Help! I'm Winning!

We have all been lucky enough to either make a few great shots, or have a few misses from our opposition, and be staked to an early lead. This might seem like a gift, but an experienced curler will tell you that defending a lead is one of the most difficult things to do in the game. With the addition of the four-rock rule, the continued improvement of ice and rocks to create significant curl, there are lots of factors that encourage offensive play in the modern game. 

So, if you are staked to a large lead, how do you defend it? How do you keep your opponents from fighting their way back?

1. Keep it clean.

When you are winning, rocks in play are not your friend - no matter which team they belong to. So when your lead is shooting, avoid throwing guards. Bring your rocks into the house, or if you want to be really safe, throw them right through the house and out of play. When it comes to your second's rocks...

2. Peel the guards.

Your opponent's first move in their attempted comeback will be to throw guards. The best move to counter this is to remove them from play. A "peel" is when you hit a guard out of play and also roll your shooting rock off the sheet as well. Some teams shy away from peels because they feel they can't throw enough weight to make the shot. While it may be easier to throw a peel if you can throw it hard, peels can actually be completed successfully with as little as hack weight. It's all about hitting the rock in the right spot, and making sure your shooter is swept right out of play. Peeling guards out of play will make your life a lot easier when you are trying to maintain a large lead.

3. Group the stones.

Once you have worked your opponent's guards out of play by employing the peel, they will likely have a couple of rocks in the house. This is ok: even if they have two rocks in the house, if there are no guards you will have very simply shots moving forward, with low risk of giving up a big end.

As you move forward in the end, you can try to eliminate multiple rocks at a time. In order to throw these double, or triple takeouts, you may have to begin by grouping the rocks. To do this you should try and pull all of their rocks together in the house.

As you can see in the picture, if your opponent has "split the house", or thrown rocks on opposite sides of the circles, by hitting and rolling to the middle you are pulling the rocks in the house closer together. If you have a chance to hit multiple rocks at a time, take a shot! Remember rocks in play are not your friend, so keep hitting as much as possible.



So, the next time you find yourself with a big lead on the scoreboard, do yourself a favour and remember to keep it clean. Peel as many guards as you can, group the opponent's stones in order to create double-takouts, and this will limit the chances of giving up a big end, and leaving the door open for your opponent to get back in the game. 

Introduction To Curling Strategy

"Plan your work, and work your plan."

Legendary football coach, and Superbowl trophy namesake, Vince Lombardi best described a team strategy by saying "plan your work, and work your plan". The idea works the same in curling as it does in football. An essential element of our sport is the ability to decide what plan to pursue, and how exactly to pursue it. This is called strategy. 

This diagram displays the general idea for what strategy should be played when a team has the hammer, and when a team does not have last-rock advantage. 

The image shows that when you have the hammer, it is best to keep the middle of the sheet open. This way, if things get complicated the final skip's rock can always be used to draw to the button to win the point. 

Without hammer, your strategy should be to make the last shot of the end as difficult as possible for the opponent skip. Throwing rocks towards the centre, and cutting down the scoring area for the last rock is the best way to pursue this goal. Ideally, the opponent will not have a way to get to the button with their last rock.

When losing (down) it is a good idea to keep a lot of rocks in play, in an attempt to force your opponents into playing more difficult shots, while hoping for a miss. To accomplish this, keeping guards in front of the house is a good idea. These rocks give you more scoring options, as they can be run back, tapped in, or used as a guard to hide behind. 

When you are winning (up) the goal should be to keep things as simple as possible. Since you don't need to score a bunch of points, bring play into the house. Avoid guards, and when they do get thrown don't be afraid to peel them off the sheet. Playing open hits in the house is the ideal in this scenario. 

This is the general idea that most teams pursue, however strategy is an ever-evolving aspect of the game. No matter what strategy your team decides to follow, it is important that you have a predetermined plan that you can implement when you hit the ice.