Mark Nichols of Canada releases a stone as Brad Gushue, left, and Jamie Korab of Canada brush the ice during the Gold medal match of the men's curling between Finland and Canada during the 2006 Winter Olympic Games in Turin, Italy. (Stephen Munday/Getty Images) In 1998, a Canadian golf pro, a plumber, an electrician and a writer swept their way to silver in the men's Olympic curling event, when Mike Harris's rink finished second at the Nagano Games.
A rarity among world-class athletes, most curlers have day jobs and families to raise. "The curler is your neighbour," says Harris. "It's just a small-town game. It's a grassroots game that everyone can identify with."
To the under-informed critic, this regular, folksy aspect of curling diminishes its status as a high-performance sport. After all, if everyone can do it — which in Canada is only a minor exaggeration – where's the challenge?
"Everyone can curl, but to get good at it is very hard," Harris qualifies.
At an event like the Olympics, curlers display a level of knowledge, skill and experience that puts them on par with the other competitive athletes at the Games.
In fact, the golfers who are so exalted in contemporary culture would be hard-pressed to top the delicate touch, agility, precision, and strategizing that will be on display at the Olympic curling tournament.
Team and game structure
Each team is made up of four players: the lead, the second, the third and the skip. The skip is the captain of the team and calls the shots while mapping out strategy. The skip throws last in each "end."
The four players take turns throwing two stones (also called “rocks”) each down the ice sheet with the goal of landing a stone in the target area of three concentric rings known as "the house;" taking out opposing stones; or setting up "guards," either to protect their stones or to prevent the opposition from penetrating the rings.
Each stone must be released before it has completely crossed the nearer hogline. If a team violates this rule, the delivered stone is removed and any stones that were hit during that shot are returned to their previous position. A stone that does not clear the farther hog line is also removed from play unless it has struck another stone lying in play. Also, a stone that hits a sideboard or touches a sideline will also be removed.
The path of the rock is swept clean to control its trajectory. Brushing vigorously also makes the ice surface slicker; making the ice faster on one side of a stone will enhance its movement, or curl, in that direction. (Some argued that with the old whap-whap-whap corn brooms the sweeping action created a vacuum that sucked the stones farther along the ice.)
The hammer, stealing and blanking ends
After each of the 10 ends, the team with the stone closest to the centre of the target, known as "the button," is awarded one point for each rock that's closer to the button than any opposing rock. Scoring when the other team has the last rock, known as having the "hammer," is called a steal.
If the team holding the hammer scores, it relinquishes last rock advantage to the other team in the next end. Since most big scores of three or more in an end happen when a team has the hammer, most teams will "blank the end" or send the rock straight to the house to score no points if the most they could score after throwing the last rock is one. Of course, if the opposition is lying stones in the house, they'll grudgingly take a single and give up the hammer.
The three main types of shots that a skip will call for are the draw, raise and hit. In executing a draw, the skip indicates that the stone should be thrown to rest in a designated place either in the house, or in front of the house as a guard. When performing a raise, curlers attempt to bump another stone into the house. A hit, on the other hand, calls for the curler to knock a stone that is in the house, or near the house, out of play.
Each team has 73 minutes of playing time in a 10-end game. The team's clock runs until the skip crosses the back line thereby allowing the opposing team to take over the ice. Each team is allowed two 60-second time outs for every 10-ends played, and an additional 60-seond timeout for every additional end. Ten minutes of playing time is given to each team when an extra end is required to complete the game.
The team that laughs together stays together
Finding the right combination of people for a curling team is a process of trial and error. The ability to communicate, strategize and commit are the cornerstones of building a solid curling team. To find the right balance, many partnerships form, break apart, and reform again with new people.
"Sometimes it's things as simple as the four people all having the same sense of humour," says 1998 Olympian Joan McCusker. "All of a sudden it clicks, and whether you're winning or you're losing, you're getting along, and you're improving and away you go."
Watching team interaction and cooperation is possible within the small team dynamic. Curling is one of the few sports in which spectators can actually hear the athletes discuss the game and strategize while they're playing, thanks to the television microphones they wear during the game. "It's a great opportunity to view teamwork — the communication that goes on between the players, how tight-knit they are, how they affect each other, the mental state of the team," McCusker explains.
Stone for stone
The sweepers and the skip engage in a constant dialogue about the trajectory and weight of each stone. Before the games begin, the curlers try and match the stones to ensure consistency since each rock reacts to the ice a little differently. Each event provides the stones with which the curlers must play.
"Sometimes the stones are great, and they're fairly well-matched and pretty close, and other times you'll find stones that have a 10-feet difference in terms of speed, and they might curl three feet more, which is huge," describes Harris.
The teams are allowed one day of practice and have a half-hour on each sheet of ice. With a stopwatch and a notebook, they keep track of how each stone travels on each surface. Stone number seven on sheet C will be a fast one, for example, while stone number six will be a slow one.
Successful teams are also alert to changes in the ice surface over the course of the game. If there's a great deal of humidity in the building, the ice will become slower as the game wears on, and they must adjust for that. The ice surface, which is not perfectly smooth, but stippled, will also change subtly over the course of the game even under ideal conditions, and curlers must adapt to that, as well.
All stones are made of granite, weigh no more that 19.96 kilograms, have a maximum circumference of 91.44 centimetres and a minimum height of 11.43cm. A plastic handle is affixed to the top of the rock, and it's through the handle that curlers apply the gentle spin that induces the rock to curl.
In the delivery of the stone, each curler does something a little different. It's what works for the individual.
"You can teach all the elements of a balanced delivery and it doesn't really matter," McCusker says. "If you decide to throw the rock some other way and are able to make a high percentage of your shots, then your way is best."
The main principle in delivery is consistency, throwing the stones with an even and knowing arm, which requires a balanced sliding foot, square shoulders and a smooth sliding motion.
The game plan
Curling at elite levels requires all the strategy, study and focus of an intense game of chess. Teams have a series of interconnected plans that exploit their strengths and the opposing teams' weaknesses. The sub-plans change by the minute according to what is missed and what is left. It's a constant switch of styles from offensive to defensive to aggressive to cautious, says McCusker.
Despite first appearances, a takeout game is considered cautious because it simply removes stones put in play by the other team. A draw game is considered aggressive because it puts extra pressure on opponents and makes for a more complex end.
"You move from plan A to plan B to plan C so quickly within shots, and you're always thinking ahead," she describes. "You're thinking if they do this, then we're going to do this or this."
More of a workout than you think
Curlers often experience a whirlwind of emotion over an extended period of time. They must be focused, relaxed, and ready. Energy and physical strength must be evenly measured. Curlers have to take particular care of the muscles around their knees, which absorb stress from the slide and delivery.
Strength in the upper body, quads and hamstrings are also crucial for the front-end sweepers. They must be very co-ordinated, balancing one gripping shoe and one sliding shoe. Sweepers carefully dance around stones lying on the ice while applying their brooms to the stones sliding toward the house. Some curlers work with personal trainers to prevent injury to their lower backs, shoulders, arms and legs.
Curlers also sometimes consult sports psychologists to hone their mental rehearsal skills and focus. Like every other athlete in Vancouver, mental endurance and sharpness will be crucial and could mean the difference between medals and a forgettable performance.
