Basics of Curling 

Two four-person Teams compete, with each Team delivering (sliding) 8 rocks (or Stones) per “end” of play.

Doubles Curling has Two Two-person teams each team delivering 5 stones per end.

Teams alternate turn to deliver and each player delivers two stones. Each end begins with the leads (first players) alternating throws, followed by the seconds, then thirds, and then the fourth, usually the Skip, who is the player calling strategy for the game.  The last rock delivered is called the Hammer.

One player delivers a stone while two players sweep and the last is communicating the current play.

Sweeping in front of the moving stones can affect both the distance traveled, and the amount of curl a stone has on it’s way down the sheet of ice.

A game is typically 8 ends (10 ends in competitions) and last about 2 hours.

Scoring 

The Team with the closest rock to the center of the rings,
the House, scores one point for each rock touching the house that is closer than any of the opponents rocks.

At the completion of each end, the thirds determine the score, the rocks are collected and the next end of play begins with the team that scored in the previous end.

Specs 

The stones weigh 42 pounds, and it’s also 42 yards from hack to tee. More curling terms are listed in our glossary. Detailed rules are available at the  website. World Curling Federation

The ice sheet is approximately 15 feet wide and 138 feet long from hack to hack (rubber footrests where the curling delivery begins).

The house at each end is 12 feet in diameter, with rings of 8 feet, 4 feet and one foot circles (the Button).