From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
List of terminology used in sport of curling
This is a glossary of terms in
curling
.
During a game, sweepers might call out numbers. These numbers indicate how far the sweepers think the
rock
in play will travel. This system is relatively new to the game and is often attributed
[
by whom?
]
to the
Randy Ferbey
rink since they were the first major team to use the system, but it is not known whose idea it originally was
[
citation needed
]
. 1 to 3 indicates a rock in the
free guard zone
, 4 to 6 the rings in front of the
tee line
, 7 being on the
button
, and 8 to 10 the rings behind the tee line. Sometimes, 11 is used to indicate a
stone
thrown so that it passes through the
house
and out of play. With this system, the sweepers can communicate more effectively where they think the stone will end up or the skip can better tell the deliverer how hard to throw it.
- 2 hammers to 1
- An endgame strategy based on maintaining
hammer
in the even
ends
of the last 3 ends of the game. If the team with hammer always scores (in other words, no
blanks
and no
steals
), then one team will have one more scoring opportunity than the other (hence "2 to 1").
- 4-foot
- The 4-foot-diameter (1.2 m) circle in the
house
. It surrounds the centre area called the
button
. It is used as a visual aid only ? there is no extra score for placing a stone within it
- 8-foot
- The 8-foot-diameter (2.4 m) circle in the
house
. It is used as a visual aid only ? there is no extra score for placing a stone within it; generally not actually painted ? it appears as the empty space between the 12-foot and 4-foot rings
- 12-foot
- The 12-foot-diameter (3.7 m) circle outermost in the
house
; a
stone
completely outside this circle cannot score
- Across the face
- On a
hit
, refers to the
shooter
hitting the object stone on the opposite side from where the broom was placed. Since this imparts less speed to the object stone and takes less speed away from the shooter, it is a very efficient way of making a
tick
. This is seldom used for normal hits since it is harder to execute, unless necessary because a
guard
prevents using the other
turn
- Anti-freeze
- A very rare and extremely difficult shot in which a stone is delivered so that it will come to rest behind another stone already in play, created the same effect as if one stone had been
frozen
to the other
- Anti-slider
- Synonymous with
gripper
- Arena ice
- Temporary curling ice made quickly on a hockey rink or the like, most often used by curling clubs without dedicated curling facilities; usually of lower quality than that of a dedicated facility, but when created for televised events or events with large numbers of spectators, the ice quality can rival or even exceed that of a dedicated facility
- Arithmetically eliminated
- WCF
term for when a team runs
out of stones
- Around the horn
- A
double
or
triple
where the shooter ends up coming back up the rings
- Back 4
- The portion of the
4 foot
ring behind the tee line
- Back 8
- The portion of the
8 foot
ring behind the tee line
- Back 12
- The portion of the
12 foot
ring behind the tee line
- Back board
- The border at the extreme ends of the sheet
- Back end
- A team's
third
and
skip
, considered as a unit.
- Back-house weight
- Delivery speed required for a stone to come to rest in the back half of the
house
- Backing
- A stationary stone that can be used to stop the thrown stone from going any farther, thus allowing for a slightly
heavy
throw. Without backing, the shot will be harder since it requires perfect
draw weight
.
- Back line
- The line right behind the
house
. If a
rock
completely crosses the back line, it is removed from play
- Back of the house
- The portion of the
house
behind the
tee line
- Back ring
- Synonymous with
back 12
- Barrier
- A board or other object behind the hack, used to stop moving stones; referred to as "
bumper
" in Canada
- Barrier weight
- Delivery speed that should come to rest against the barrier behind the
hack
. Synonymous with
board weight
.
- Besom
- The traditional name for the device used to sweep ahead of a moving stone. A
broom
.
- Bite
- When a stone barely touches the designated line marking on the ice, e.g. "bite
centre
", "bite the
four
", etc.
