in the sport of Curling, how come when a team pulls ahead by 2+ points in a game they don’t just use every stone they have to ram the other out of the zone – the other team will never be able to catch back up those 2 points?
In: 69
There is a rule called the Free Guard Zone. This zone is right in front of the scoring rings. Teams cannot remove stones from this zone until the 6th stone of the end. If a guard stone is removed from play before the 6th stone, it is placed back in its original position the the stone that caused the collision is removed from play.
These guard stones help keep the game aggressive. Teams can curl stones around their guards into the scoring ring making them hard to remove without also hitting the guard. Guards can also be knocked into the scoring rings later in ends.
Just generally, it keeps more stones in play until later in the end. It makes it harder to remove all the stones and creates more opportunities to score more than one point.
Why did they get rid of the sweep brooms and go with the Swiffer mops? Watching old videos of the guys using the old-style witches’ brooms is awesome.
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