Introduction to Curling
If you’re new to the sport, curious about how to get started, or planning your journey as a high-level curling athlete, we hope to use this space to answer some of your questions.
Keep scrolling to read through our Curling FAQ, discussion of basic topics, and a glossary of the curling lingo. Don’t forget that curling is closer than you think! Check out our Find a Club map to find curling opportunities near you.
Curling FAQ
You’ve got questions, we’ve got answers! Whether you’re brand new to the yelling and the sweeping, or you’re a seasoned fan looking to take your first slide, we’re here to help you get to know our amazing game and the exceptional community around it.
New To Curling
So you watched Curling at the Olympics and want to learn more? We’re glad you found us! Check out the FAQs below for how to try curling, and how to become a curler.
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Curling is a winter sport played on a “sheet” of ice between two teams of four players each. A game consists of a series of rounds called ends, and in each end, teams take turns throwing stones until each team has thrown eight stones. After all stones are delivered, the team with the stone closest to the center of the house, the target at the far end of the sheet, scores points. Another end is played by throwing the stones back to the starting side of the sheet.
The game gets its name from the lateral movement of the stones as they travel down the sheet. Stones will “curl” to the right or left of the release point as they glide down the ice. Scroll down to the next section for a more detailed explanation of “curl.”
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You’re in luck! There are more than 150 USA Curling member clubs throughout the country! Use our Try Curling map to find a club near you. Many clubs offer Learn to Curl/Try Curling sessions, Open Houses, or private lessons.
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A Learn to Curl or Try Curling session will teach you everything you need to know about curling to play a short game. Some special equipment is required but clubs typically provide that for learners and new curlers.
Wear comfortable clothes you can stretch in easily (a lunge is part of the curling delivery). We recommend you wear layers, as you may be cold during demonstrations, but you’ll warm up once you start sweeping! Please avoid wearing jeans.
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Many organizations that facilitate curling call themselves a curling “club.” Most curling clubs require some level of membership to join a league, but anyone can join! Membership dues vary as clubs have different structures for their dues and league fees. Some clubs have relatively low membership dues (<$100 per year) and league fees are paid separately. Some clubs with higher dues (>$1000 per year) offer unlimited league registrations with those dues. The curling club near you will have information about membership dues, league fees, and how to join.
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The pros on TV certainly make curling look easy, but it’s not! Like most Olympic sports, the road to the Olympics usually begins with a childhood passion for curling and a lifetime of dedication, training, and hard work.
Curlers who fall in love with the sport have many opportunities for competition. USA Curling offers more than a dozen National Championships or Qualifiers for international competition each year. In addition to the flagship Men’s, Women’s and Mixed Doubles Championships, we have events for curlers with 5 or fewer years of experience, competitive Club curlers, Wheelchair Fours and Mixed Doubles, under-18 years of age, and more!
You can find out about our National Championships and what competitive opportunities are await you on our Competitions page. -
In many cases, yes! Every club (and every child!) is unique and some clubs may be better equipped to accommodate younger children than others, so we recommend that you reach out to your local club for guidance on junior participation.
Additionally, USA Curling offers a National Junior Development Program for curlers between the ages of 12 and 21. This is an off-ice virtual program where junior curlers get access to top level athletes, coaches, and sporting experts throughout the year. More information on the program is available under our Programming page.
I’ve Tried Curling, What’s next?
You’ve taken a Learn To Curl and you fell in love? Great! Find out how to get started in your new life as a Curler below.
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What you can do next will depend on your local club’s introductory process. Some clubs offer additional lesson series, an introductory league with classroom time, or other learning pathways. Some clubs promote “on the job” training and encourage new curlers to join a league straight away! You may have the option to substitute, or “spare” as many clubs call it, in leagues if you can’t commit to the full season, missed the registration deadline, or had difficulty finding a team.
Check with your club to understand their pathway for growing in your new favorite sport!
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Most curling league games are expected to play 8 ends and take about 2 hours. Some leagues have shorter time commitments, such as 90 minutes or 6 ends and some competitions are longer, playing 10 ends in 2 and a half hours.
For your regular weekly league, 90 - 120 minutes for the game is pretty common and many games end with “broomstacking,” where opposing teams share a beer or soft drink together and socialize after the game (the winning team may buy the first round too!).
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Membership to your local club will be the most relevant level of membership for you. Your club may over different levels or tiers of membership depending on your age, how much you want to curl, and your level of experience.
