When you watch Curling, focus on “FESRAIN”! (Vol.9)

Here is the Volume 9 of Curling from When you watch something, visit us first! Ms. Mika MATSUZAWA, who represented Japan in Curling at the 19th Olympic Winter Games in Salt Lake City, USA, 2002, told us about the Stones of Curling this time. This is the combined version of Part 9-1 and 9-2 on our YouTube channel.

In Vol.8, we learned about the meaning of the Ice condition of Curling.

This time, Ms. Mika MATSUZAWA, who represented Japan in Curling at the 19th Olympic Winter Games held in Salt Lake City, USA, in 2002, told us about stones used in Curling.

I think you will understand how Curlers (Curling players) think about competing.

Part 9-1: Allocation of Stones

One curling stone weighs about 20 kg. The weight of each stone is almost the same, but there is a margin of error because they are natural stones.

In order for each player to make the same shot, it is important to have each players throw the similar stones out of 8 deliveries for each team. To determine 2 stones to be thrown by each player, it is necessary to check how much each stone slide and curl.

The 8 stones are, to some extent of course, almost the same in how they slide and curl. Every stone has a similar curl and a similar way of sliding. Rarely, there is a stone that has a larger curl than the other stones in a set of stones that would have this same curl range if thrown normally.

Therefore, in Curling, each player uses a set of 2 stones that curl the same way and stop at the same point as much as possible. And, Skip will throw the best 2 stones that seem to be not too quirky and slide smoothly as they want.

Therefore, Lead often throws 2 stones that do not go in the same way, and it is quite often for Lead to use a combination of 1 curling stone and the other sliding stone. So, Lead has to take a lot of things into consideration in order to deliver 2 such stones in the same place as Guard stones, so it would be very difficult for Lead to place the Center Guard stones at the same point with 2 stones that do not go in the same way.

Of course, though stones with similar sliding are selected for Skip, but during the game, players judges that 1 stone curls less than the other, or conversely curls too much, or slides too much, those stones are replaced with other stones. As stones for Lead are not similar, so they exchanged with 2 stones for Second.

So it is true that the shot may or may not be made depends on the character of the stones. In the qualifying rounds, teams use the stones provided on the sheets where they play. In the tournament, the teams are decided to throw different colors of stones even if they are playing on the same sheet, but in the playoffs, each team can choose the stones to use as those of which sheet.

Therefore, the teams can compete with the stones with the similar sliding. For example, if the 1st-place team and the 4th-place team in the qualifying round play in the playoff, the 1st-place team has the right to select the stone first, therefore, it is very important to win the qualifying round at a high rank as possible in order to be able to choose the good stones.

Q: Does it happen that Lead throws stones which slide and curl similarly?

Yes. It depends on the team’s approach.

Even if Second throws stones that slide differently, if Second often throws fast shots such as Takeout shots, and if they do not need to control the curl that much, Second can throw a Takeout shot with a little more throw width.

When those 2 stones slide differently, for example, when this stone curls more than the other, and if they want to make the shot curl more, they would throw that one first, so the order in which the stones are thrown may be changed.

Part 9-2: Evening Practice

Some stones slide further than others even if they are thrown at the same speed. In order to judge the slide, players need to have the skill to throw stones at the same speed, but first players have to compare how much each stone slides and curls when thrown at the same speed.

The fifth player on the team, called “Fifth,” actually does the Evening Practice at the tournament, the process of checking the stone slides during the night, and the way Fifth does it is to make as many throws as possible in the same way, at the same speed as possible, toward the same spot. Like this.

They take data on this. For example, one stone stops here, another stone stops here. Yes. For example, although of course the stones are thrown almost at the same speed, there is one stone that curls very much and one stone that does not curl so much.

Q: It is very hard to keep throwing stones at the same speed and accuracy, isn’t it?

That’s right. So, in fact, even if the speed of the thrown stone is slightly different, they actually measure the speed between this Hog line and the Hog line, and also the speed between the Backline and the Hog line if the stone is thrown from this side. If players get to a certain speed by the time they reach the Hog line and release the stone in the same way here, the stone should proceed in the same way. So the key is between the Backline and the Hog line.

It is important to know how to throw the stone with the same kick between the Backline and the Hog line and release it in the same way, so they measure the time it takes between those lines when checking the slide of the stone. So even if the speed of stone throwing is slightly different, they can judge that the stone goes deeper than usual because the speed was faster than usual.

Therefore, by measuring the time taken during those lines, it is possible to determine that this stone and that stone are sliding in a similar manner, even if the stopping points are slightly different. It is Evening practice to do several trial throws to see if the stones are really similar to each other in the way they slide.

Q: How long is the Evening Practice?

It’s 10 minutes or so. It shouldn’t be that long. Players do the Evening Practice after all the games for the day are over. So Fifth checks the stone slides in a fairly short Evening Practice. The longest they have is 30 minutes or so.

Fifth has to check the slide of the stones during the such short Evening Practice, so Fifth throws the stones many times, going back and forth in the sheets. Moreover, the Ice is not in good condition during Evening Practices. Sometimes the pebbles are already scraped off. Because we do the Evening Practice after all the games for that day are over.

So the Evening Practice is to see the Ice condition as well, and throw stones in the same way to check the slide of the stones.