Additional Rules and Information
The Five Rock Rule - The Five Rock Rule is a rule that was introduced in the 1991-1992 season as the 4 rock rule and then updated to the 5 rock rule in the 2018. Under the 5 rock rule, a team cannot knock its opponent's guards out of play until the 6th rock in the end. A team can knock their opponent's stone elsewhere in play or can remove their own guards, but if they knock an opponent's guard out of play with one of the first 5 rocks, the thrown rock is removed from play and all other stones are returned to their previous position. This rule was introduced to encourage scoring as it gives teams an opportunity to hide stones behind their guards. Due to this rule, the team's leads are often asked to place guards with their stones. Teams without the hammer will keep their guards in the center third of the sheet ("a center guard") to block the path to the button. Teams with the hammer will typically place their guards in the outside thirds of the sheet as "corner guards."
The Hammer - Teams with the hammer are generally expected to score two points. If they only score one point ("a force"), it is considered a victory for the team without hammer. If the team with hammer gives up one or more points, it is considered "a steal." Oftentimes, especially at the elite level, teams with the hammer will seek to blank the end (an end in which nobody scores by nobody having a stone on the rings) if they do not have confidence that they will score two points. This is so that they can have the hammer again in the next end.
Hog Line - Stones need to fully cross the far hog line to be considered in play. Rocks falling short of the hog line are removed from play. The one exception to the hog line rule is if a thrown stone makes contact with a stone that is already fully across the hog line but, in doing so, stops on or before the hog line, then the most recently thrown stone remains in play.
Burned Rocks - When a player touches an in-motion rock with any part of their body or with a curling broom, the rock is considered burned. Sweepers are expected to call the foul of burning a stone on themselves as it is unlikely anyone else will know. There are some specific practices to deal with burned stones:
- If the rock is burned between the hog lines (or inside the near hog line), the stone is immediately removed from play
- If the rock is burned after crossing the far hog line, the offending player should call out loudly that they burned the rock but let the rocks all come to a stop. The non-offending team then gets to decide if they want to do One of the following:
- Let the rocks stay as they came to rest,
- Remove the burned rock and place the rocks back to where they were previously, if any were moved, - OR -
- Position the rocks how they would have ended up had the rock not been burned
Basic Curling Strategy - Some basics of curling strategy include:
- When a team is ahead - When a team is ahead by more than a couple of points, their goal becomes to ensure that their opponent scores no more than one point when they have hammer. To do this, a common strategy is to play in the house, meaning not putting up a guard but throwing onto the top 8 foot circle, for example. The team that is behind will need to ignore the stones on the house until later in the end if they want to score more than one. If the team that is behind elects to hit the stone on the rings, multiple takeouts ensue and they are unlikely to score more than point unless the opponent misses a shot.
- When a team is behind - When a team is behind by a couple of points or more, the focus needs to be on scoring multiple points. To score multiple points, the team should refrain from making takeouts. Instead, the team should focus on getting multiple guards down, drawing behind guards, tapping opponent's stones in the front of the house to the back of the house (to act as a potentially backstop if their opponent tries to knock their stone out) and freezing to opponent's rocks in play (especially if they in the back of the house).
- When a team is significantly ahead near the end of the game - When a team is significantly ahead near the end of the game, even throwing a stone on the rings might not be desired. In this instance, the team will often intentionally throw their stones through the rings until the 6 stone in the end and, after that, they will begin taking out their opponent's stones starting with any guards in play. This strategy should only be undertaken in the last few ends of the game when a team is significantly ahead. Following this strategy when only up by 2-3 points with 3 or more ends left in the game could result in the team in the lead giving up several points if they miss some shots.