Some clubs include USA Curling membership in their club membership as well! You can reach out to your club to find out if they offer USA Curling membership. If not, you can always join by logging in at MyUSACurling.com. We have two membership types: Basic and Youth, and offer a variety of Membership Upgrades depending on your level of interest in competing, coaching, and supporting the organization. More information about USA Curling membership, benefits (including participant accident insurance) and pricing is available on our website.
MyUSACurling.com — USA Curling’s Membership Portal
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You know how to slide and sweep and score, but what about the other stuff? Most of the time, common sense is enough to guide on-ice behavior. However, there is some etiquette specific to curling that may not be obvious:
Curlers call their own fouls and never knowingly break a rule
The ice looks hard and durable, but heat from your hands and knees can easily damage it. Try not to touch the ice. A hand can leave a lasting print in seconds.
During the opposing team’s turn, you should be still and quiet so as not to distract or interrupt their shot
A missed shot should never be cheered. However, a well-made shot can be complimented by players from either team
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Sometimes clubs host clinics, or lesson series to teach newcomers about strategy, delivery mechanics, sweeping technique and more on and off the ice. These can be held internally in a club, or may be open to members from other clubs to travel to. Adult Curling Camps are popular weekend-long clinics with experienced coaches to help hone your new curling skills.
Scroll down to see explanations of key topics in curling, including hammer, scoreboards, sweeping, as well as a glossary of common curling terms.
Lastly, a number of books have been written on curling strategy and sweeping technique and theory. Watching curling games, listening to the players discuss the shots, and talking to other curlers at watch parties or in the warm room are also all great ways to engage with and learn about the game.
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You’ve got the bug but league games leave you wanting more? Grab 3 new curlfriends and head to a bonspiel! Bonspiels are weekend-long curling tournaments. Most bonspiels have a 3 or 4 game guarantee and you could play up to 6 or 7 games over the weekend. A weekend of multiple games is a great opportunity for new curlers to get extra repetitions in and also to meet other curlers. Some teams travel across the country (or the world!) to go to bonspiels and some teams like to stay local. You can check out our bonspiel calendar to find an upcoming event near you.
If you’re interested in taking the plunge into competitive curling, USA Curling offers more than a dozen National Championships for curlers of all levels and ability. Several of these championships have entries through regional playdowns, where each of the 10 Recognized Regional Associations (RRAs) hosts a competition to determine the best team for each championship in the region. The regional winners then face off at the National Championship. Your club and your region will have more information about these playdowns.
Basics of Curling
We hope the FAQ above provided some helpful, quick information to help guide your path to curling. Still have questions like how do you read a scoreboard, what does sweeping do, and what is hammer? We’ll answer those here.
Some key terms, marked with *, are defined in a glossary below
Sweeping and Curl
What’s with all the yelling? Why do the players sweep the stone? Why is it called curling? Let’s answer some more questions!
Curling gets its name from the motion of the stone on the ice. The delivering player can influence curl* by rotating the stone—rotating clockwise makes the stone curl to the right, rotating counterclockwise makes the stone curl to the left. Sweeping influences the curl and the distance a stone can travel. The skip is in charge of directing the sweepers in how to sweep so that they can best influence the path of the stone.
Traditionally, sweeping a stone will reduce how much it curls. If a stone is curling too much, the skip may yell at the sweepers to sweep “for line” which will help hold the stone straighter and keep it from wrecking on a guard or over curling. Sweeping can also help carry a stone further down the ice. If a stone doesn’t have enough momentum, or weight*, to make it to its target spot, the sweepers can sweep it to keep it moving longer.
Changes in modern sweeping technology and techniques have allowed sweepers to have more influence over the direction of a stone. Some techniques allow sweeping to promote curl, rather than just holding a stone’s path straighter. Recent years in curling have seen changes to the equipment permitted in competitions to reduce some of the influence sweepers can have on a shot. These equipment restrictions are generally reserved for competitive play and don’t usually apply to weekly league games among recreational curlers.
Curling Team
A curling team is typically made up of 4 people. Each teammate delivers 2 stones per end, but not all teammates sweep every stone.
Lead: Delivers the team’s first two stones. Sweeps the remaining stones in the end.
