Registered: Feb 2018
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I'm one of those folks who was caught up in Olympic fever, and now I can say I'm a beginner curler after taking a few lessons.

I have most of the jargon mastered, except for one thing. I'm watching The Brier now, and I'll hear the skip say "three-quarters" or "one-half" when describing a rock. I think it designates where the rock should be hit in a takeout. However, I'm not sure where it's measured from. Is the rock's edge closest to the center line "zero" and then fractions increase from there towards the edge of the ice?

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Registered: Feb 2018
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Posts: 49

Think of both edges as 0 and directly on the nose as 1. Three quarters would mean three quarters of the shooter is overlapping the target rock as it hits and it could be on either side, but it’s usually obvious to them which side they need to hit it so they don’t specify.

If they want to hit something not quite on the nose and need to specify which side you might hear them say something like just high of nose, which would be slightly more to the side that the shooter is curling from. Or just inside or outside, which is usually relative to the centre line.

Last edited by skwerl on 03-06-18 at 01:34PM

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Registered: Nov 2008
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It's about either:

1. Where to hit a rock

"Hit 3/4 of it" = make contact with a target rock at the point where, if you put the shooter in front of the target rock and looked directly at it, 3/4 of the target rock would be hidden from view.

Helps to visualize where to make contact to execute a precise hit-and-roll, or where to make contact to execute a runback, in-off, or double-takeout.

2. How much can you see of a rock

"I can see 2/3 of it" = From the hack, a target rock is approx 2/3 visible from behind another guarding rock.

Helps to communicate and determine whether certain shots are possible (as an example, in a situation where you wanted to hit a target rock that is partially buried behind a guard, perhaps if you can see 2/3 of the rock you can make contact with normal hit weight, but if you can only see 1/3 of it you need to throw less weight)

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