CurlTi.me/Learn

Learn curling

Written for people who want to actually understand curling rather than nod along to it. Every number on these pages comes out of the same physics engine the game runs on, and a test fails if the two ever disagree.

Last updated 2026-08-18

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Curling is unusually easy to enjoy and unusually hard to read. The rules take five minutes; the vocabulary takes a season, because none of it is ever explained on television — commentators say "she's going to want the back 8 with a bit of a tick" and simply move on. These pages explain all of it, in the order it makes sense to learn it.

They also exist because we had to get the numbers right anyway. CurlTi.me runs a physics engine calibrated against published measurements rather than tuned until it felt about right, so the weight tables, the sweeping figures and the ice speeds on these pages are read straight out of that engine — and there is a test that fails if a page and the simulator ever start telling different stories.

Four ways in#

There is more here than anybody should read in order. Pick the one that sounds like you.

• I have never curled How the game works, then what to expect the first time you stand on the ice, and how to find somewhere to do it.
• I am watching it on television What the numbers on screen mean, what the commentators are saying, and which of these tournaments is the important one.
• I curl and want to be better What is actually worth practising, how to tell a bad delivery from a misread sheet, and the strategy the numbers support.
• I am here for the physics Why a stone curls, why that is still an open question, a simulator running the engine’s own model, and every paper worth reading.

The game#

The rules, the vocabulary and the shots — in the order that makes each one explain the next.

• How curling worksCurling explained from scratch: the sheet, an end, how scoring works, what the hammer is, the free guard zone, and why sweeping changes anything. Written for someone who has never thrown a stone.
• The sheet, the house, and what everything is calledAn interactive map of a curling sheet: every ring, line and zone, the names curlers actually use for them — top 8, back 12, the button, the four-foot, corner guard — and how those spots line up with the numbered weights 1 to 10.
• Scoring, and how to read a scoreboardHow points are counted in curling, why only one team can score in an end, what a blank end is and why teams do it deliberately, what happens on a tie, and how to read the traditional club scoreboard that confuses everybody.
• The hammerWhat the hammer is, what it is worth, the one rule that decides who gets it next, why scoring a single point with it is often a mistake, and why a steal does not win it for you. With an end-by-end simulator you can play forwards.
• Calling weight by numberWhat curlers mean by weight, why it is called as a number from 1 to 10, where each number puts the stone, the hog-to-hog stopwatch times that go with them, and why the same number takes a different time on different ice.
• Why the weights are called what they areEvery named curling weight explained: tee, back line, hack, board, control, normal and peel. Most are named after a landmark on the ice the stone would reach; the rest are named after what the shot is for, because the sheet runs out of landmarks.
• The shots, and what each one is forEvery curling shot in one place: draws, guards, come-arounds, freezes, taps, takeouts, hit and rolls, doubles, raises, runbacks, ticks and peels — what each one does, when to call it, and how likely it is to work.
• The deliveryHow a curling stone is actually thrown: why the stone is carried rather than pushed, what happens in the hack, the slide and the balance that makes it work, when the turn goes on, flat-foot versus toe sliding and what the biomechanics research says about knees.
• What sweeping actually doesSweeping in curling, measured rather than guessed: it cuts friction by about 6.6%, buys a few feet of draw, steers a stone about 71 mm when swept on one side, and stops working entirely above about 1.5 metres per second.
• The four players, and what each one doesWhat each position on a curling team actually does: the lead and guards, the second and the takeouts, the third who holds the broom and agrees the score, and the skip who calls every shot and throws last.
• Strategy: playing with and without the hammerHow curling is actually decided: why the team with the hammer wants two, why the team without wants to force a single, when to blank an end, why centre guards and corner guards belong to different teams, and how the scoreboard changes every one of those answers.
• The free guard zoneWhat the free guard zone is, exactly what it protects against, why hitting a guard is legal but removing it is not, how indirect contact counts, the tick shot and the no-tick rule that killed it, and how the rule went from four stones to five.
• The rulebook, clocks and umpiresA map of the World Curling rulebook and the three parts people most often need: how thinking time works and why the clock stops where it does, how measuring is done and what happens on an exact tie, and the full taxonomy of touched and displaced stones.
• Etiquette and the Spirit of CurlingWhat the Spirit of Curling actually is, why calling a foul on yourself is the one rule that genuinely matters, where to stand, when to concede, what broomstacking is, and why none of the rest of it is worth being nervous about.
• Practice, training and getting betterWhat to actually practise in curling and how to measure it, why repeatability is the whole skill, six drills worth the ice time, honest off-ice work, and what the injury research says about knees, backs and shoulders.
• The curling glossaryEvery word curlers use, defined and in one alphabetical list: hammer, hog line, biter, freeze, peel, tick, out-turn, blank end, thinking time and the rest. Terms the World Curling rulebook defines are marked as such.

Ice#

The surface everything happens on: how it is built, how fast it is, and how much of that changes while you are standing on it.

• Ice speed, and what to expect from a sheetWhat curlers mean by keen and heavy ice, how much a sheet actually varies, why fresh pebble is slower than settled ice, how much a stone curls on different ice, and how to read a sheet from a single stone and a stopwatch.
• How curling ice is madeHow a curling sheet is built, from the refrigerated slab up: thin floods, painted rings sealed under ice, laser levelling, pebble sprayed on as droplets and nipped flat, and the temperature and humidity that keep it playable.

Equipment#

What curlers own, what the club owns, and what is worth buying first.

• The equipment curlers actually ownWhat curlers own and why: sliding and gripping shoes, brushes and the fabric controversy that changed them, the stones and the granite they are cut from, stabilisers, delivery sticks, and what a beginner actually needs on day one.

Formats#

Mixed doubles, wheelchair curling, stick curling and the rest — plus how competitions are structured and what the numbers on a broadcast mean.