- Biter
- A stone that barely touches the outside of the
house
, just
biting
the
12-foot
ring
- Bite stick / Biter bar
- A piece of equipment used to determine whether or not a stone is a biter
- Blank end
- An end in which no points are scored; in regular play the team that has the
hammer
retains it for the next end. In
skins games
, the skin for a blanked end is carried over. To "blank an end" means to intentionally leave no stones in the house so as to retain the hammer.
- Blanking an end
- Deliberately creating a blank end for the purposes of retaining the last rock advantage for the next end of play
- Blast
- A shot delivered with
heavy weight
and high velocity. A blast is usually intended to remove many stones from play or is used to break up and move around clustered stones. "Playing the blast" into a large cluster of stones is often a last resort shot to get the rocks split up when there are no other viable shots available.
- Board weight
- Throwing a stone with enough speed that it will come to rest in an area just behind the
hacks
? about 6 feet behind the
house
. Synonymous with
barrier
/
bumper weight
.
- Boating
- A way to break in the ice by which one drags harnessed rocks over the recently pebbled sheet in order to break the beaks of the water droplets on the ice.
- Bonspiel
- Scots
for
league match
, this is the term used for a curling tournament. Compare "
spiel
"
- Bounce
- A failed corner
freeze
where the
shooter
rolls
open
- Brier
- The Canadian men's curling championship, held annually since 1927
- Broom
- An implement with which players sweep the ice to make a stone travel farther and curl less; though brushes have almost completely replaced brooms, the traditional name remains.
- Broomstacking
- See
stacking the brooms
- Brush / brushing
- Broom
/
Sweeping
- Bump
- A short
raise
- Bumper
- The
barrier
- Bumper weight
- Synonymous with
barrier
/
board weight
- Buried
- A
rock
that is hidden behind another rock, usually a
guard
, making it difficult for a
curler
to hit with a delivered rock. Also called "
covered
"
- Burn
- To accidentally touch a moving
stone
; the opposing
skip
has the option to remove the burned stone, or leave it where it comes to rest
- Button
- The centre (bullseye) of the
house
; sometimes called the 1-foot circle
- Calling the shot
- When the
skip
holds the
broom
where they want the person delivering the stones to aim. When the skip is delivering, the
vice-skip
calls the shot
- Cashspiel
- A tournament with significant entry fees and large prizes, sometimes part of a charity event; despite the large prizes, cashspiels are not the premier events in curling
- Catcher
- A
stone
behind the
tee line
that may obstruct other stones from being removed
- CCW
- Counter Clockwise (
turn
of the
stone
from
delivery
)
- Centre guard
- A
guard
that is placed directly on the
centre line
, in front of the
house
; usually played by the team that does not have the
hammer
- Centre line
- A line running lengthwise down the centre of the ice, used as a visual aid; some sheets do not have a centre line, or do not have one between the
hog lines
- Chip
- A
takeout
that hits a
rock
at an angle
- Chip and lie / chip and roll
- When a played
stone
strikes the edge of another stone and moves to another position in play
- Christmas tree
- Series of
rocks
in the
house
arrayed from front to back in such a way that a corner of each successive rock is visible from the
hack
, angling out like the edge of a Christmas tree.
[1]
- Chroming the rock
- Grazing a stationary stone without significantly moving it; but enough to alter the path of the shooting rock
[
citation needed
]
- Circus shot
- A flashy but low-percentage shot. Also
Trick shot
- Clean
- To brush the ice lightly in front of a moving
rock
to remove any debris and ensure a correct line; less vigorous than a
sweep
- Club
- The location of the curling rink; most players usually refer to it as "The Club"
- Come-around
- Any shot that
curls
around another rock
- Coming home
- Going into the final
end
- Control weight
- A
takeout
shot that is slow enough that the
sweepers
have relative control over its
curl
; faster than
board weight
, but slower than
normal takeout weight
- Corner guard
- A type of
guard
that is off to the side of the
house
; usually employed when a team has the
hammer
and needs to score multiple points
- Counter
- A stone in the
house
lying closer to the centre than any of the opponent's stones. Each counter scores one point at the completion of an end.
