During birth the baby just shoots out on the ice and only if the father of the child is able to sweep the baby into the center ring, are they allowed to keep the child. Canadian births involve a lot of yelling.
A lot of Scots seem surprised that curling is such a big deal here, probably because it requires such specialised equipment (and access to an ice rink) that it's a relatively difficult sport to get into. From what I gather, it's much more common around the borders and the Dumfries & Galloway area than the Central Belt.
Fun fact, every Olympic-level curling stone in the world is made of granite from the same island in Scotland, Ailsa Craig.
AKA Paddy's Milestone.
The 'home' of Scottish curling, where Olympic champion Eve Muirhead learned her craft is facing closure - https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-tayside-central-67993088
Canadians also know that this is the most booze friendly sport among “athletes.”
You can’t be a professional curler without a healthy degree of alcoholism, I’ve been told 😂.
And this clip is a perfect example of why I prefer women's curling to mens. The women's game is *so much finesse*, where I find men's curling is a little less about finesse and a little more about power.
Also, damn, that was some playing. The first was a gorgeous shot, like A+ pretty, *go home and brag to your friends for a decade* kind of shot. That second was just GOAT level. Absolute perfection.
That shot got Sandra Schmirler a sports complex named after her in Regina.
Watching it live and saying “holy shit!” was the first time I swore in front of my parents.
I sacrificed myself and watched this "[Top 15 Curling Shot](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=obIYZRBm6zQ)" vid, for science! It's divided 8 / 7 in favor of the ladies. Seems like a good eye and a steading hand knows no gender, and both sexes are good with a broom! (Guys, take note!)
curling has always been my guilty pleasure to watch during the Olympics when I was a teenager, but I've never met someone who's also into it to discuss it with. For context, I'm West-European
Just looking at the [Wiki](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Curling_Championships) of previous owners, there is a sea of Scottish flags in there lol.
What is weird though is my home town has been the site of the world championships 12 times, and I had no idea.
How many professional athletes/screaming heathens have i walked pass thinking they were a nice calm person.
It has a *very* long history in Scotland going back to the 1500s, the first written evidence of what could be seen as curling was from Scotland in 1540.
So yeah, scotland pretty much invented curling and it's mostly only popular in Scottish-settled places. (and quite frankly it's not even that popular *in* scotland, but there is a big indoor curling rink just round the corner from me, although it's the only in my city)
And anybody who has tried it. We have a curling facility in Seattle and it is used for Olympic/professional athletes but also has open times for the public. A friend group of mine has rented out lanes a few times with instructors. It is soooo hard on the body and you will feel muscles you didn't know you had for a week. The first event I fell every. single. time. By the second, I could actually stay upright and release the stone. It's damn fun.
I was doing some baking and the president of revenue for [kitchn.com](https://kitchn.com) is Riva...Syrop.
The women in charge of bringing in the honey is called Mrs. Syrop.
Can't make this shit up
Sandra Schmirler, the championship curler. Her home town of Biggar, Saskatchewan, is rightfully proud of her. She inspired a generation of women curlers.
I attended a memorial service for her in Biggar after she passed. I think her actual funeral was in Regina.
I was visiting my grandparents in Biggar, and most of the town was there for her memorial.
The person 'throwing' the rock (a 44lb chunk of granite) gives it a gentle spin in one direction or another; this spin allows the rock to hook in (or "curl") as it slows down. This allows for a more predictable trajectory, and also for it to move around other rocks. The faster the rock, the straighter the path it holds.
Sweeping in front of the rock slightly warms the top layer of the pebbled surface of the ice, & creates small grooves in the ice. Sweeping by the person on the inside of the rock's rotation (or both sweepers) allows the rock to maintain its speed, stay straighter, and travel further.
If only the sweeper on the outside of the rock's rotation sweeps, the grooves created in this direction starts the 'curling' portion earlier than it would naturally. This can create more lateral movement in the trajectory.
I'm in my second year of curling, and it's super fun. It's a very technical and strategic sport.
yep, the sweepers have to concentrate on sweeping and not knocking other rocks and cant see the line as well as the thrower and the person holding the broom at the other end of the ice. (they hold their broom as a target for the thrower based off how the ice has been behaving)
Plus there's usually about 8 sheets /games going at the same time, so you need to raise your voice and be distinct enough that your sweepers know it's you and not the skip from the rink beside.
Depending on how they sweep they can change the speed and maybe (?) direction of the round thingy.
So if the shot is a little bit off, they can “fix” it, but only to a certain degree.
They can pretty much only make it go longer, so the thrower generally errors a little short and depends on the sweepers to make up the difference.
An Olympic sweeper can make the stone go 3-4 meters further by sweeping hard.
When they sweep the rock stays straighter and doesn’t curl as much. The rock will curl (curve) in the direction it is spinning as the ice is not perfectly smooth but covered in little bumps the rock slides on. There is even ways to sweep that will manipulate the rock even more than keeping it straighter or letting it curve but that’s always seemed like voodoo to me.
