of the team gets to curl.
Kinda like shuffle board on ice.

**Firetacoma** · 27th February 09, 10:56 AM

Cool! That all helps! How many points are awarded for each ring of the bulls eye? And how many points is the game played to?

**Colin** · 27th February 09, 10:59 AM

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curling

It's a pretty easy game to understand. If all else fails talk to the people around you. Curlers love talking about the game. It's a fun game.

The Scots invented the game, but Canadians perfected it.

**Kerr the Walker** · 27th February 09, 11:04 AM

While I know only a smattering about the game, I went to school in VERY up-state NY and we were able to watch curling on Canadian stations. An absolute blast to watch! I bet it's even more fun in person.

**Firetacoma** · 27th February 09, 11:05 AM

Wow, that wiki article has way more information than I can possibly remember!

**Colin** · 27th February 09, 11:08 AM

No need to remember it. It's a good reference though. You'll learn the basics by watching the game and speaking to the people around you. Look at the info regarding the 1st,2nd, 3rd, and skip as it relates to how each person throws the rocks and what they are trying for in terms of strategy.

This site also has a lot of info, but is based on curling terms so it can be confusing. http://www.curlingbasics.com/

Here are a few other references http://www.curling.ca/content/GoCurl...OfStrategy.asp

This one looks good too http://www.curldc.org/about/basics.php

**Canuck** · 27th February 09, 11:14 AM

Some of the Canadian ladies teams actually wear kilts when they curl an added bonus to watching curling.

**Adam Pound** · 27th February 09, 02:05 PM

I remember the step mum of a buddy of mine came up from San Jose one winter. She was told we were going to watch the Scotts Tournament of Hearts that night and absolutely REFUSED to believe such a sport existed

We had to dig up some video online to prove it to her!