- Cover
- Protection given to a
rock
by a rock in front of it
- Curl
- Movement of a moving
rock
away from a straight line; as a verb, to play at curling
- Curler
- General term for player involved in a curling team; also known as a "soofter" in the
UK
- Curling
- A team sport which involves sliding granite
stones
on ice and
sweeping
in front of them with
brooms
to direct them to desired placements
- Curling club
- Synonymous with
club
- Curling pin
- A participation souvenir, generally worn on a sweater; there is a sub-culture at any major bonspiel built around trading pins. Most curling clubs and many tournaments produce one, and they are usually not awards
- Curling stick
- A device that permits a player to deliver a stone while standing upright; generally used by older players, these are legal in most games.
- Cutter
- A rock that has a tendency to
finish
more than other rocks.
- CW
- Clockwise (
turn
of the
stone
from
delivery
)
- Dead buried
- A
rock
completely covered by another rock (often a
guard
) such that no part is visible
- Dead handle
- Synonymous with
no handle
- Delivery
- Process of throwing a stone
- Deuce
- Scoring 2 points in an
end
- Die!
- A call given by the
skip
for the
sweepers
to stop sweeping a
rock
; a rock that dies is a rock that stops moving
- Dish
- State of a
sheet
of ice where the sides are slightly elevated compared to the center, so that a cross section of the ice would look like a cross section of a dish; this sometimes happens near the end of a week-long tournament because the
pebbling
motion tends to apply more pebbles to the side, while
sweeping
during games happens more often near the center and wears down the ice more in that region; when there is a dish,
rocks
will
curl
more towards the center and less away from the center
- Double takeout / Double
- A
takeout
shot in which two other stones are removed from play; a shot in which the delivered stone and one other stone are removed is not a double takeout
- Doubles curling
- A variation of curling played with 2 people per team and slightly altered rules. Most commonly seen as
mixed doubles
.
- Drag
- When two
rocks
are
frozen
, hitting the top rock at an angle creates a drag effect that affects the direction of the second rock; the friction between the two frozen rocks makes the first rock "drag" the second rock slightly towards the same direction; hitting the top rock on the right makes the bottom rock move more to the left while hitting it on the left makes it move more to the right
- Draw
- A shot that lands in play without hitting another stone out, as opposed to a
takeout
shot. Also refers to a game, e.g., “We have a draw at 7:00 p.m. tonight.”
- Draw raise
- A shot in which the played stone pushes a stone straight forward into the
house
- Drawmaster
- Person who assigns teams to different
sheets
, sets starting times, assigns players to teams in casual play, etc.
- Draw weight
- Delivery
speed required for a stone to come to rest in the
house
- Dump the handle (also Flip or Turn-Out/Turn-In)
- During
delivery
of a stone, the
thrower
accidentally pushes the stone off-course with their turning motion; often the result of using the arm to shove the stone, and usually causes a missed shot
- Easy
- Command ? called out by the
skip
to tell the
sweepers
to ease off their
sweeping
of a
rock
but to continue sweeping it lightly and slowly.
- Eight-ender
- An
end
where all eight stones score for one team ? a very rare occurrence.
- End
- Similar to an
inning
in
baseball
; in an end, each team throws 8 rocks, 2 per player in alternating fashion; tournament style games usually run for 10 ends; games played at the club level usually run for 8 ends. Prior to the latter half of the twentieth century, a game consisted of 12 ends played in full.
- Extra end
- Equivalent to an extra inning in baseball; in the event of a tie after the prescribed number of
ends
, extra ends are played until the tie is broken.
- Eye on the Hog
- Technology in the rock handles to electronically detect
hog line violations
using magnetic strips under the hog lines and red/green
LED
indicators.
