Draw to the Button
Clean house. One shot. Land as close to the button as you can. The essential shot every curler learns first, the benchmark for draw weight and line control.
Every shot type you can practice in Curling Ice.
Curling strategy lives in shot selection. This catalog covers over 25 shot types available in the simulator: what each one is, when to use it, and how difficult it is to execute. From a basic draw to the button through angle raises and peels, each shot is playable and scored in the app, plus a set of real competition shots recreated from curling history.
Draw shots
9Draw shots are delivered at draw weight, slow enough to stop inside the house. The goal is precise placement: on the button, in a specific ring, or behind cover. Draw accuracy is the foundation of all curling strategy.
Back 4 Draw
Draw to the back 4-foot ring. A controlled placement that's tough to dislodge and useful for stealing or defending behind cover. Requires heavier weight than a simple draw to the button.
Come-Around Draw
Navigate around a guard stone to land in the rings. The stone must curl around the guard without touching it. One of the most important draws in team strategy: it places a scoring stone where the opponent can't easily hit it.
Corner-Guard Come-Around
Curl around a corner guard set off the centre line and bury in the four-foot behind it. Tighter than the centre-guard come-around; the line has to be exact to catch the narrow gap.
Pigeon-Hole Draw
Thread the one gap in a wall of four guards and draw into the house. Clip a guard and you're capped; only a clean pass through the port and a draw to the button earns the perfect 10.
The Staircase
Two ports, one behind the other, and they don't line up: the back gate sits a step inside the front one. A stone thrown straight threads the first gap and clips the second. Only a stone still curling as it arrives can step through both and carry on to the button.
The Biter
Draw with perfect weight so the stone comes to rest just grazing the twelve-foot, biting the very edge of the house. Too heavy and it's full in the rings; too light and it's short. Only a clean bite on the outer edge earns the ten.
Freeze Draw
Draw to sit directly against a stone already in the rings, freezing tight to it. Leave no daylight between the stones. When executed perfectly, the front stone becomes very difficult to remove without also moving yours.
Come-Around Freeze
Widely regarded as the hardest shot in curling. Curl around a centre guard and freeze onto a stone sitting on the button, no daylight, no room to hit it. You need come-around line and freeze weight on the same throw.
Guard shots
3Guards are intentionally placed in front of the house to block the opposition's angle of attack. Placement precision, both distance and lateral position, is everything. A guard in the wrong spot is useless; in the right spot, it can define the entire end.
Near Guard
Place a guard just in front of the house on the center line. Don't bite the rings: the ideal stone sits right in front, protecting the house. The most common guard placement in competitive play.
Far Guard
Place a guard further up the sheet, well in front of the house. Provides early protection and forces the opposition to play around it from further out. Critical in the free guard zone during the first four rocks of each end.
Center Guard
Place a guard on the center line between the hog line and the rings. A key defensive placement that sets up come-around draws and complicates the opposition's clearing angles for the entire end.
Raise shots
4A raise uses the shooter stone to push (promote) another stone into the house. The challenge is controlling the weight precisely: too hard and the promoted stone flies through the rings; too soft and it doesn't reach the scoring position.
Raise
Hit a stone sitting in front of the rings and promote it back into the house. Precision weight is everything: too hard and it flies through. Used to turn a guard into a scoring stone without exposing your own shooter.
Angle Raise
Promote a stone into the rings at an angle, placing it on a specific side of the button. Requires precise aim and controlled weight. The shooter approaches from an angle so the promoted stone rolls to the intended scoring position.
Double Raise
Promote two stones into the rings with a single shot. One stone hits the other, which hits the target: a high-skill sequence shot that punishes any error in the weight of the first contact.
The Runback
Their stone sits in the back four and you can't touch it: your own stone is parked on the line, right in the way. So use it. Drive your stone back through theirs hard enough to throw it out of play, and with the right weight, yours settles on the button in its place.
Takeout shots
9Takeout shots remove opposition stones from play. They are delivered at hit weight, faster than a draw, and differ primarily in what happens after contact: where your stone rolls, and how precisely you need to aim. Takeout accuracy is what separates teams under pressure.
Control Takeout
Remove an opposition stone with controlled weight, keeping your own stone in the house. The roll matters as much as the hit: you're aiming to score with the shooter after contact, not just remove the opponent.
Normal Takeout
Remove an opposition stone cleanly and roll safely to the side. The standard aggressive play when scoring position is at stake. Both stones leave the house; the goal is simply removing the threat.
Nose Hit
Hit the opposition stone directly on the nose so your stone stops on the same spot. A precise replacement shot: the opposition stone is removed and yours takes its exact position. Requires a dead-straight approach and exact weight.
Hit and Roll
Hit an opposition stone and use the angle to roll to a new, protected position in the rings. The roll destination is the real skill: you're removing a threat and scoring with your own stone in a single shot.
Double Takeout
Remove two opposition stones with a single shot. Requires reading the angle off the first stone to clip the second cleanly on the way through.
Triple Takeout
Remove three opposition stones in a single shot. A high-risk, high-reward play that can swing an end entirely if you connect clean through all three.
Board Weight Takeout
Remove a stone using heavier-than-draw weight, rolling through the house. Used when precise placement isn't needed and clearing the way is the goal.
Tick
Nudge a center guard just off the center line without removing it from play. Opens a path to the button while leaving a guard in front, a finesse shot that punishes anything too heavy.
Peel
Remove a guard stone from play entirely using heavy weight. Both the guard and your shooter roll out of play. The defensive reset, used to eliminate guards that are preventing access to the house and simplify the end.
Legendary shots
2Not drills. Recreations. These are real shots from real championship curling, rebuilt stone for stone so you can stand in the shoes of the player who threw them.
The Hackner Double
Down to his last rock and needing two just to stay alive, Al Hackner found a sliver of red showing past the guard, no more than an edge, and put the whole final through it. Thread the port, catch that edge, and drive the front stone into the one sitting behind it. One shot, two rocks gone, a Brier still alive.
The Schmirler In-Off
There was no angle at the shot rock, so Sandra Schmirler didn't play the stone in front of her, she played the one behind it. Throw wide, catch the inside edge of your own stone in the rings, and let it turn you in behind the guard. Their rock leaves, yours takes its place, and the stone you came off pays for it.