Curling is a popular ice-sport played all over the world. Unlike skating, shoes are worn and curlers walk on the ice. A team is made up of 4 people and stones are pushed from one end of the ice rink to the other. Your team 'sweep' the ice to help your stone go further. Deciding which shot to play can be quite technical and great fun. You need not be fit to curl, so the whole family from teenagers to grandparents can play.

The Objective Of The Game

Coloured circles are painted on the ice and the aim is to get your team's stones nearest to the centre of the circles.

The Basic Rules

Each team has 4 players of which one is the Skip (the team captain). The Skip decides which shots to play and uses signals to direct the team. Every member of the team, including the skip, throws 2 stones and helps to sweep their team-mates' stones. Each team takes it in turns to throw a stone and each team is allowed to hit the other team's stones out of the circles. After all the stones have been thrown to the other end of the ice-rink, it is repeated - for a total of 8 times. A typical curling game takes about 1 hour 50 minutes.

Popularity Of Curling

Curling is played in many Asian countries including Japan, Korea, China & Taiwan as well as Europe, Canada, America and South America. It is an Olympic sport which is getting increasingly popular. Every year, more and more countries are taking up curling.