- Fall
- A defect in the ice which causes stones thrown in that area to
curl
negatively
- Falling
- As the stone is sliding down the
sheet
, it
curls
negatively, i.e., the opposite direction than it is supposed to
- Finish
- The amount of sideways movement in the last 3 meters (10 feet) or so of a rock's path; can be used as a verb ("it needs to finish") or a noun ("there's lots of finish in that spot")
- Firm weight
- Something more than
Normal weight
but less than
Peel weight
- Flash
- To completely miss an attempted
takeout
; the rock passes through the
house
without touching any rocks at all
- Force
- When the team with
hammer
scores exactly 1 point on that end.
- Fourth
- The player throwing the last two rocks for a team; since the
skip
almost always throws the last two rocks, this term is rarely used
- Free-Guard Zone
- Area between the
hog line
and the
tee line
, excluding the
house
. Evolved from the
Moncton Rule
.
- Free-Guard Zone Rule
- The rule that states that an opponent's rock resting in the
free-guard zone
cannot be removed from play until the first five rocks of an
end
have been played
- Freeze
- A precise
draw weight
shot where a
delivered
stone comes to rest against a stationary stone, making it nearly impossible to
take out
- Front end
- A team's
lead
and
second
, considered as a unit
- Front-house weight
- Delivery
speed required for a stone to come to rest in the front half of the
house
- Front of the House
- The portion of the
house
closer to the
hog line
- Front ring
- Synonymous with
top 12
- Frost
- Buildup that can occur on ice surfaces when there is excessive humidity in the air; tends to makes stones stop faster and
curl
less
- Fun Spiel
- Bonspiel
oriented to recreational/fun play, often shorter duration games, and may have unusual formats
- Game Clock
- A clock that runs down and limits the amount of time a team can spend playing. Traditionally, the game clock ran from the end of the opposition's shot until the end of the team's clock, much like a
chess clock
. Now,
thinking time
is the standard.
- Guard
- A
rock
that is placed in front of another rock to protect it from being knocked out by the other team, or placed with the intent to later
curl
another rock around it and thus be protected; typically placed between the
hog line
and the very front of the
house
- Grand Slam of Curling
- A series of eight premier men's and women's events that feature Canada's deepest and strongest curling fields
- Gripper
- A rubber or other material attached to a curling shoe to improve traction on the ice; also known as an
anti-slider
; see
Slider
- Hack
- Similar to a starting block in
track and field
, the foothold device where the person who
throws
the rock pushes off for
delivery
- Hack weight
- The
weight
required to
deliver
a stone in order that it travels to the
hack
at the far end
- Hackweight takeout
- A slower played
takeout
that, because of the reduced speed,
curls
more and therefore can reach opponent stones that are hidden behind a
guard
- Hammer
- The last rock in an
end
? a huge advantage; the team with the last rock is said to "have the hammer"
- Hammer efficiency
- The percentage of non-
blank ends
in which the team who has hammer scores two or more points.
[2]
- Handle
- The part of the stone held by the player; used to describe the desired direction of rotation of the handle (and therefore the stone) upon release in a given
delivery
; "
Losing the handle
" refers to a rock which stops
curling
or which changes direction of curl while moving; See also
no handle
,
reverse handle
,
straight handle
.
- Handshake
- Each team traditionally shakes hands with each member of the opposing team at the end of a match as a sign of goodwill. Unlike other sports, curlers can, and are often encouraged to, forfeit the game early out of sportsmanship if the score is badly lopsided or if a team runs
out of stones
. To signal their forfeit, the losing team shakes the hands of the other team. This can simply be called "shaking", as in "the Smith team shook after 7 ends".
- Hard!
