Curling Terms For The Neophyte

I had been writing a curling primer for all of you - I was all ready to call it A Curling Primer for Americans.  I had some real doozies in there. I had based a lot of it on the curling primer at the Rochester Curling Club site. Here are a few highlights:


Sheet - The strip of ice upon which the game is being played. A reputable curling club will have several sheets of ice to play on. One that isn't so reputable will probably just stack a bunch of ice cubes in an alley.

Skip - The fourth player on a team to deliver a stone during each and every end. The skip usually directs the strategy during the game. The skip is where the name of the team comes from - for example, Team Martin is skipped by Kevin Martin; Team Ulsrud is skipped by Thomas Ulsrud. The skip is the one who yells and who holds the brooms for the shooters. The skip is always right; if an end goes well, the skip made it happen.

Third - The third player on a team to deliver stones during each and every end. The third follows the second. Also known as the Vice, this player typically holds the broom while the skip is shooting. The vice is always wrong; if an end goes badly, chances are the vice screwed it up. You never hear about Team Nergård, do you?!

Yes, yes, I know.  Comic genius.  But that's not really what I was going for there.  Although, having been a vice and a skip, what I said was soooooooo true.

And, in my research, I found this:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glossary_of_curling


It's really good, and if I am confusing you with my cavalier usage of obscure terms, please go check it out.   Also, http://www.curlingbasics.com/ defines some of the terms, specific to rock placement and movement, in animation.  Also pretty cool.


Was this a lazy way out of a blog post?  Maybe.  But I'm here to educate and inform, not just entertain.