Second: Delivers the team’s 3rd and 4th stones. Sweeps the lead’s stones and stones after their deliveries
Vice (short for Vice-Skip): Delivers the team’s 5th and 6th stones. Sweeps the first 4 stones, then holds the broom for the Skip’s stones
Skip: Delivers the team’s last two stones. The captain of the team and literally calls the shots for the games. Typically does not sweep
Lead and Second make up the “Front End” of the team. Since they sweep the most stones, they are generally responsible for understanding the weight of a stone and knowing if it needs to be swept if it’s light.
Vice and Skip are the “Back End” of the team. The Vice often serves as the communicator between the Front End and the Skip. The Skip manages most of the strategy and tactics in a game, but the Vice may sometimes contribute to the Skip’s decisions.
Some teams use a non-traditional throwing order, where they skip or vice may not throw in the order defined above.
Hammer 🔨
Being able to throw the last stone in an end* is an advantage called “Hammer*.” The name comes from being able to brute-force your way to scoring with your last stone. Typically the team with hammer is expected to score 2 points in an end. If you score, you lose the advantage in the next end, and the non-scoring team gets hammer. The strategy a team uses in an end will depend on if they have hammer, how urgently they need to score, and how many ends are left in the game.
Determining the Score
All 16 stones in an end* have been thrown, it’s time to figure out the score. Only one team scores in each end: the team with a stone closest to the pin*—what we call the very center of the house. The stone closest to the pin scores, and the scoring team gets 1 additional point for each stone closer to the pin than the closest opposition stone. Stones must touch the rings (scoring area) to be eligible to score. Each scoring stone is worth 1 point, no matter the distance from center.
Yellow scores two points. Stones must touch the colored rings to score points.
Yellow scores two points, red’s stones do not count because yellow is closer to the center. Red’s stones outcount yellow’s third stone touching the outer ring
Red scores one point, as the closest stone. Yellow does not score, even though they have many rocks in the house, because red is closer to the center
The Curling Scoreboard
If you’ve been watching the Olympics, you may have noticed a whole lot of 0’s on the scoreboard. If you’ve been to a curling club or seen a traditional scoreboard, you may have noticed the scoreboard looks…different.
Curling is scored using either a “Baseball-style” (Olympics and major championships) or a“Traditional” scoreboard (curling club settings). Curling is played in “ends” (a little like innings in baseball) where 16 stones are thrown in one direction, the score is determined, and then the stones are thrown in the other direction in the following end.
The Baseball-Style Scoreboard
For many new to the sport, the Baseball-style scoreboard is the easiest to interpret. The ends are shown at the top, much like innings in baseball, and the score in each end is shown below the end number. The total score is shown on the right and is updated throughout the game.
Red scored 1 in each of the first two ends. Yellow scored 3 in the third end and red took another 2 in the 4th. The score after 4 ends is 4 red and 3 yellow
The Traditional Scoreboard
Most curling clubs use a scoreboard that represents the score accurately and visually reflects the closeness of the game. In this scoreboard, the score is fixed, and the numbers added to red or yellow team rows indicate the end. The score is cumulative, so you only need to know the right-most score column to know the current score.
While it may be confusing to interpret at first, there are some tricks that can help you read it more easily. First, the distance between the right-most number in the top row and the bottom row is a visual indication of how close the game is. If those numbers are stacked on top of each other, the score is tied. If one row is much further to the right than the other, that team has a sizeable lead.
Yellow has a 5 point lead against red.
The Yellow score is much farther to the right than Red.
Red has 2 points. Yellow has 7 points. Six ends have been played.
Red has a one point lead against Yellow.
The Yellow score is just one column away from the Red score.
Red has four points. Yellow has three points. Six ends have been played at this point in the game.
With that in mind, parsing the scoreboard becomes a bit less intimidating. The numbers for the score are permanently displayed on the board in the SCORE row, and the numbers on the cards represent the end in which that score was achieved. After the first end, the #1 card is placed in the column of the score of the first end. In the case below: After the second end, the #2 card is placed to show the cumulative score of the game after 2 ends.
First end: Red scored one. The #1 card (first end of the game) is placed in Column 1 of of the SCORE row.
Second end: Yellow scored one. The #2 card (second end) is placed in Column 1 of the SCORE row. Game is tied 1-1.
Third end: Red scored one. Added to the point from the first end, Red now has a total of two points. The #3 card (third end) is placed in Column 2 of the SCORE row. Red leads 2-1.
Fourth end: Yellow scored one. Add to the Yellow point from the second end, Yellow now has a total of two points. The #4 card (4th end) is placed in Column 2 of the SCORE row. The game is tied again at 2-2.