- Command ? along with "
hurry
" ? shouted by the
skip
to tell the
sweepers
to
sweep
harder and faster
- Heavy
- A stone that is
thrown
harder than required and will probably slide too far
- Heavy ice
- Slow ice on which stones take more initial force to travel a similar distance as on fast (keen) ice
(see
keen ice
)
- High side
- The high side of a
shooter
in motion is the side that it is
curling
away from, i.e., the side outside the curve of the shooter's path. To "hit on the high side" is to hit the stationary rock off-centre on the side the shooter came from.
[3]
- Hit
- Any shot where the aim is to move another stone; the opposite of a
draw
- Hit and roll
- A
takeout
rock that, after making contact with another rock, slides (rolls) into a designated area
- Hit and stay
- A
takeout
where the played stone stays in the spot where it made contact with the stationary stone; also called 'hit and stick' or a 'nose hit'
- Hit weight
- Another term for
takeout weight
- Hog
- See "
hogged rock
"
- Hog line (far)
- The line which the stone must completely cross to be considered in play
- Hog line (near)
- The line by which the stone must be clearly and fully released by the
thrower
- Hog line violation
- Failure to release a stone before crossing the near hog line; a stone in violation is immediately removed from play
- Hogged rock
- A shot that comes to rest short of or on the
far hog line
and is removed from play. May also refer to a stone that is removed from play due to a
hog line violation
.
[4]
- Hogger
- See "
hogged rock
"
- House
- The three concentric circles where points are scored
- Hurry!
- see
hard!
(often said together: "hurry hard!")
- Ice (more, less, too much, not enough)
- Adjustment to the crosswise distance between the
skip's
broom
and the desired target area; for example, a player who feels that the skip's broom is too close to the target might request "more ice"
- Icemaker
/ Ice technician
- Person who is responsible for maintaining the ice; duties include, but are not limited to,
pebbling
and scraping the ice
- In-off
- A shot where the
delivered
stone hits another stone near the outer edge of the
sheet
at an angle, making the
shooter
roll into the
house
; one of the most difficult curling shots, usually done as a last resort when there are no other options
- In-turn
- A shot in which the
handle
of the stone is rotated across the body (the elbow is rotated "in" to the body); for a right-handed thrower, an in-turn is clockwise, and the opposite for a lefty
- Inside
- Another term for
narrow
- Jam
- A
takeout
that collides with a
catcher
- Keen ice
- Fast ice on which stones travel greater distances with less force than required for heavy ice
(see
heavy ice
)
- Kizzle kazzle
- A
delivered
stone that is intentionally wobbled to compensate for water, slush or snow on the ice surface
- Lazy handle
- When the rotation of a stone is very slow, i.e., less than one full rotation during the stone's slide; often the result of
thrower
error, they will usually
curl
more than a properly delivered stone; may turn into a
No Handle
or
Reverse Handle
- Lead
- The player who
throws
the first two rocks for a team
- Lie / Lies / Lying
- The
count
of the number of stones of one colour closest to the centre of the
button
, closer than the innermost stone of the other colour. When a team "lies X" or "is lying X", that number of its stones are, at that moment, closer to the button than any opposition stone; were the
end
to finish then, the team would score that number of points.
- Line
- The path of a moving stone; a 'good' line indicates it is headed where it was intended to go; a 'bad' line has deviated
- Light
- A stone that is not
thrown
hard enough
- Little rocks
- Many clubs offer a Little Rocks program for children, with rocks that are roughly half the weight of regular 44 lb. rocks.
Curlers
generally move onto full-sized rocks around the ages of 10 to 12.
- Losing the handle
- A rock that is "losing the handle" refers to a rock which loses its rotation or which reverses its rotation while moving
- Lost turn
- Synonymous with
no handle
- Low side
- The low side of a
shooter
in motion is the side that it is
curling
toward, i.e., the side inside the curve of the shooter's path. To "hit on the low side" is to hit the stationary rock off-centre after the shooter crosses its face.
[3]
- LSFE
- Last Stone in the First End; in every other
end
, the last stone (or
hammer
) is determined by the scoring in the previous end. In the first end, some other system (coin toss, draw contest, record comparison) must be used to determine the advantage of the hammer.