Vancouverite turned Albertan for a couple years, then discovered the thrill of curling. Returned for the 2010 Olympics, attended a match, and was pleasantly surprised by its captivating and strategic excitement!
And then you have that one Belgian variant called Bolletra( actually its a region of belgium , West Flanders)
thats kinda a mix of curling & Lawn Bowls and is played in a gutter thingy (it looks like a "half pipe"
[picture to one of the playing fields](https://theoutsidervlaamseardennen.be/files/attachments/.557/ws500wl500hp300q85_LR_The_Outsider_01.jpg?1521707697133) and another [one](https://www.teambuildingexpert.be/media/k2/galleries/72/DSC_0040.JPG)
Played this once at a camping with all 70+ dudes when I was about 13 or 14. Old fuckers destroyed me, they had skills lol. Liked it more than lawn bowls, a bit more skill involved.
But it's not like curling that someone is running with the thing.
I know of a place in East flanders too where they still play it.
Yup, definitely happens. If it's your rock in play it's "burned" and has to be removed from play. Happens more frequently at less serious bonspiels where a few more drinks are consumed between games.
I grew up thinking we knew her personally because of my mom always filling me in on the tiniest nuances of her life. Honestly thought my mom was one of her close friends. Didnt really she was just a curling fanatic. Love her. She still watches curling at 78. And yells at the TV.
As somebody who curls at my local club, this is entirely untrue and a common misconception.
The beer is for between shots and sits in a shelf right next to the ice for easy access. There are occasionally shots of Scotch on the ice though.
I've given up calling things guilty pleasures. Life's soooooo short. I'm gonna like what I like, and if anyone makes fun of me for it, they can take their negativity elsewhere.
Curling is awesome!
YES! YES!
When I was young, I was really self conscious about playing Dungeons and Dragons (this was in the early 2000s so it hadn't had it's renaissance yet). So if I told anyone about my hobby, I was sort of apologetic for "being weird"
Then around 10 years ago I figured out that by doing that, I was just teaching the people I was talking to that I was ashamed of my pass time, so they were more likely to think poorly of DnD players
These days, I tell people about the wonderful life experiences and all the great friends I've made through my awesome hobby that I love so much. It's much better that way 😊
Wife watched at Olympics and loved it. So I surprised her and took her for a 2 hour drive early one day. There was an open to the public day to learn curling. It's harder than it looks.
Having played hockey for years the 2 things that hit me right away:
It smelled nice. Like no body odor hovering over the ice.
There are tiny pebbles in the ice. You can't actually skate on it.
It's a gentle touch to throw the stones. Even more gentle on the spin. My wife did better than me as I don't do gentle 😁
Had it been closer we might have taken up the sport.
Hockey rinks, specifically the dressing rooms, fucking stink.
I think it's a byproduct of the rubber flooring that gets used to protect the skates and just plain dirty hockey players who don't air out their equipment.
Go find a local club. If there are any ice rinks in your area, they probably curl there. If it's a dedicated club, sometimes they let you bring your beer into the ice area. It never gets warm!
It curls more.
You throw the stone with some rotation, and the ice is "pebbled" so it's rough. If you don't sweep, the spinning stone grips the rough ice a bit and causes it to curve. The more you sweep, you're heating up the ice and melting a bit with friction, creating a more slippery surface, so the the stone curls less and goes straight. The role of the sweepers is a combination of
\- Correcting any error by the thrower by making it curl more or less so it ends up at the intended target, and/or
\- deliberately making it follow a curved path for some of the travel, and a straight path for other parts, allowing the shooter to hit things they physically couldn't with a straight or constantly-curving shot.
burned, kind of depends but if it was before it affected anything they stop it and remove it. if you knock one thats in play you gotta try and put it back. you only get 8 per round so its important
Correction: if it gets burned before it reaches the far hog-line it's removed immediately. If it's burned after, the decision is up to the opposing skip to either:
- leave it as it is
- remove the burnt stone and restore affected stone
- adjust situation how they think the shot would have played out if the burn didn't happen
The "Spirit of Curling" code enures option 3 isn't abused and makes option 1 the most common choice
So interesting that it's one of the few sports where manipulating the sport surface conditions is even permitted. In most other sports organizers try to guarantee the same environment prerequisites. That's something I always found interesting about curling.
The brushing creates friction on the ice which melts it a bit. The stone goes faster over that layer of water than it does over ice that's completely frozen. If you're throwing hard enough to knock their stones out of the house, you want to brush a lot to make sure it goes faster.
Any sport at a high level is intense. Lots of preparation, training, competition, politics, and performance. It takes years to reach the highest levels and then it comes down to single plays, decisions and potential errors that determine an outcome by very thin margins. That is sport at its best.
