Curling

Besides Hockey, curling is associated with Canada. Canada won the gold in hockey this morning and at church we thanked God for the win and prayed for peace for the US team.

The Canadian Men's Hockey Team, Canadian Women's Hockey Team, Canadian Men's Curling Team and Women's Curling Team all brought home gold medals in these Olympics.  The Women's curling team set a record by winning every single round robin game (they won every game they played in the Olympics, actually).

P will be playing in the U.S. Men's Nationals coming soon, there will be plenty of pictures coming, I'm sure!  The US Women's team played won the Nationals the last time P played in them in 2010 and the Vice skip on that team, Debbie McCormick has called our house as P ordered his most recent pair of curling shoes from her!

 In our area (ie: within 30 minutes) there are 4 clubs. They vary from 4sheets of ice to 8.  In contrast, Seattle has one.  In fact, the state of Washington has one.  Portland had a curling club that used area ice.  This means they used hockey ice to play the game.  This is not ideal as curling and hockey ice are very different.  However, Portland was able to get dedicated ice about 3 years ago. Before that, Seattle’s Granite Curling club was the only dedicated ice curling club west of the Rocky Mountains in the U.S.  One issue with this is that it means pretty much any competition involves travel.  Sports get expensive when you not only have to pay entry fees, but flight, gas or hotel rooms are involved as well.

The Seattle curling club is definitely holding it’s own lately.  Besides being the home of U.S. Nationally ranked teams, they hosted the U.S. Junior curling national championships this year and a hometown team won!  P was talking to the skip (the captain) and asked if it was a home advantage (every club’s ice has it’s quirks, so playing at home is usually an advantage, especially in the first game when visitors are trying to figure out the quirks)  however he noted, “no, it’s a disadvantage, it takes 2 weeks to get the ice ready.”  This means for 2 weeks before the competition, while other teams were practicing several times a week, the Seattle team couldn’t.  Because there are no other curling clubs nearby. The Seattle curling club has also been holding open houses during Olympics season with 900 RSVPs for spots to come try curling over 4 weekends.

To get a good start in curling you’ll want a set of curling shoes-about $100-$150 and a broom for $50-$100 and a membership about $200 for the 6 month long season.  Once you’ve bought the shoes and broom, you are set for many years.  The shoes are special because one of the two shoes, called a slider has Teflon pads that allow the player to slide along the ice.  The shoes also come with a gripper, a cover that is rubber and covers the slider while the player is not sliding on the ice and the other shoe is rubber with extra grip as well.  There are shoes for right handed and left handed players as you generally slide on the opposite foot as you throw with.

The reason curling ice is special is that after the rink is flooded, similar to hockey, steamed  deionized water is sprinkled  on the surface, making droplets that resemble the peel of an orange.  This allows the rock to rest on the “pebble”.  Less ice surface touching the rock means less friction.  If one were to curl on hockey ice, they’d have to throw much harder to counteract the additional friction.

 

The broom and sweeping motion melts the pebble making it smoother and the rock to go further (I know, this doesn’t make much sense with the friction explanation above, but it’s like smoothing the pebble, not getting rid of it completely).  The same thing happens as the rocks rumble over the sheet, meaning that at the end of a game, the rock will go faster than at the beginning of the game.  The reason to sweep  is to make your rock go further and to make it go straighter.  The sweeping makes it do both, which means if the rock needs speed, but needs to curl more or needs to go straight, but is too heavy (weight refers to how fast the rock is going-heavy=fast)  then there’s shouting between the sweepers and the skip (who is in the house planning the strategy) to decide which the rock needs more-to curl or to go fast at which time the Skip will shout to the sweepers-Sweep!  Hard! Or Off!  Whoa!  It is recommended NOT to use the words “Go” and “Whoa” as they sound a lot alike, esp when 8 skips are yelling in an echoy building.

The skip’s job is to not only strategize, but to analyze what the ice is doing.  The skip shows where they want the rock to end up by patting the ice or a rock that should be taken out.  They then may make a motion like a big swing (take it out) or hold their broom over their head (tap back the rock, but don’t take it out) or pat the hack, backline or board to indicate how hard to throw the rock if it’s not a “normal” shot.  Then they will set the broom down somewhere else.  Because the rock curls due to a spin that the thrower puts on it, the rock will curl or move over. Think about when you watch really good bowlers.  The bowling ball has spins and moves in an arch across the rink.  Similar idea here.  The broom indicates where the player should aim the rock so that it curls to the location where the skip wants it to end up.

