The sport of Curling

What exactly is curling? Well, beside my new favorite Winter Olympic sport, curling is very similar to shuffle board, but on ice. Please, don't be offended, let me elaborate.

Curling consists of "throwing" eight 42-lb rocks across 130ft ice to a target. Teams consist of four players, with the Skip acting as the last thrower. Each match is called an END and a game consists of 9 ENDS (10 in tournament play).

The other three players "sweep" the ice in front of the rock as it slides down the ice in order to increase the speed. The sport is based on strategy and skill. The thrower must use proper form and yells to teammates when they should sweep and in what direction.

To win an END, the team closest to the center target gets the win and is awarded one point for each rock in the HOUSE (the target).

Currently, in the Olympics here are the remaining games you can pick up.

Women's gold medal match: Sweden v. Switzerland, 5:30 p.m. Thursday
Women's bronze medal match: Canada v. Norway, 1 p.m. Thursday
Men's bronze-medal game: USA v. Great Britain, 1 p.m. Friday
Men's gold-medal game: Canada v. Finland, 5:30 p.m. Friday

In professional curling, there is specific equpiment you must use. The most noticable are the shoes. Only one foot is the sliding foot and the other foot is the push off foot. It depends which one you prefer.

Olympic curler Skip Pete Fenson has led the USA Team to the bronze medal match Friday, at 1pm. When watching Fenson compete, he is very agressive, strategic and has no problem yelling loud for his teammates to sweep.

If you want to pick up curling, just remember you're going to have to carry around eight 42-pound rocks in your back seat. But don't forget the brooms!