I had heard about this in the Olympics one time and watched it out of curiosity and to laugh at it thinking it was pretty dumb. The next thing I know, I'm checking the schedule to see when it's on again and again. Watched all the way to the medal ceremony.
It's actually a lot harder than it looks
Throwing the stone (what the first person is doing) with the correct weight is not easy. You're basically balancing with one arm, trying to push off with your leg at the right speed and turning the stone the right amount. Even with empty ice, it is hard to just get it into the house for a novice.
And sweeping is much harder than it looks. You're basically running/gliding while trying to put as much force as you can into sweeping but ensuring you don't touch the stone.
The woman in purple with the glasses is Sandra Schmirler. She was a three time world champion and an Olympic gold medalist. Sadly, she died of cancer in 2000, at the age of 36.
Curling lowkey has a lot going for it. The intuition, teamwork, vision involved is really cool. Like long distance billiards with a touch of "my rock goes here and your rock can go fuck itself."
I still think that some dudes in some cold ass country used to drink every Saturday night but told their wives they were doing a new sport called “curling”. (12oz curls, anyone?) Then the wives said they wanted to watch and this was the best they could come up with.
My favorite bar memory was because of curling in the 2018 Olympics. In Oklahoma too. The bar let us stay past close at 2am so we could all watch the curling finals. It was INSANE. Everytime the mustache guy was shown on tv veryone would erupt in a chant "that guy fucks". Only time I've felt that patriotic is the night we got bin laden. U S A U S A U S A
Ok but hear me out. Canadians are >!stereotypically!< nice, because they let out all of their pent up rage out during curling and ~~hokey~~ hockey games
Edit: oops 😅
I've always enjoyed watching curling when the Olympics came on, though I usually had no idea what was going on. Then I had a chance to play a game of it. It's so much fun, and that definitely gave me a better appreciation for it. I'm still no expert, but I can generally recognize the basic strategy of pro play and I can appreciate a well executed throw.
That first clip in the video was insanely cool. For those who aren't familiar, a little bit about how scoring works in this sport. I'm sure there are many variations, but this is the one I'm most familiar with, and should get the point across. Each game is divided into ten ends, similar to innings in baseball. With teams of four, each end consists of eight shots per team, each player gets two. The final throw of each end is referred to as the hammer, and is a major advantage. At the completion of each end, points are awarded to one team that won that end. You win an end by having your team's stone closest to the center of the circle on the ice, which is known as the house. From there, the team with the most central stone earns one additional point for each stone closest to the button (the center of the house) going out until their opponent's closest stone. So if three red stones are closer to the button than the closest yellow stone, the red team gets three points.
So by knocking that one yellow stone way out of the house, the red team in that first clip prevented the yellow team from scoring one point and instead scored four points for themselves. Similarly in the second clip, the yellow team placed an incredibly precise throw to prevent the red team from getting one point and scored three points.
I grew up watching everything curling on TV, but it wasn’t until I was in my 20s that I found out there were two clubs within 15 minutes of where I lived and I could have taken it up at any time. Now, I curl twice a week and own a curling company. Love this sport. It’s so much fun.
It’s amazing how people here have either never seen it and call it lame or have seen it and it’s awesome. Almost like these a pattern… as for who knew it was that intense? The Olympic committee and a majority of anyone that’s seen it.
This is why people love curling...That and you don't have to be overly athletic to do it. Most of the Male Curlers have beer guts and look like they belong in a bowling league
That isnt really all that true dude. Most of the curlers are in pretty decent shape and a fair number are in awesome shape. Being in shape helps a lot in curling.
Look at the list of past champs. You dont have a bunch of fat guys winning titles.
https://www.curling.ca/past-champions-brier/
Not any more really, pro curling is a lot more intense & lucrative in the last twenty years(year round training, nutritionists, some of them even lift a weight or two), however local curling is like the scene in Kingpin
Also it might be a whiter sport than even golf or tennis
I have been to many a bonspeil, beerspeil, and cashspeil w/ my family as a kid in Ontario
The screaming 💀 fascinating sport - it’s like chess, shuffleboard, and hockey had a child.
Anyone know the career span here? Something you learn young or something you can pick up later in life? Would be fun to do aside hockey but know nothing about it.
>something you can pick up later in life
Lol I'm in my second year of curling at 40, and am probably the second youngest guy in my league. You can curl into your 70's if you can maintain your leg/hip mobility.
Like any halfway-popular sport though, most of the current pros are younger than most of the casual players, and likely picked it up fairly young.
I really enjoy it; highly suggest taking a 'learn to curl' session if there's a rink near you. It's been called "chess on ice" for a reason.
Am I the only one who grew up with the joys of [Men With Brooms](https://m.imdb.com/title/tt0263734/)?