The relationship between curl and weight is inverse.  The harder the throw (more weight) the less the curl and straighter it will run.  The lighter the throw (less weight) the more the rock will curl.

There are several markings on the ice-the hack looks like running start blocks, it is here that the thrower will push off to slide (throw) the rock.  There’s two large red lines about 10 feet in front of the big targets-these are the hog lines.   The rock must be released before the near hog line and must make it over the opposite hog line in order to be considered in play.  A rock not making it, hitting the sides or going through the other end is considered “out” and removed from play.   The target is the “house.”  This is the goal.  The rocks closest to the center are the ones that score.  The middle is the pin, there is a divot here where the measuring tool is put if the vice-ships (3^rd throwers) cannot decide which rock is closest to the center.  The middle is the button, it’s 2 feet wide.  The next ring is the 4 foot (2 feet on each side) the next is the 8 foot, then 12 foot is the largest ring.  Anything that is touching the 12 foot is a possible score. If it’s barely touching, it’s called a “biter.”    There’s also a centerline which helps the sweepers estimate where the rock is in relation to where it should go.

There are 3 shots-a guard (before the house) a draw (in the house) and a hit (hit another rock).

All 4 players per team throw 2 rocks each, alternating with the other team.  To have the last rock is the hammer which is the advantage (you don’t have to worry about another rock coming along and taking you out).  The first end hammer is determined by coin toss in club play or in competitive play, the skips both try to draw (a shot that is not a hit, but is in the house) to the button and whomever is closer gets the hammer.  After that, whomever won the previous end throws first, giving the non-scoring team the hammer.

The ice should be kept as clean as possible, even a little fuzz can cause the rock to “pick” which is to throw it off course.  A picked rock is unfortunate because It prevents what could be a great shot from completing it’s goal and both teams feel badly about a pick because if it happens the throwing team basically has wasted a rock and the opposing team feels badly because if they do win the end there’s a feeling that maybe they didn’t do it based on their skill but on dumb luck.

Scoring: Whomever is closest without interruption by the other team’s rocks scores.  For instance:

 

The score for this end is 2 red, Red has 3 rocks in the house, but the two blue ones are closer than the 3^rd red.  The blue does not score because only one color scores per end and the 2 red ones are closer.

An end is the 16 rocks thrown and scored.  A game in competition is 10 ends, usually league games are 8 ends unless otherwise specified (for instance, sometimes a bonspiel (a fun tournament where other clubs may be invited to put teams in for play) may indicate 4 or 6 end games.  However, if the game is extremely lopsided in score or they are running long on time, it is usually common for the losing team to “give up” when it’s clear they ‘ve been had or it’s mathematically impossible for them to win (they are more than 8 points behind) or only play 7 ends if another group of curlers is waiting to get on the ice.

The rocks-curling rocks are sold in the set of 8, they weigh 42-47 pounds each, it’s not exact, it’s a range.  Because they are made  from a specialized form of granite, there are natural differences in weight so that they will all be the same size. Therefore, a set will be match up, the lightest 2 will be the lead rocks, next 2^nd rocks, next 3^rd rocks, last are skips rocks.  The differences are probably imperceptible, but it makes it so that when you throw your 1^st rock, your 2^nd should do pretty much the same thing if you throw it the same way.  They are usually marked with numbers 1-8, so the first will throw 1 & 2, then 3 & 4 and so on.

Etiquette: While the other team is throwing, don’t distract them, stay between the hog lines if possible as far to the side as possible.  If the other team is aiming far to one side, stand on the opposite side.  Get the proper rock ready for the next thrower, esp while they are getting their gripper off.  IF possible, each end should take no more than 15 minutes, so an 8 end game could be done in 2 hours.   Everyone should clean up rocks except the next thrower (the lead of the team that just scored, who should be getting their gripper off and getting into the hack) and the skips (who should be heading down to the opposite end to get ready for the next end) to ensure the game is kept moving.  After playing or at the 5^th end break during a 10 end game the teams will stack brooms (sometimes this is done literally on the ice to indicate they are still playing and not to clean the ice or clear the scoreboard, sometimes just figuratively)  the teams will head upstairs for a drink with each other.  The winning team buys for the losing team, usually for the same position (the winning lead will buy for the losing lead, etc.) and if the players linger, the losing team will reciprocate.

When practicing before a  game, it’s courtesy to practice on a sheet other than the one you will play on as it would be an unfair advantage to know how the ice is playing.