I'm Coo Coo For Curling

I've been watching some of the curling events at the Olympics this year. I did watch the very little that was on TV last Winter Olympics and have watched some World Cup matches on ESPN. I've gotten interested, mainly cause it looks like a sport that just about anyone could do. It's not really all that physically demanding. Where else could you *throw rocks,* yell at other people to HURRY!! and get away with it?

It's a slow paced game. Each team gets 8 stones. There are 4 players to a team and they each get 30 minutes to throw the 8 stones. Each game or sheet, as it is called in curling lingo, lasts two hours.

As I stated earlier, the team has 4 players. The lead throws the first two rocks, second, the next two, third the next two and the *skip* which is the captain, throws the last two. The last rock thrown is called the hammer.

They really have some interesting lingo too. Like, hack, hogger, hog line, house, rink (which is what the team is called, not the venue), tee line, burned stone, freeze, button, biter, etc.

The stone or rock is made from solid granite found in Wales and Scotland. I think I read somewhere that it weights 25 pounds. It's not like you have to carry it around though.

The surface of the ice is shaved smooth just like for ice skating, but then it is sprayed with water droplets similar to how a sprinkling can to water flowers works. This is called pebbling. This is done so the rock and the ice has less friction, enabling the stone to be thrown with less effort.

So, the *skip* throws the rock aiming at the opponents stone to knock it away from the scoring rings and/or to use it as a way to get their stone into scoring position. The *sweepers* sweep their little hearts out to clear the ice and control, without touching the stone, into positions they want as the stone goes down the lane. It's sort of like shuffleboard that old geezers play at the parks out here. (Just a note: I'm having a birthday this coming Saturday and its making me closer to the *old geezer* range. Very birthday does that you know!)

As far as I can tell, the only physical part is being able to get in that squatting, lunge position to throw (which is really gliding the stone on the ice) the stone and back up. The sweeping can get a little intense at times. I do like how they get to *glide* down the ice on one foot. Their shoes have rubber soles, but one shoe is fitted with a *booty* made of Teflon so they can glide back and forth on the ice.

For more information on curling, this web site has cute animations about curling, www.curlingbasics.com