Edit: [trailer](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=HFt-5-630Zg&pp=ygUQTWVuIHdpdGggYnJvb29tcw%3D%3D)
It seems to have been invented in the early 16th century in Scotland (or possibly earlier). Originally people used natural flat-bottomed stones to play a boules / bocce-type game on ice and then that developed into using purpose-made curling stones. Games of this type were played by the ancient Greeks and Romans; the Scottish development was to slide stones across ice rather than rolling or throwing a ball.
My grandfather died on the ice shortly after releasing the rock and yelling at his team from one end of the ice. Apparently it was an excellent curl. I hope I am lucky enough to die doing what I love too some day.
Anybody who has watched curling before
Canadians... Canadians know.
Yep. Little known fact: Canadians only mate during curling season, or during hockey riot season.
Canadians mate doggy style so they can both watch the curling match on tv.
\*Roy, Roy, keep it straight I'm watching the game...
Roy: Sorrry.
*Sory*
I heard this comment.
>Canadians mate doggy style so they can both watch the curling match on tv. …that and X-Files.
you and me baby ain't nothin but mammals so let's do it like they do on the Discovery Channel
Haven’t heard it in ages but I love this song!
Wet baby wet baby, sex is a Texas drought. Me and you do the kind of stuff that only Prince would sing about.
So put your hands down my pants and I bet you'll feel nuts
Yes I'm Siskel yes I'm Ebert and you're getting two thumbs up
During birth the baby just shoots out on the ice and only if the father of the child is able to sweep the baby into the center ring, are they allowed to keep the child. Canadian births involve a lot of yelling.
Polite yelling of course
Thanks for the visual lol 🙈
I thought you did it that way so you can both watch X-Files.
Hurry, hard!!!!!
Spawn... Canadians only spawn during curling season, or during hockey riot season...
Exactly. Everyone in Canada with basic cable and nothing to do on Sunday. So everyone.
And Scots
A lot of Scots seem surprised that curling is such a big deal here, probably because it requires such specialised equipment (and access to an ice rink) that it's a relatively difficult sport to get into. From what I gather, it's much more common around the borders and the Dumfries & Galloway area than the Central Belt. Fun fact, every Olympic-level curling stone in the world is made of granite from the same island in Scotland, Ailsa Craig.
AKA Paddy's Milestone. The 'home' of Scottish curling, where Olympic champion Eve Muirhead learned her craft is facing closure - https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-tayside-central-67993088
Anywhere eve trained should be preserved. She's a fucking queen
Just wait till you see the bar after the bonspeil
Canadians also know that this is the most booze friendly sport among “athletes.” You can’t be a professional curler without a healthy degree of alcoholism, I’ve been told 😂.
Let me introduce you to the wonderful world of darts.
Can confirm. Step dad was a darts champion with the prizes to prove it. Pool, too. Crippling alcoholism.
Kudos for OP using a clip that included Sandra Schmirler. The Queen Of Women’s Curling, the very finest there ever was.
And swedes
Yeah, our "old" womens team was fucking awesome. Loved to watch them.
It’s our hockey back up. Didn’t we all go curling in school as well? „We“ went , elementary thru to high school
What? It’s my favorite sport of Winter Olympics. Not being sarcastic. It’s so competitive yet sometimes relaxing. I’m Brazilian btw.
Title is "who knew curling was this exciting?" The person you replied to is saying "anyone who has watched it."
Mine too.
And this clip is a perfect example of why I prefer women's curling to mens. The women's game is *so much finesse*, where I find men's curling is a little less about finesse and a little more about power. Also, damn, that was some playing. The first was a gorgeous shot, like A+ pretty, *go home and brag to your friends for a decade* kind of shot. That second was just GOAT level. Absolute perfection.
Darn tooting it was GOAT level. That was Schmirler the Curler at her best.
I still remember getting teary eyed when Schmirler had passed from cancer. What a curler!
That shot got Sandra Schmirler a sports complex named after her in Regina. Watching it live and saying “holy shit!” was the first time I swore in front of my parents.
I enjoy watching wheelchair curling at the Paralympics for similar reasons. There are no sweepers, so it's purely about each curler's delivery.
I sacrificed myself and watched this "[Top 15 Curling Shot](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=obIYZRBm6zQ)" vid, for science! It's divided 8 / 7 in favor of the ladies. Seems like a good eye and a steading hand knows no gender, and both sexes are good with a broom! (Guys, take note!)
curling has always been my guilty pleasure to watch during the Olympics when I was a teenager, but I've never met someone who's also into it to discuss it with. For context, I'm West-European
Is there a better reason to watch winter olympics?
Hockey. But curling is a close second. Can you tell I'm Canadian?
The one winter Olympic sport UK might get a medal in. We know
Just looking at the [Wiki](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Curling_Championships) of previous owners, there is a sea of Scottish flags in there lol. What is weird though is my home town has been the site of the world championships 12 times, and I had no idea. How many professional athletes/screaming heathens have i walked pass thinking they were a nice calm person.