- Manitoba tuck
- A type of
delivery
, mostly found in
Manitoba
, where the body is kept very low to the ground and the leading leg is tucked underneath the body and to the side; this type is delivery is particularly efficient for
hits
but makes
draws
slightly tougher to execute, with the shoulders not being as straight and the eyes being closer to the ice
- Mate
- The player who discusses strategy with the
skip
behind the
house
and holds the broom while the skip throws their rocks; usually plays
third
; also known as
vice-skip
or vice
- Measure stick
- Equipment used to determine which of two or more stones is closest to the centre when they are too similar to know with visual inspection
- Mixed team
- A team composed of two men and two women with the throwing order alternating genders. Also known as
True mixed
. The highest level competition for mixed teams is the
World Mixed Curling Championship
.
- Mixed doubles
- A variation of curling played with 2 people per team, one man and one woman, and slightly altered rules.
- Narrow
- A stone delivered
off the broom
too close to the desired target and therefore likely to
curl
past it
- Negative ice
- A shot in which the player
curls
the stone in the opposite direction in which the stone is expected to curve, due to significant defects in flatness of the ice surface; for example, if the curvature of the ice causes all stones to drift sharply to the right, a skip may request the shooter to aim to the left of the desired location and curve the stone to the left as well.
- Never
- Called as the rock is sliding down the
sheet
to indicate the stone needs to
curl
and the
sweepers
should stay off the rock
- Nice weight
- A term used by some Manitoba teams, similar to
control weight
- No handle
- A rock delivered without a
turn
, usually done in error; stones thrown without a handle often follow an unpredictable path
- No-tick rule
- A rule prohibiting stones from being
ticked
off the
centre line
for the first five stones of an end (see
Free-Guard Zone Rule
); only used in some competitions
[5]
- Normal weight
- Normal
takeout
weight
; faster than
control weight
, but slower than
peel
- Nose
- The point on a rock closest to the
thrower
. A "nose hit" would be hitting the rock at this point, avoiding a
roll
.
- Off!
- A call given by the
skip
for the
sweepers
to stop
sweeping
a rock
- Off the broom
- An incorrectly aimed shot; opposite of
on the broom
- Open
- A rock that is not obscured by another rock from the
thrower's
perspective; a
skip
will often ask the thrower how "open" a certain rock appears from the
hack
, with the rock being totally open, partially obscured (such as "half open") or completely covered; also, a term for any shot not involving going around a guard: an open takeout, an open draw, etc.
- On the broom
- A correctly aimed shot that starts out directly at the
broom
held by the
skip
; opposite of
off the broom
- Out of stones
- A situation in which a team that is behind in the score no longer has enough stones between those in play and those yet to be played to make up the deficit; the outcome is now certain, and the game usually ends with a
handshake
once a team is out of stones.
- Outside
- Another term for
wide
- Out-turn
- A shot in which the handle of the stone is rotated away from the body – the elbow is rotated "out" from the body; for a right-handed thrower, an out-turn is counter-clockwise, and the opposite for a lefty
- Pancake
- A
rock
- Pebble
- Small droplets of water intentionally sprayed on the ice that cause irregularities on the surface, allowing the rocks to
curl
. Also a verb; the action of depositing water droplets on the ice, as "to pebble the ice between games"
- Peel
- A
takeout
that removes a stone from play as well as the delivered stone. These are usually intentional, such as for
blanking an end
.
- Peel weight
- A stone delivered with a heavy
takeout
weight
- Pick
- When a rock's
running surface
travels over a foreign particle such as a hair, causing the rock to deviate from its expected path, usually by increasing friction and thereby the amount of
curl
- Pin
- Spot at the exact centre of the
house
, officially called the tee.
