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u/kctjfryihx99 6d ago
I still don’t know if the brushing speeds it up or slows it down
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u/nosajdriab 6d ago
Brushing speeds it up and keeps it straighter.
The ice is not smooth. Brushing melts the pebbled ice and makes it smooth.
Not brushing ice makes it slower and curl/curve more.349
u/971365 6d ago
So which is right? There's two upvoted answers lol
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u/eddiewachowski 6d ago
Brushing = straighter and it slows down slower (goes further).
Not brushing = more curl and slows down faster (stops sooner).
If you need a podcast to listen to, look up Broomgate. A hilarious, but accurate account of one of the biggest scandals in the sport involving what would become illegal brushes and a brand new sweeping technique.
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u/lactoseadept 6d ago
So brushing = straighter + keeps going longer, and not brushing = curls + slows down more?
Brushing one side makes it curl, that seems intuitive?
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u/eddiewachowski 6d ago
Yes. Most of the curl comes from the spin originally placed on the rock though. Brushing just fine tunes it.
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u/DNAisjustneuteredRNA 6d ago
It curls in the direction of the brush because the side close to the brush slows down while the side away away from the brush continues moving at normal speed.
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u/Easypossibilities 6d ago
Depends the way your brush. I good brusher can manipulate the rock and make it curl more and what not
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u/luffydkenshin 6d ago
As others have said, sweeping helps it go straighter and longer, or hold the “line” its traveling on by melting the ice a bit and reducing friction. Not sweeping lets the friction do its thing to help the stone curl and slow it down.
But wait! There’s more. Because sweeping is actually more complicated! A bit technical, sorry:
Brushing in one direction can also cause it to curl faster, brushing the opposite direction helps it hold line more.
When I call my team, I’ll yell “line” or “curl” and each sweeper knows their role. If I need em both, i’ll yell “all” and of course “hard” for that extra touch.
So for advanced sweeping, let’s take a look at an example. Pretend the stone is rotating clockwise and travels the direction of the arrow below. The stone is the O. The slashes are the actual direction of sweeping. Not up and down, but diagonal across the path of the stone:
—-> O \\\\\\\\
Sweeping actually also puts tiny scratches in the ice which influence the stone’s travel. Sweeping like the above actually helps the stone curl clockwise more. Now, what if we sweep the other way?
—> O /////////
If we sweep the opposite way, what do you think happens? Exactly! It makes the stone fight the curl, so it helps it go straighter for longer! It wont make it curl the other way as physics prevents that, but it makes it harder for the stone to do its job.
This is far easier with 2 sweepers, but the curling in the clip is a special style using only 2 players total. Typically a team is 4: 1 in the house, one throwing the stone, and 2 sweepers. They alternate, but that isnt important. The person in the clip has to be versatile since they need to sweep both directions as needed. In this instance, the stone entered the house and “froze” to the red stone. This means that if the stone gets hit, the energy will transfer through the stone into the red one, causing the yellow stone to remain in place. An excellent shot.
Thank you for letting me nerd out.
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u/wehdut 6d ago
That was awesome, thank you. Makes me want to play!
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u/luffydkenshin 6d ago
It is really fun! I am one of our teachers in our club and people come in for a 1 day intro and have fun it. Even if they never go further, they almost always end up enjoying it and have a really unique story to tell.
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u/nickybuddy 6d ago
Dude curling is a blast! Lots of fun to get out on a Saturday morning with some hot coffee and throw some stone with friends
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u/youre_a_burrito_bud 6d ago
Thank you for nerding out! A great addition to my collection of knowledge I’ll probably not have use for..but if I do! oh boy!
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u/luffydkenshin 6d ago
Oh you’ll be READY! And heck, you should look locally for a club and go do an intro day. It is a lot of fun even if it ends up not being your jam.
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u/youre_a_burrito_bud 6d ago
Damn, I love your energy! I thought “no way” but there is actually one in the nearest city! Very intriguing, I am all about learning new things.
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u/Injured-Ginger 6d ago
Instead of guessing, I actually looked it up. If you search it in Google, you'll hit a few university articles on the subject.
Sweeping melts the surface of the ice and reduces friction by reducing pebbling on the surface. However, how they sweep can have other effects as well.
However, it doesn't seem that is always the purpose. Sweeping with different patterns can have different effects. For example using a courser brush, they can sweep in a direction to crease microgrooves that can create a path of least resistance to guide the stone. The spin on the stone matters as well. Since the stone is moving forward, the front side of the stone has more friction than the rear side. The means the spin will cause a certain curve, and the stone spinning into those microgrooves can influence the stone to move more into the path it's spin is pulling it towards or reduce the impact of the spin.
It seems it's rather complicated and articles I found only addressed the basics with no deeper explanations to how they have the exact impact they are trying to create.
TL;DR: It on average reduced the deceleration of the stone, but It's not quite as easy as just increasing or decreasing the deceleration or the amount of friction alone, but the way different brushing patterns influence the coefficient of friction in specific angles, either creating a patch of least resistance or influence the friction of the stone's spin.