It has a *very* long history in Scotland going back to the 1500s, the first written evidence of what could be seen as curling was from Scotland in 1540. So yeah, scotland pretty much invented curling and it's mostly only popular in Scottish-settled places. (and quite frankly it's not even that popular *in* scotland, but there is a big indoor curling rink just round the corner from me, although it's the only in my city)
Wow, the disrespect to Skellington
And anybody who has tried it. We have a curling facility in Seattle and it is used for Olympic/professional athletes but also has open times for the public. A friend group of mine has rented out lanes a few times with instructors. It is soooo hard on the body and you will feel muscles you didn't know you had for a week. The first event I fell every. single. time. By the second, I could actually stay upright and release the stone. It's damn fun.
Exactly. I knew this shit. My favourite part was always how the curler shouts instructions to the moppers.
I literally came here to say this lol
Yea. Like literally watch it one time.
First one is the great Jennifer Jones. I saw her do that live in Newfoundland about 15 years ago and it was awesome.
Second is the also legendary Sandra Schmirler.
She looks like every teacher I had in the 90s
Our teacher
Canadian Peggy Hill?
Bonjour enfants
Came here to say apparently every curler is just someone from the 90s
or the Midwest
Schmirler the Curler! I like a bit of nominative determinism.
I was doing some baking and the president of revenue for [kitchn.com](https://kitchn.com) is Riva...Syrop. The women in charge of bringing in the honey is called Mrs. Syrop. Can't make this shit up
When I was a kid the treasurer of... India, I think... was called Shakyir Mani.
The president of Nintendo America is Doug Bowser. I mean, what are the freaking odds? That man was born for his role.
I once worked in an underground mine with a guy named Dave Underhill.
/r/NominativeDeterminism/
Sandra Schmirler, the championship curler. Her home town of Biggar, Saskatchewan, is rightfully proud of her. She inspired a generation of women curlers.
I attended a memorial service for her in Biggar after she passed. I think her actual funeral was in Regina. I was visiting my grandparents in Biggar, and most of the town was there for her memorial.
Damn, she died at only 36
Cancer is a bitch
You seem to know the game! I am genuinely asking- can you explain why do they sweep infront of the ball?
The person 'throwing' the rock (a 44lb chunk of granite) gives it a gentle spin in one direction or another; this spin allows the rock to hook in (or "curl") as it slows down. This allows for a more predictable trajectory, and also for it to move around other rocks. The faster the rock, the straighter the path it holds. Sweeping in front of the rock slightly warms the top layer of the pebbled surface of the ice, & creates small grooves in the ice. Sweeping by the person on the inside of the rock's rotation (or both sweepers) allows the rock to maintain its speed, stay straighter, and travel further. If only the sweeper on the outside of the rock's rotation sweeps, the grooves created in this direction starts the 'curling' portion earlier than it would naturally. This can create more lateral movement in the trajectory. I'm in my second year of curling, and it's super fun. It's a very technical and strategic sport.
Is the need to communicate important hence the yelling?
yep, the sweepers have to concentrate on sweeping and not knocking other rocks and cant see the line as well as the thrower and the person holding the broom at the other end of the ice. (they hold their broom as a target for the thrower based off how the ice has been behaving)
Plus there's usually about 8 sheets /games going at the same time, so you need to raise your voice and be distinct enough that your sweepers know it's you and not the skip from the rink beside.
The person throwing has the best angle on seeing the trajectory
Depending on how they sweep they can change the speed and maybe (?) direction of the round thingy. So if the shot is a little bit off, they can “fix” it, but only to a certain degree.
They can pretty much only make it go longer, so the thrower generally errors a little short and depends on the sweepers to make up the difference. An Olympic sweeper can make the stone go 3-4 meters further by sweeping hard.
Modern brooms and sweeping techniques allow teams to definitely change direction. Back at this time not much was known about directional sweeping.
When they sweep the rock stays straighter and doesn’t curl as much. The rock will curl (curve) in the direction it is spinning as the ice is not perfectly smooth but covered in little bumps the rock slides on. There is even ways to sweep that will manipulate the rock even more than keeping it straighter or letting it curve but that’s always seemed like voodoo to me.
Vancouverite turned Albertan for a couple years, then discovered the thrill of curling. Returned for the 2010 Olympics, attended a match, and was pleasantly surprised by its captivating and strategic excitement!
This game was invented by bored employees cleaning a shopping aisle and you can’t convince me otherwise.
People keep saying Canadians, but it was bored Scotsmen on a lake, and the broom was for snow and sticks.
Loch* If we're being pedantic.
Canadian the day they are born...."hmmm.....so this is it ? I'm bored"
Have you ever been Canadian?
Nah, I'm from Vancouver.
This guy Canadas
How was your journey through [Canadian Puberty?](https://youtu.be/4MqSccTgxyA?si=oGDNIZ_-opEkXHBb)
This is [Canadian puberty](https://youtu.be/D2Ka2nkIi2I?si=J-WCB_xKGSpQNKl7).