- Playdowns
- Competitive play towards club, state/provincial, national, and world championships
- Port
- A space between two stones just wide enough for a
delivered
stone to pass through
- Promote
- Another name for a
raise
; usually means to raise a
guard
into the
house
and make it a potential
counter
- Raise
- A shot in which the
delivered
stone bumps another stone forward
- Raise takeout
- A shot in which the
delivered
stone bumps a second stone which in turn knocks a third stone out of play. Also called a
runback
- Reading the ice
- When a
curler
considers how the condition of a sheet of ice will influence the path of a
thrown
stone, similar to how a golfer reads the undulations and texture of a green before determining where and how hard to hit a putt
- Reverse handle
- When a stone is
thrown
with a particular
turn
, but it eventually stops and begins to rotate in the opposite direction; usually the result of a
pick
or poor ice conditions. Sometimes it may even reverse twice in one shot, creating unpredictable shots that follow an S-shaped path.
- Right off!
- A call given by the
skip
to tell the
sweepers
to neither
sweep
nor
clean
the rock; as compared to
off!
, which tells the sweepers to stop sweeping but not necessarily to stop cleaning
- Rings
- The
house
- Rink
- A curling team. Often used with a location ("the Manitoba rink") or the name of the
skip
("the Smith rink").
- A building housing the ice
sheets
("the curling rink")
- Sometimes used as a synonym for
sheet
- Roaring Game, The
- Slang for the game of curling, it is the sound a stone makes while sliding along the ice
- Rock
- The device
thrown
by
curlers
during the game. It is made of granite and has a standard weight of 19.6 kg (44 lb). Also called a
stone
- Roll
- Any movement of a stone after striking another
- Rotation
- Description of a spinning rock
- Rub
- When a moving stone barely touches another stationary stone; less contact than a
chip
- Run
- A section of the
curling sheet
that is dipped or troughed that can prevent a stone to
curl
or draw down its normal path of travel
- Runback
- See
raise takeout
- Running surface
- The part of the rock which comes in contact with the ice. It is about 7 mm wide (0.25 inches)
- Runthrough
- See
raise takeout
- Scraper
- A device used by the
Ice maker
to smooth the ice after a period of extended play; usually performed in conjunction with
pebbling
- Scotties
- The Canadian Women's Curling Championships. Also known as the
Scotties Tournament of Hearts
.
- Second
- The player who throws the third and fourth rocks for a team; on most teams they also
sweep
for all other players on their team
- Second shot
- The second closest
rock
to the
button
- Sheepskin
- A wide brush, traditionally made of sheepskin, which is used to clean the ice of any loose debris, typically during the mid-game break (commonly after the 5th
end
of tournament play)
- Sheet
- The area of ice that on which one game is played
- Shooter
- In a
hit
, refers to the rock being thrown
- Shot rock / shot stone
- The rock in the
house
closest to the
button
; the next closest rocks are
second shot
and
third shot
. To "be shot" means to have shot rock.
- Silver Broom
- The curling world championships from 1968 to 1985
- Skip
- The player who calls the shots and traditionally
throws
the last two rocks; typically the best player on the team. As a verb, to "skip" means to lead one's rink
- Skip's deuce
- A
deuce
where the two
counters
are the rocks thrown by the
fourth
thrower (traditionally the
skip
)
- Slide
- The forward movement of a player during the
delivery
of a stone
- Slider
- A piece of
Teflon
or similar material attached to a curling shoe that allows the player to slide along the ice
- Soft release
- A type of release that makes the rock
curl
more, usually by imparting less rotation to the handle
- Spiel
- Scots
for
match
,
game
or
competition
, this is the term used for a curling competition between members of the same club or community, for example
parish spiel
; also used as an abbreviation for Bonspiel. Compare
Bonspiel
.