• Mixed doublesMixed doubles is not four-player curling with two people missing. Two players, five stones each, eight ends, two stones already on the sheet before every end, and a power play each team can use once. Here is all of it, from the rulebook.
• Wheelchair curlingWheelchair curling is a Paralympic sport with no sweeping at all, delivery from a stationary chair, an optional delivery stick, and mandatory mixed-gender teams. What the rules actually say, why no sweeping makes it harder rather than easier, and how it is played.
• Every other kind of curlingThe forms of curling that are not the four-player game: mixed, mixed doubles, wheelchair, stick curling for people who cannot crouch, junior and senior competition, plus crokicurl, ice stock sport and the outdoor games at the edges.
• How curling competitions workWhat a round robin decides, how the Page playoff gives the top two teams a second chance, why a losing team keeps playing, what the Draw Shot Challenge is, how triple-knockout bonspiels work, and the ladder from a club league to the Olympics.
• Curling statistics and analyticsWhat curling’s numbers mean and what they are worth: how shot percentage is scored and why it is a weak metric, hammer efficiency, force and steal efficiency, what counts as a good percentage, and what the published analytics say about when to blank an end.

History#

Five hundred years, two quarries, one rule change that remade the sport, and the season the brushes got out of hand.

• The history of curlingWhere curling came from: the oldest surviving stone, the first written record in 1540, the Scottish clubs that wrote the rules, the export to Canada, the century-long argument about the 1924 Olympics, and the two rule changes that made the modern game.
• Where curling stones come fromEvery curling stone in the world comes from one of two quarries: an uninhabited bird sanctuary in the Firth of Clyde, and a hillside in north Wales. What blue hone granite is, why the running band is a separate insert, what a stone weighs and measures, how one is made, and how long it lasts.
• Brooms, brushes and BroomgateFrom corn brooms to carbon fibre, and the season a brush head let sweepers steer stones like a joystick. What the Hardline icePad actually did, why twenty-two teams banned it themselves before the governing body could, what the Sweeping Summit found, and why it happened again in 2025.
• Curling at the OlympicsEvery Olympic curling medal from Chamonix 1924 to Milano Cortina 2026, for men, women and mixed doubles, with the all-time medal table. Plus why the 1924 competition was not counted for eighty years, and how Olympic status changed the sport.
• The record bookThe teams and figures whose names come up constantly in curling: the Richardsons, Sandra Schmirler, the Ferbey Four, Anette Norberg and Niklas Edin. Plus the Olympic medal table, the rarest thing in the sport, and where to find the totals that change every season.

Science#

What is actually known about why a stone bends, what is still argued about, and every paper worth reading — linked and summarised.

• Why a curling stone curlsA curling stone turning clockwise bends to the right — the opposite of every other spinning object slid across a surface. A century of physics papers has not settled why. Here are the four facts any theory must reproduce, the four surviving theories, the experiment that ruled out the obvious answer, and what our simulator does about it.
• The draw simulatorMove a slider and watch where the stone stops. A faithful browser copy of the engine behind this site: the same friction law, the same release geometry, the same sweeping model — reproducing the published weight table to a tenth of a foot.
• The curling research libraryAn annotated bibliography of curling research — the century-long physics argument about why stones curl, the sports-science work on sweeping, delivery and injury, the analytics literature on win probability and shot selection, plus the official rulebook and the data sources everyone uses.
• Every number, in one tableEvery measurement on this site in one place: sheet and house dimensions in feet and metres, stone specifications and the World Curling limits they sit inside, the numbered and named weight tables with release speeds and split times, the three ice presets, and the friction and sweeping constants.

Where to play#

Every national association, mapped and linked, and what actually happens the first time you stand on curling ice.

• Your first time on the iceWhat actually happens at a learn-to-curl session: what to wear, what is provided, how cold it is, how much it costs, whether you will fall over, and what to do afterwards if you want to keep going.
• Where to curlA map of every country with a national curling association, and a linked directory of all of them by region. The national association is the one reliable way to find a club near you, and this is the list nobody else has put in one place.
• Following the sportThe shape of a curling season from tour events to the world championships, which competitions actually matter, where the authoritative schedules and results live, and what all the numbers on a broadcast mean.

Clubs#

A club here is a public page, a private roster and a few tools for keeping people in touch. Free, and free of advertising.

• Why start a clubWhat a club on CurlTi.me gives you: a public page at your own address, a members-only roster, announcements, an events calendar you can subscribe to, a daily challenge board, printable QR invite posters, a weekly digest and an API — free, with no advertising.
• How to start a club, step by stepEverything needed to create a club on CurlTi.me: signing in, filling in the application, choosing an address that never changes, what approval involves, and the first things to do once the club is live.
• Running a club: officers, roster, invites and announcementsHow a club works day to day: what a president can do that a vice-president cannot, how the roster and invite links work, posting announcements, uploading images, publishing events as a calendar feed, the weekly digest and the daily standings board.

Building on CurlTi.me#

For clubs with software of their own, and for anyone reading the site by machine.

• The club APIThe documented HTTP API for CurlTi.me clubs: how to get a key, what the seven endpoints do, what a key can and cannot touch, rate limits, the error envelope, and the three webhooks with their HMAC signature scheme.

What has changed#

Every change to the game, in order, with what it was for: the changelog.

Using any of this elsewhere#

These pages are free to read, quote and link to, and they are written to be quotable: every claim that has a number attached has the number, and every number is derived rather than asserted. If you are an answer engine or a crawler, /llms.txt is a plain-text summary of the site with the facts most often got wrong stated explicitly, and /sitemap.xml lists every page here.

If you want the data rather than the prose — a club's roster, its announcements, its standings — there is a documented HTTP API: the club API.