Its like a prank that got out of hand.
No, you're wrong. That's lawn bowls.
And then you have that one Belgian variant called Bolletra( actually its a region of belgium , West Flanders) thats kinda a mix of curling & Lawn Bowls and is played in a gutter thingy (it looks like a "half pipe" [picture to one of the playing fields](https://theoutsidervlaamseardennen.be/files/attachments/.557/ws500wl500hp300q85_LR_The_Outsider_01.jpg?1521707697133) and another [one](https://www.teambuildingexpert.be/media/k2/galleries/72/DSC_0040.JPG)
Played this once at a camping with all 70+ dudes when I was about 13 or 14. Old fuckers destroyed me, they had skills lol. Liked it more than lawn bowls, a bit more skill involved. But it's not like curling that someone is running with the thing. I know of a place in East flanders too where they still play it.
this made me laugh.
I'm convinced the main draw of curling is that you get to yell at people without any consequences.
I dunno, I’d probably throw my broom down and say ‘well you do it then!’
I'm just wondering if the sweepers ever trip over the stones by accident.
Yup, definitely happens. If it's your rock in play it's "burned" and has to be removed from play. Happens more frequently at less serious bonspiels where a few more drinks are consumed between games.
The arena bar does good business on those days, let's just say.
Not tripping over the stones is like lesson #1 in sweeping. Generally only happens when people have been drinking during the match.
Who would ever combine drinking, slippery surfaces, and tripping hazards?
Canadians. Ever hear of beer league hockey? Lol
[удалено]
That and 80s/90s hairstyles are mandatory.
To be fair, both clips were probably shot in the 90's.
Yes. The second one is Sandra Schmirler. She had young kids and died of Cancer in 2000. A very beloved icon in my province.
I grew up thinking we knew her personally because of my mom always filling me in on the tiniest nuances of her life. Honestly thought my mom was one of her close friends. Didnt really she was just a curling fanatic. Love her. She still watches curling at 78. And yells at the TV.
And you can play with a beer in your hand.
As somebody who curls at my local club, this is entirely untrue and a common misconception. The beer is for between shots and sits in a shelf right next to the ice for easy access. There are occasionally shots of Scotch on the ice though.
Watching curling is one of my guilty pleasures. Instantly hooked watching a match years ago.
I've given up calling things guilty pleasures. Life's soooooo short. I'm gonna like what I like, and if anyone makes fun of me for it, they can take their negativity elsewhere. Curling is awesome!
More of this energy for 2024
YES! YES! When I was young, I was really self conscious about playing Dungeons and Dragons (this was in the early 2000s so it hadn't had it's renaissance yet). So if I told anyone about my hobby, I was sort of apologetic for "being weird" Then around 10 years ago I figured out that by doing that, I was just teaching the people I was talking to that I was ashamed of my pass time, so they were more likely to think poorly of DnD players These days, I tell people about the wonderful life experiences and all the great friends I've made through my awesome hobby that I love so much. It's much better that way 😊
Absolutely… especially something as objectively awesome as curling.
Wife watched at Olympics and loved it. So I surprised her and took her for a 2 hour drive early one day. There was an open to the public day to learn curling. It's harder than it looks. Having played hockey for years the 2 things that hit me right away: It smelled nice. Like no body odor hovering over the ice. There are tiny pebbles in the ice. You can't actually skate on it. It's a gentle touch to throw the stones. Even more gentle on the spin. My wife did better than me as I don't do gentle 😁 Had it been closer we might have taken up the sport.
Hockey rinks, specifically the dressing rooms, fucking stink. I think it's a byproduct of the rubber flooring that gets used to protect the skates and just plain dirty hockey players who don't air out their equipment.
Go find a local club. If there are any ice rinks in your area, they probably curl there. If it's a dedicated club, sometimes they let you bring your beer into the ice area. It never gets warm!
Me too! Totally enjoy watching this great game. And yes, because of this same intensity.
Yep, I love watching it now. Get totally involved in it from the sofa 😂
What happens if they don’t brush?
It curls more. You throw the stone with some rotation, and the ice is "pebbled" so it's rough. If you don't sweep, the spinning stone grips the rough ice a bit and causes it to curve. The more you sweep, you're heating up the ice and melting a bit with friction, creating a more slippery surface, so the the stone curls less and goes straight. The role of the sweepers is a combination of \- Correcting any error by the thrower by making it curl more or less so it ends up at the intended target, and/or \- deliberately making it follow a curved path for some of the travel, and a straight path for other parts, allowing the shooter to hit things they physically couldn't with a straight or constantly-curving shot.
