The sports science of curling: A practical review

Curling is a sport played on ice in which two teams each deliver8 granite stones towards a target, or ‘house’. it is the only sportin which the trajectory of the projectile can be influenced after ithas been released by the athlete. this is achieved by sweepingthe ice in front of the stone to change the stone-ice friction andthereby enable to stone to travel further, curl more or staystraight. hard sweeping is physically demanding. differenttechniques of sweeping can also have different effects on thestone. this paper will review the current research behind sweepinga curling stone, outline the physiological demands of sweeping,the associated performance effects and suggest potentialstrategies of sweeping that can be used by both coaches andcurling teams.