Fifth end: Yellow scored one again. Yellow now has a total score of three. Since this point was scored in the 5th end, the #5 card is placed in the Column 3 of the SCORE row. Yellow leads 3-2.
Sixth end: Red scored two. Two more points are added to the two points Red had scored previously. Since the two points were scored in the 6th end, the #6 card is placed in Column Four of the SCORE row. Red now leads 4-3.
GLossary Of Curling Terms
Curling, like many sports, has its own unique lingo. Here’s a glossary of common curling terms.
away end: The end of the sheet to which the first rock of a game is delivered
backline: The line tangent to the back of the house. Rocks coming to a rest touching the backline remain in play.
also A weight call intended to move rocks in play without removing them from play
biter: A rock that is just touching the outer edge of the house
blank end: An end in which no rocks are touching the house after all rocks have been delivered resulting in no score for either team
board (aka bumper): A takeout weight. Rocks thrown at this weight, if they did not hit anything, would come to rest about 6 ft behind the far hack.
*bonspiel: A curling tournament or competition
broom: Used both for sweeping and support in the delivery
burnt rock: A rock in motion touched by a player or a player’s equipment. If this occurs between the hog lines, the rock is taken out of play.
button: The smallest circle of the house. The size of the button can vary between venues
clean: To lightly sweep in front of a rock to remove any debris from its path
control: A takeout weight. Rocks thrown at this weight, if they did not hit anything, would come to rest about 12 ft behind the far hack.
*curl: The curved path of the rock
draw: A call for a rock to come to a rest in the house
double takeout: A takeout that removes two of the opponents’ rocks from play
*end: segment of play in which teams alternate delivery of all 16 stones
fall: A defect in the ice that causes a rock to curl negatively
free-guard zone: The area at the playing end between the hog line and tee line not including the house. Rocks resting in this zone are not allowed to be removed from play until the 6th rock of the end
guard: A rock resting between the far hog line and the house, positioned to protect another rock
hack: Fixture in the ice used to push off during delivery. also A down-weight takeout. Rocks thrown at this weight, if they did not hit anything, would come to rest at the far hack.
handle: The part of the rock that is held by a player. also Used to describe the desired rotation of the rock during delivery
*hammer: The last rock delivered in an end
hog line: A line parallel to the tee-line 15 ft in front of the house on either end
hog line violation: Occurs when a rock is not released before reaching the hog line at the delivery end. The rock that is in violation is removed from play as a result
hogged rock: A rock that does not come to rest completely over the inside edge of the hog line at the playing end and is therefore removed from play
home end: The end of the sheet from where the first rock of the game is delivered
in-turn: For a right-handed thrower, the rotation applied to the handle of the rock such that the rock rotates clockwise
line: The path the rock follows as it travels down the ice (includes curl)
negative ice: A shot where the stone is thrown with the opposite handle for the direction in which the stone is expected to curl due to issues in the flatness of the ice
normal: A takeout weight. Rocks thrown at this weight, if they did not hit anything, would come to rest about 18 ft behind the far hack.
out-turn: For a right-handed thrower, the rotation applied to the handle of the rock such that the rock rotates counter-clockwise
peel: Very fast takeout weight. Rocks thrown at this weight, if they did not hit anything, would come to rest about 30 ft behind the far hack
*pin: The dead center of the house (where the tee-line and center-line intersect)
slider: The sliding part of the shoe that is in contact with ice during delivery. Made of Teflon or stainless steel. These can either be attached to the shoe, as is the case with dedicated curling shoes, or step-on pieces that are available for play with non-curling shoes
shooter: The rock that is being delivered
*shot rock: The rock that is closest to the center of the house at any given time during the end
stabilizer: Used as a delivery aid for balance during the slide. Stabilizers provided by the club are made from PVC pipe. Stabilizers are also available in a number of forms for purchase from various curling equipment manufacturers
stone/rock: The object used in curling to score points. Made of granite or sometimes ceramic. The terms “stone” and “rock” are used interchangeably
tee-line: The horizontal line bisecting the house, perpendicular to the centerline. Draws are frequently called to be “tee-line weight”
takeout: When a rock is thrown with enough weight to remove another rock from play
*weight: Describes the speed of the rock as it travels down the ice. Weight calls for draws are typically made by calling out where the rock is expected to stop. Takeout weights are typically called as one of the weights described above
Glossary credit: Silicon Valley Curling Club (used with permission)
