The curling rules

The Rink: Usually there are many Rinks side by side in a Curling Club on which can be played simultaneously.

The Rules: Curling is played on a sheet of ice 146 feet long and 15 feet wide. There is a target, called a house, located on each end of the ice sheet. Two teams of four compete against each other during a game.

Each curling team, or rink, consists of four members: the captain of the team is called the "skip," and he or she also acts as the team's main strategist. The other three members are the "lead", the "second" and the "third" (or "vice-skip").
Each team takes turns delivering eight stones each (two per player) to the house, which features concentric circles of 12-foot, 8-foot and 4-foot diameters.

There is a house at each end of the ice. During pre-game preparations, the ice is sprayed with droplets of water to form pebbles on the surface, which allow the stones to curl.

A game of curling consists of 8-10 ends, which are similar to innings in baseball. An end concludes when all four members of each team have thrown two stones each.

Players start the stone moving by pushing off from a rubber foothold called a hack. Once the player has pushed off from the hack, he or she slides behind the stone in an attempt to carefully aim it, but must release the stone before reaching the near "hog line" (like a foul line), or the stone will be removed from play. Similarly, the stone must cross the far hog line in order to stay in play.

The direction of play switches at the conclusion of each end. The team that scores in the previous end starts out the next end by throwing the first stone, thus relinquishing the "hammer", or definitive last shot, to the other team.

Curlers deliver the stones with a left-hand or right-hand spin, causing the stone to curl in the direction of the spin. While the stone is traveling, the other members of the team are allowed to sweep the ice in front of the stone, thus making the stone travel farther and straighter by polishing the ice and removing any debris. Sweeping can increase the distance of a delivery by as much as 15 feet.

The most important element of strategy is shot selection. Usually the skip will decide what shot to take. Some basic shots include the draw, when a stone stops in the scoring area; the guard, when a stone stops in front of a stone in scoring position; or the takeout, when a stone physically knocks an opposing team's stone from its position.

Scoring: During each end, only one team can score. The team with the stone closest to the center of the house scores one point, and one additional point for every stone nearer the center than the nearest opponent's stone. The team with the highest score at game's end wins, with the maximum score in each end being eight points. Typically, one to three points are scored per end. If there is a tie at the conclusion of 10 ends, additional ends will be played until a winner emerges.
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