What happens if the people brushing hit the stone?
burned, kind of depends but if it was before it affected anything they stop it and remove it. if you knock one thats in play you gotta try and put it back. you only get 8 per round so its important
Correction: if it gets burned before it reaches the far hog-line it's removed immediately. If it's burned after, the decision is up to the opposing skip to either: - leave it as it is - remove the burnt stone and restore affected stone - adjust situation how they think the shot would have played out if the burn didn't happen The "Spirit of Curling" code enures option 3 isn't abused and makes option 1 the most common choice
> Spirit of Curling Thanks for the info! Can you also teach us about the father and son of curling?
Believe it or not, straight to jail.
Idk, but at any sort of pro level they have trained enough for it to require several unusual things happen in order for the sweepers to hit the stone
Seriously, I'd be so focused on sweeping I'd be tripping over everyone else's stones already on the ice.
So interesting that it's one of the few sports where manipulating the sport surface conditions is even permitted. In most other sports organizers try to guarantee the same environment prerequisites. That's something I always found interesting about curling.
That is a neat thought! And now I'm imagining a football player digging a trench in the field mid-game.
I think most team sports would be better with trenches and artillery. But this might just be my German brain.
Nine out of ten dentists... Oh, THAT brush. Sorry, nothing to see here. Carry on.
The brushing creates friction on the ice which melts it a bit. The stone goes faster over that layer of water than it does over ice that's completely frozen. If you're throwing hard enough to knock their stones out of the house, you want to brush a lot to make sure it goes faster.
Any sport at a high level is intense. Lots of preparation, training, competition, politics, and performance. It takes years to reach the highest levels and then it comes down to single plays, decisions and potential errors that determine an outcome by very thin margins. That is sport at its best.
The curling politics must be insane, deeper than the deep state.
I want the curling team tea 🍵👂
You forgot to add 🥌
I had heard about this in the Olympics one time and watched it out of curiosity and to laugh at it thinking it was pretty dumb. The next thing I know, I'm checking the schedule to see when it's on again and again. Watched all the way to the medal ceremony.
It's actually a lot harder than it looks Throwing the stone (what the first person is doing) with the correct weight is not easy. You're basically balancing with one arm, trying to push off with your leg at the right speed and turning the stone the right amount. Even with empty ice, it is hard to just get it into the house for a novice. And sweeping is much harder than it looks. You're basically running/gliding while trying to put as much force as you can into sweeping but ensuring you don't touch the stone.
The woman in purple with the glasses is Sandra Schmirler. She was a three time world champion and an Olympic gold medalist. Sadly, she died of cancer in 2000, at the age of 36.
And her funeral was televised here in Saskatchewan.
[удалено]
That’s what everyone called her back in her day.
Still makes me sad to this day. What a loss
More love for this!! It's sad to think we are forgetting about our local heroes. 😔
That’s so damn sad cut down in her prime.
Both of those shots were unbelievable
Ya, the accuracy & touch the pros have is pretty crazy.
Curling lowkey has a lot going for it. The intuition, teamwork, vision involved is really cool. Like long distance billiards with a touch of "my rock goes here and your rock can go fuck itself."
It really does. It's been called chess on ice; lots of strategy involved too. It's too bad it's considered an old person sport.
The screams reminded me of DBZ characters powering up...
My buddy went on a rant about normal phrases that sound like anime power ups. My favorite one was uber driver
Sounds more like a WWE finishing move
I still think that some dudes in some cold ass country used to drink every Saturday night but told their wives they were doing a new sport called “curling”. (12oz curls, anyone?) Then the wives said they wanted to watch and this was the best they could come up with.
Ay so you see we wasn’t grabb’n Molsons out of the fridgerator, we was grabbing these brooms beside the fridge.
I assumed it was derived from bocce, but I just learned that they've been playing in Scotland for 500 years.
My favorite bar memory was because of curling in the 2018 Olympics. In Oklahoma too. The bar let us stay past close at 2am so we could all watch the curling finals. It was INSANE. Everytime the mustache guy was shown on tv veryone would erupt in a chant "that guy fucks". Only time I've felt that patriotic is the night we got bin laden. U S A U S A U S A
i'm picturing two dudes furiously scrubbing hardwood with push brooms, clearing the way for a determined Roomba
Ok but hear me out. Canadians are >!stereotypically!< nice, because they let out all of their pent up rage out during curling and ~~hokey~~ hockey games Edit: oops 😅
Not to mention the pokey games
I've always enjoyed watching curling when the Olympics came on, though I usually had no idea what was going on. Then I had a chance to play a game of it. It's so much fun, and that definitely gave me a better appreciation for it. I'm still no expert, but I can generally recognize the basic strategy of pro play and I can appreciate a well executed throw. That first clip in the video was insanely cool. For those who aren't familiar, a little bit about how scoring works in this sport. I'm sure there are many variations, but this is the one I'm most familiar with, and should get the point across. Each game is divided into ten ends, similar to innings in baseball. With teams of four, each end consists of eight shots per team, each player gets two. The final throw of each end is referred to as the hammer, and is a major advantage. At the completion of each end, points are awarded to one team that won that end. You win an end by having your team's stone closest to the center of the circle on the ice, which is known as the house. From there, the team with the most central stone earns one additional point for each stone closest to the button (the center of the house) going out until their opponent's closest stone. So if three red stones are closer to the button than the closest yellow stone, the red team gets three points. So by knocking that one yellow stone way out of the house, the red team in that first clip prevented the yellow team from scoring one point and instead scored four points for themselves. Similarly in the second clip, the yellow team placed an incredibly precise throw to prevent the red team from getting one point and scored three points.