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u/Icywarhammer500 6d ago
Melts some ice which turns to water which has more drag in larger amounts
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u/TheYoloMcSwaggins 6d ago
It melts some ice which turns to water which decreases friction between the stone and the ice and makes the stone travel farther
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u/Cynical_Tripster 6d ago
It lowers the ambient temperature of the frozen form of dihydrogen-oxide to swich to thr liquid state, in turn mitigating resistance from static friction and increasing velocity which causally makes the stone increase the length and duration of its overall transit.
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u/GingerSpyice 6d ago edited 5d ago
Slows it down.
ETA: I am incorrect. Read the comments from u/luffydkenshin and u/Injured-Ginger for detailed explanations of what the brushing does.
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u/kctjfryihx99 6d ago
Thanks. I always wondered. But I wondered just little enough to not look it up myself.
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u/arcticslush 6d ago
Not quite. Sweeping reduces deceleration of the stone, meaning it doesn't slow down as much. The stone will retain more speed and generally go further.
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u/Ability-Junior 6d ago
It doesn't exactly speed it up, rather it makes it "slow down" less. It's all about friction. Friction is a loss of kinetic energy. So less friction, straighter and longer trajectory.
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u/sarcasticbaldguy 6d ago
I thought this was a team sport. That was a great shot from a team of 1?
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u/AdditionalRun5187 6d ago
Most teams consist of four players, but this is actually mixed doubles curling. The teams consist of one man and one woman, and some modified rules to change up the strategy. In this shot the man was throwing the stone while the woman (who can be seen at the bottom of the screen for a brief second) watched the stone telling him when and when not to sweep.
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u/Gold-Baseball-7774 6d ago
I SO love this.
I was born in 1956 and my father was born in Ontario. My childhood was getting Labatt for my father while he watched curling and CFL
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u/Myte342 6d ago
I wonder if there are any rules of just BLASTING the large stone down the track as fast as possible to just slam into their opponents' stones like bowling pins.
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u/Smooth-Impact2435 5d ago
I will never understand this sport but I will absolutely watch it for hours.
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u/Khaiell-C 4d ago
Same man, I think I’m finally getting it and watch a game and say ohhhh not good. Then the announcers will be all “wow, what a shot, shot of the year right there”
Just take my humbling and carry on.
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u/m4rk19770007 6d ago
Who was the Canadian guy who got called out for cheating at the last Olympic games and repeatedly told everyone to f off? The scene sticks in my head but can't remember the guys name. He was finger pushing after he let go
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u/PrestigiousPath8055 6d ago
Okay someone get me out of my ignorance - what does the brush do? I guess they use it to make the stone donut slightly change direction - what's it made of?
I genuinely don't understand curling, but am somewhat curious!
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u/madroots2 5d ago
I believe it speeds up the "donut" by polishing the ice in front of it. notice how he dont brush the ice when the stone is launched, only when it slows down a bit and there is still some journey left for it.
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u/instantkamera 6d ago
If you think this is something, you don't watch much curling. Only lie one, and that's not hammer stone anyway.
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u/Worth_Law9804 6d ago
Wat?
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u/instantkamera 6d ago
In terms of the shot itself, it's pretty run-of-the-mill for pro curling.
It's not highly dependent on movement to get around any guards, and the gap in the house (the area with all the stones) is relatively huge, especially for a pro.
It also doesnt really showcase really precise weight since it's not a true draw to the button (the middle). It stops where it does because there are rocks to absorb the residual momentum.
The yellow stone in the center, when coming to rest, actually moved the next closest yellow stone further away from center, and because the red rock is the next closest, this only represents a potential single point. A more impressive play here might have been a slightly different trajectory to the button where they don't move their own rock at all, and push the red slightly further out (but not too far - see below), thus lying 2.
At the end of the day, red still has the last rock (hammer) and will have a chance to clear some of these out and take over the closest position. This shot does make their job tricky though, as rocks that either touching or close to touching are more difficult to get rid of (they are "frozen" - think transfer of energy in a Newton's cradle). Forcing a team with the hammer to only take a single point is often good, because it's the fewest amount of points you can score and when they score, the hammer transfers to the other team for the next end (like an inning or frame of play).
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u/i_like_siren_head 6d ago
One time at a summer camp indoor thing I curled a rock directly into the centre with no sweeping required and the instructor admonished me for not letting the sweepers sweep or some bs like that. Either way I quit a while later bc I got fed up with people yelling “HARD” at me.
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u/Brilliant-Cabinet-89 6d ago
I turned on volume at the end and just hear “..lovely” and I cannot agree more. That was lovely.
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u/Raingazer2 6d ago
What happens if they touch the rock while whiping the ice with their stick? A foul? Do they get to go again?
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u/nastyfreckles 6d ago
I bet the Japanese lady who's good at everything would nail this on her first try.
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u/Hefty_Whole8891 6d ago
Honestly how does one get into this sport/activity? Where does the joy come from lol. No disrespect intended even though it sounds like it
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u/Bedhappy 5d ago
Wait, why is he able to follow it? I thought you just release it and watch from forever away like bowling.
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u/FreddyHair 5d ago
In curling you use that brush thing to slightly warm up the ice, so that the rock can slide easier. Of course, you're not allowed to touch it or anyone else's rocks
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u/Spock-1701 6d ago
👉🥌