As a curler, you are constantly working to improve your delivery. Making sure that you are sliding straight at the broom, with your hips and shoulder square, your sliding foot in the right position and your trailing leg following correctly is an ongoing process. Even at the highest levels of the game, the elite athletes are always working on how they throw the rock. For them however, it is less about their slide, and more about fine tuning. In other words, when a curler feels that their slide is solid, they must move onto polishing the very specific details. Fine tuning in a curling delivery usually consists of three main aspects: grip, rotation and release.
Grip refers to the manner in which you hold your rock during the slide. When a curler is first starting out, this is not always an important aspect of the delivery: sliding out accurately at the broom, with the desired speed is much more important. However when top curlers look to improve their delivery by making small tweaks, grip is one area they may investigate.
There is a specific grip that is suggested is ideal for curlers. When you look at the palm of your hand, on your fingers you may notice three distinguished sections or "pads". In in an ideal grip, the middle pad is what goes directly under the handle of the rock. The fingers are placed fairly close together, about halfway down the handle (between the gooseneck and the end of the handle). The fingers are then wrapped around the handle, with the thumb resting on the opposite side. A high wrist is also recommended, to help with the release section, which we will get to later.
The rock should be positioned in the correct turn for the duration of the slide before release. For a right-handers' in-turn, the handle of the rock should point to the 10 o'clock position, while a right-handers' outturn should be pointing at the 2 o'clock position. If the rock is turned any more, or less, it will impact the amount of rotation is placed on the rock, which will be discussed next.
Ok, so now your slide is accurate and you have your rock gripped properly in your hand. The next fine-tuning point to consider is rotation, or in other words, the number of turns or spins your rock takes while travelling down the sheet. Ideally, the rock will rotate between 2.5 and 3 times while travelling down the sheet. As I mentioned in the grip section, if your grip has the rock at a larger angle (at about the 9 or 3 o'clock position) you will over-rotate upon release, and therefore the rock will likely rotate more than three times while travelling down the sheet. The opposite is also true: if you are not gripping the rock at enough of an angle (holding it 11 or 1 o'clock) you likely don't have enough rotation on your rock upon release, and therefore it will spin less times while in motion.
The result of a rock that has fewer rotations is generally that it will curl much more, and therefore will not travel as far.
The result of a rock that has more rotations is generally that it will curl much less, and therefore travel further.
The final and most difficult element of fine-tuning your curling delivery is the release itself. This is however, perhaps the most crucial element in determining the path that your rock will take when it is travelling down the ice. If you are holding the rock correctly, with a nice high wrist, and your rock is the proper position while you are sliding (either at 10 or 2 o'clock) then the release - in theory - is fairly straightforward. Simply turn the rock towards 12 o'clock, and when it reaches that point open your fingers, into a handshake motion, thereby releasing the rock. Sounds simple, right? Well, the truth is: it's not.
Some big questions are when you should begin turning the rock, and how long it should take to travel from the turned position to the release position of 12 o'clock. These may seem like small details, but they are an important part of fine-tuning because this process does have an impact on the path of your rock. The ideal length for a curler to apply the turn is about a broom's length (4 or 5 feet). This means that your rock should remain in its turned position (10 or 2 o'clock) until you are about a broom's length away from releasing. If you are turning your rock for longer than this, you are likely going to under-rotate your release, resulting in a "soft" release, and less rotations. If you are releasing in a shorter distance than a broom's length, your release is likely too stiff, resulting in an over-rotating rock, sometimes called a "spinner".
The ideal result is a properly gripped rock, with a release taking about a broom's length to complete, resulting in a rock that rotates about 2.5 - 3 times as it travels down the sheet. This is the goal, but even at the highest levels curlers are constantly working away to fine-tune their grip, rotation and release in order to achieve this goal.
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