If a girl has a mop in her hands it does not mean she's going to wash the floor. Looking closer you will see that this is a special brush for sweeping the ice. And a girl with a gumshoe on one foot is not a cleaner, but a real curler. Her gumshoe is called as a slider, and a mop is a sweep. The sport that the girl deals with is called curling.This sport was born 500 years ago in Scotland. The first curling club in history was opened in a small village named Kilsyth. Then the clubs began to spread across the country and around the world.
So curling is a sport game on ice. Briefly speaking, the essence of it is as follows: two teams of four people in accuracy of starting a stone apparatus, rubbing the ice with special brushes to adjust the trajectory and accuracy of "landing". The game is played on a special ice field, its length is 44 meters, and width is about 5 meters. Two circles drawn on the field are "homes". The task of each team is to put to a "home" as many of their stones as possible, preferably at a minimum distance from the center of the "home", and to prevent the opponent from doing the same thing.
The game consists of eight or ten ends, in each of which the participants take turns in riding eight stones. Players are subject to the instructions of their captain - a skip. While one of them rolls a stone, the others rub the ice with brushes, creating on its surface a thin layer of water that marks the path of the apparatus and influence its speed and trajectory. This process of rubbing the ice with brushes is called sweeping; it is done just before moving a stone in close vicinity to it.
An apparatus is considered "scoring" even if it barely touched the circle of a "home". At the end of each end the points are calculated, and the team that gains more of them wins the game.
Speaking of apparatuses, curling stones are made of a special kind of granite that is mined in the mountains of Scotland. The weight of an apparatus is just 19.9 kilograms. If a team plays with yellow stones, the other one plays with red stones.
Curling has its own secrets, rituals and traditions. Much depends on the quality of the ice. Anyone who knows the game sense will never roll the stones on the playground if it is not prepared by a professional icemaker. This sport also has its unspoken rules. For example, the winning team invites the losers to a bar after the game.
If you're a sportsman, you love everything unusual and prefer to live in active motion, curling is for you! It is better to play it in a special club where adequate conditions for the game are provided. Under the guidance of an instructor you will learn how to roll the stones to hold correct sweeping, which is waving a whisk like a professional.
Success in curling can be achieved regardless of age and initial fitness level. In addition, the sport has practically no contraindications. And the benefits for health and figure are great!