February 19, 2009

The ABCs of Curling - F

illum_f is for Four Foot. The rings at the ends of a curling sheet measure twelve feet, eight feet, and four feet in diameter. At the center of the four foot ring is the button. Because scoring in curling depends on having rocks closest to the button, the four foot ring is strategically important. This is demonstrated nowhere more emphatically than in a skins game format, where both teams spend three quarters of each end jockeying for control of that prime piece of frozen real estate. Common curling wisdom has it that any skip worth his salt should be able to draw the four foot at will.

Other important Fs in curling are the Free Guard Zone, and the Four Rock rule, both of which serve to inflate the importance of the four foot ring. At the beginning of the 2018/2019 curling season, the World Curling Federation, and most other national curling bodies around the world adopted the new Five Rock Rule. Any more rules changes and this item will have to be moved to a new letter. [edited 09/22/2019 to add information about new five rock rule]

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1 comments:

Simon said...

"...prime piece of frozen real estate."

Barring Vancouver Island and a good chunk of the coastal BC main land, that's most of Canada right there.