Curling basics
In curling, two teams of four players each slide 40-pound granite stones down a sheet of ice toward a target at the other end.
The goal is to get as many of your stones closer to the centre of the target than the other team.
Each player on the team throws two stones, for a total of eight stones, in each “end” (like a period in hockey).
When you throw a rock down the ice, you can intentionally curl or bend its rotation.
Sweeping makes a rock curl less and travel farther. Everyone takes turns sweeping except for the skip, like the team’s captain, who doesn’t normally sweep stones.
Once all 16 rocks have been thrown, the score is counted based on the final positions of the stones. Only one team can score in an end. A team scores one point for every rock that it has closer to the center of the house than the other team.
Curling is easy to understand. If you understand a bullseye, you can understand curling. Scoring in curling is based on points you earn from landing your stone in the target. Most curling rinks are open to the public and many offer learn-to-curl opportunities. Learn-to-curl programs typically run over an entire season. “Because it’s a game played on ice, we want to make sure that [players] are safe, that they understand how the game is played rather than letting them loose without any instruction,” says Lamoureux. Injuries in curling are typically minor, caused by slipping on the ice, and most often land you with nothing more than a bruised ego.
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