rules to play curling

When you throw a rock down the ice, depending on its rotation which is applied intentionally it will curl, or bend, one way or another. How much (or little) a rock curls or bends, depends largely on the conditions of the playing surface.

The curling sheet, the rink, looks like shown on the image below.The concentric rings on both ends of the rink are called the house.The center of the house is marked by the intersection of the centerline and the teeline, and is called the button.The hogline lies parallel to the teeline, in front of the house.The so called Free guard zone is the area between the hogline and the teeline excluding the house.

For indoor tournaments the artificially created ice has its surface sprinkled with water droplets which freeze into tiny bumps on the surface. Called pebbled ice, this surface helps the stones grip and leads to more consistent curling.

Mens curling was included in the Olympic programme in 1924 at the first Olympic Winter Games in Chamonix. It was then dropped, and later re introduced as a demonstration sport in 1932 in Lake Placid.Between 1936 and 1992, curling was staged at the Games as a demonstration sport in Garmisch Partenkirchen in 1936 and Innsbruck in 1964, under the German name of Eisschiessen; and in 1988 in Calgary and in 1992 in Albertville, with both mens and womens events.It was in Nagano in 1998 that it officially joined the Olympic programme, with both mens and womens competitions.