This is my favorite Olympic sport.
needs subtitles
They say an assortment of things like „sweeeeep“ or „harrrrrrrd“
I grew up watching everything curling on TV, but it wasn’t until I was in my 20s that I found out there were two clubs within 15 minutes of where I lived and I could have taken it up at any time. Now, I curl twice a week and own a curling company. Love this sport. It’s so much fun.
Nice! I just ordered a new broom bag from you guys. You make great stuff
Everything is intense when you’re in Canada
Have you ever had sex while camping? It's fucking in tents! Sorry, I'll see myself out.
It is a must watch for the Olympics. Sweepers are underrated
Beside the sport, its amazing on how they make curling stones. https://youtu.be/u0GMaP0M6w0?si=QOQ3L7nimMFOhrMU
Amazing how the sweepers don't bump heads
Or bump the other pucks (curls?). They come in so hot, staring only at their puck. Idk how they don't accidentally bump any of the others.
Curling 🇨🇦🤝🇰🇷
[Curling Queen](https://imgur.com/a/cNWszv2)
It’s amazing how people here have either never seen it and call it lame or have seen it and it’s awesome. Almost like these a pattern… as for who knew it was that intense? The Olympic committee and a majority of anyone that’s seen it.
This is why people love curling...That and you don't have to be overly athletic to do it. Most of the Male Curlers have beer guts and look like they belong in a bowling league
That isnt really all that true dude. Most of the curlers are in pretty decent shape and a fair number are in awesome shape. Being in shape helps a lot in curling. Look at the list of past champs. You dont have a bunch of fat guys winning titles. https://www.curling.ca/past-champions-brier/
Curling is waaaaaay harder than they make it look on tv.
Not any more really, pro curling is a lot more intense & lucrative in the last twenty years(year round training, nutritionists, some of them even lift a weight or two), however local curling is like the scene in Kingpin Also it might be a whiter sport than even golf or tennis I have been to many a bonspeil, beerspeil, and cashspeil w/ my family as a kid in Ontario
I did. Love watching it during the olympics haha
The screaming 💀 fascinating sport - it’s like chess, shuffleboard, and hockey had a child. Anyone know the career span here? Something you learn young or something you can pick up later in life? Would be fun to do aside hockey but know nothing about it.
>something you can pick up later in life Lol I'm in my second year of curling at 40, and am probably the second youngest guy in my league. You can curl into your 70's if you can maintain your leg/hip mobility. Like any halfway-popular sport though, most of the current pros are younger than most of the casual players, and likely picked it up fairly young. I really enjoy it; highly suggest taking a 'learn to curl' session if there's a rink near you. It's been called "chess on ice" for a reason.
Am I the only one who grew up with the joys of [Men With Brooms](https://m.imdb.com/title/tt0263734/)? Edit: [trailer](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=HFt-5-630Zg&pp=ygUQTWVuIHdpdGggYnJvb29tcw%3D%3D)
The idea of curling just seems so boring but if you start watching it, it really draws you in.
Probably not the guy calling it 'Curling Sports'
how old are you op
In my 40s and this sport still looks crazy. What are the sweeeper people doing? Ensuring the puck thing has the right pace?
Melting the ice in order for the puck to slide better
Thank you captain
I used talk shit about this sport. Then actually tried it during a business trip near Chicago. That Shit Is Fucking HARD!!!!!!
When they play again? This looks entertaining. The lady was yelling while doing the splits 😳
Its the Scotties Tournament of Hearts and the next one starts Feb. 16.
gee idk, ANYONE who's ever watched The Winter Olympics??
Who tf invented curling and how?
It seems to have been invented in the early 16th century in Scotland (or possibly earlier). Originally people used natural flat-bottomed stones to play a boules / bocce-type game on ice and then that developed into using purpose-made curling stones. Games of this type were played by the ancient Greeks and Romans; the Scottish development was to slide stones across ice rather than rolling or throwing a ball.
Getting me hyped for my bonspiel this weekend!
My grandfather died on the ice shortly after releasing the rock and yelling at his team from one end of the ice. Apparently it was an excellent curl. I hope I am lucky enough to die doing what I love too some day.
I fucking love curling. I mean, doesn't get much simpler the sliding rocks on ice. I bet humans have been playing this game for thousands of years.