- Spinner
- A stone traveling with a rapid rotation. Stones thrown in this manner will
curl
only a small amount, if at all
- Split
- A
draw
shot in which the played stone hits on the side of a stationary stone and both move sideways and stay in play. Not to be confused with
split the house
- Split the House
- A strategy of
drawing
to a different area of the
house
to prevent your opponent from taking out both stones
- Stacking the brooms
- Slang for socializing with teammates and opponents, often over a drink, after a game
- Steal
- Scoring in an
end
without the
hammer
- Stick
- A takeout that "sticks" in place after hitting the opposing rock
- Stone
- A
rock
- Straight handle
- Synonymous with
no handle
- Straight ice
- Ice on which stones
curl
less than usual
- Strike weight
- a
weight
that can take out another stone
- Sweep
- To
brush
the ice in front of a moving stone, which causes it to travel further and
curl
less
- Swing the stick around
- To use the measuring device to determine
shot rock
- Swingy ice
- Ice on which stones
curl
more than usual
- Takeout
- A rock that hits another rock and removes it from play
- Takeout weight
- The
weight
required when delivering a stone in order to make a
takeout
- Tap back
- Use of the
delivery
stone to tap another rock towards the back of the
house
- Tee
- The centre point of the
house
, where the
tee line
crosses the
centre line
; the stones' distances from the tee determine the score for each
end
. Also called the
pin
- Tee line
- The line that goes across the
house
intersecting with the middle of the
button
, splitting it into two halves
- Thick / thin
- The degree of contact between two rocks; the
thicker
the
hit
, the more contact between the stones; a hit with a small amount of contact is
thin
.
- Thinking Time
- A method of timing in which a team's game clock only counts down between the end of the opposition's prior shot and the start of the team's shot.
- Third
- The player who
throws
the fifth and sixth rocks for a team; usually also serves as
vice-skip
- Third shot
- The third closest rock to the
button
- Tick
- A shot that bumps a
guard
out of the way without removing it from play, to avoid violating the
Free Guard Zone Rule
; usually played with
lead
rocks late in a game to prevent the trailing team from setting up a
steal
- Tight
- Another term for
narrow
- Time
- At professional levels
sweepers
use a timer to measure the time between the start of the delivery and the rock hitting the hog line, and will then call out that time as an indicator of the shot's
weight
. "Time" can also refer to the amount of time left on the game clock
- Top 4
- The portion of the
4 foot
ring in front of the
tee line
- Top 8
- The portion of the
8 foot
ring in front of the
tee line
- Top 12
- The portion of the
12 foot
ring in front of the
tee line
- Tournament of Hearts
- The Canadian women's curling championship, held annually since 1982; other women's tournaments were held previously
- Trick shot
- A flashy but low-percentage shot; also
Circus shot
- Triple
- A
takeout
shot in which three other stones are removed from play
- True mixed
- An event format where the teams must have two men and two women, played in alternating positions
- Up!
- Command shouted by a
skip
? sometimes "
off!
" or "whoa!" – to tell
sweepers
to stop
sweeping
(to bring the brooms "up" off the ice)
- Vice-skip or Vice
- The player who discusses strategy with the
skip
behind the
house
and holds the
broom
while the skip throws their rocks; usually plays
third
; also known as
mate
- WCF
- The
World Curling Federation
is the sport's governing body at international level, defining its rules and managing various international and regional championships.
- Weight
- The amount of speed with which a rock is delivered; more weight corresponds to a harder throw. When used in a phrase such as "tee-line weight", it refers to the delivery speed required for the rock to come to rest on the
tee-line
.
- Wick
- A shot where the played stone touches a stationary stone just enough that the played stone changes direction
- Wide
- A stone delivered
off the broom
to the side away from the desired target, and therefore unlikely to
curl
far enough to reach it
- Whoa!
- Synonymous with
off
- Wobbler
- A stone that rocks from side to side as it travels because it is not resting on its
running surface
- Wrecked shot
- A missed shot caused by an accidental
chip
or
wick
off of another stationary stone
References
[
edit
]
External links
[
edit
]