Respecting your Ice Surface
1. Check your footwear: All shoes worn on the ice must be clean indoor shoes or curling shoes. Clean and replace your grippers regularly.
2. Check your Broom head: If you use a club broom, scrub it before and after your game. If you have your own broom - scrub it or change the broom head regularly.
3. Watch the Hack: Make every effort to prevent rocks from hitting the hacks.
Pace of Play
1. Arrival: Don't just be on time - arrive 15 minutes early and be ready to go as soon as your sheet is ready.
2. Leads: Always be instantly ready in the hack. Grab your first rock and get into the hack while your teammates and the other team clean-up the rocks.
3. Rock Parking: All people can read the numbers on the handles! Put the rocks into their respective corners and keep going. It is skips and thirds immediate responsibility to make sure rocks are out of the way to avoid tripping.
4. Seconds / Front End: Set-up your Vice and Skips rocks in front of the hack to help keep the game moving.
5. Vice-skips: If you have to look at rocks more than twice to see who is shot at the conclusion of the end, measure! Don't waste time humming and hawing - measure!
6. Skips: Be decisive when it's easy. Try and have 1-2 shots in mind based on how the house is looking and what the other team is throwing. Sure sometimes you get a curve ball and are left scratching your head, so save your time for these moments.
Ice shed movement
Between the Hog Line: If you’re a sweeper and your team is NOT throwing, stand still between the Hog Lines. Do not walk up the centre of the ice or make movements while the team is delivering their stone.
Do not cross in front of someone throwing the stone at anytime!!
Be ready: if you’re a sweeper and your team IS throwing, be ready and stand on the proper side to sweep. Do not cross in front of someone throwing the stone!!
Exiting the ice shed: Do not move if someone is delivering a stone on sheet one. Once they have delivered then exit the ice shed.
Entering the ice shed: If you have to enter the ice shed either returning from the bathroom or to speak someone - wait until the all players have finished delivering their rocks.
Be Aware
You must:
- Shake hands with your teammates and opponents before or after every game and wish them “good curling.”
- Never distract your opponents.
- Be off to the sides of the sheet and out of the way when the other team is delivering.
- If you are in the house or behind the house, stand still and hold your broom horizontally when the other team is delivering.
- Play reasonably quickly.
- Arrive at least 15 minutes in advance and be ready to curl on time.
- Be ready to throw when it is your turn.
- Stay out of the house if you are not the skip or vice.
- Vice-skips are responsible for agreeing on the score. Everyone else must be out of the house.
- If there is a measurement, only the vice-skips are responsible.
- The vice-skip of the scoring team generally hangs the points on the scoreboard for that end.
- Take responsibility for keeping the ice in the best possible condition.
- Sweep debris off the ice.
- Never clean a dirty broom on the ice. Leave the ice area to do this.
- Keep your hands, knees, and other body parts off the ice surface when possible. Hands and knees melt the ice and leave indentations, which can affect shots.
You should:
- Throw the rocks in order. This is not a rule, but it ensures that each player delivers the same two rocks each end.
- Clean the running surface of the rocks before delivering. Use your hand – not a dirty broom head.
- Socialize with the other team in the lounge after the game.
- Sit together at a table with your teammates and your opponents.
- The norm is that the winning team buys a round of drinks for the losing team, and the losing team buys the second round
On-Ice Safety
Injuries and near misses can happen in curling. Here are a few pointers to be aware of while on the ice:
- Footwear: Footwear will wear out after a while. In addition to grippers getting holes in them and leaving rubber pieces on the ice, the soles of both grippers and shoes will eventually wear flat and become more slippery. All grippers should be replaced annually, and curlers should check their footwear every week to ensure that the soles have adequate traction on the ice.
- Situational awareness: Many injuries occur because curlers are simply not aware of what’s going on around them. Attention must be paid to the game situation and the positioning of the stones. If you are a sweeper, take a hard look at the situation in front of the house and in the house BEFORE the next stone is delivered. Further, any stones that are removed from play must be placed back in their “parking lots” at the first opportunity.
- Help each other: Keep an eye open for potential unsafe situations and warn others when appropriate. One such situation is if you notice a person backing up in the house toward a stone that they may have forgotten is there.