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 all 47 shots in the simulator: what each one is, when to use it, and how difficult it is to execute. Twenty-five training shots take you from a basic draw to the button through angle raises and peels. Nineteen challenge shots put a scoreboard behind them, and three legendary shots recreate championship throws stone for stone. Every one is playable and scored in the app.
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.
Challenge shots
19The drills above teach the shots. These put a scoreboard behind them: a set end, a set score, and one stone to throw. The pass mark is 7 out of 10, one higher than the training shots.
From the finals
Three last-rock moments from the Olympics and the Brier, in the order they happened.
Draw for the Gold
Salt Lake City, 2002. Last rock, tied, and the only thing that matters is finishing nearer the pin than their stone. There is a guard on the line so you cannot come at it straight, and no second chance behind you. Heavy by an inch and you hand them the medal.
The Hometown Draw
St. John's, 2017. Fourteen Briers, no title, and a building full of people who have watched every one of them. Tied coming home with the last rock of the game, and their stone sits just inside the eight foot. Draw inside it and the Brier is yours. Corner guards down both sides and their counter on the shoulder of the pin leave one road in, and nothing on it can be touched. The button is the shot you want. The eight foot is all you need.
Five for the Gold
PyeongChang, 2018. Tied coming into the eighth with the hammer, four of yours already in the rings and two of theirs lying in front of them. Thread the gap beside their centre guard, catch their tee-line rock on the outside and drive it back through the one behind it. Clear both and you count five.
Read the scoreboard
Club-game situations where the score decides the shot. The right throw is the one that wins the end you are in.
The Power Play
Mixed doubles. You get one of these a game, so it had better pay. Your stone is parked out on the eight foot with a corner guard in front of it and the whole centre of the sheet standing empty. Curl in behind that guard and freeze onto your own rock. Two under cover, and nothing they throw can reach either one.
The Four-Rock Tick
For twenty years a centre guard could not come off the sheet until the fifth rock of the end, so the team with the hammer stopped trying to remove it and moved it instead. You are throwing the last lead rock. Their guard sits on the centre line with a stone tucked into the four-foot behind it. Catch the guard on the shoulder, slide it clear of the centre and keep it out front, and carry your own stone into the rings. Take it off the sheet and it goes back where it was, and yours comes off.
The Guard You Cannot Tick
Under the no-tick rule, a guard touching the centre line cannot be moved off it before the sixth stone of the end. Knock it off and it goes back. You do not have the hammer and this is the third stone of the end. Your first guard finished 40 cm off the line, so nothing protects it, and their corner guard sits on the right. Come in from the right, between the two, and tuck this one onto the centre line in front of the rings. Touching the line is safe. Beside it is not.
The Guard War
One up, no hammer, two ends to go. They keep putting centre guards up and you keep taking them off, and this time they have a rock buried right behind the one you have to move. Come up light and you drive that rock deeper into the rings, through your own counter, and they are sitting shot with the hammer still to come. Catch the guard on the shoulder at full weight. It has to leave the sheet, and so do you.
Blank It
Ninth end, one up, hammer in your hand. Scoring one here is a mistake: take the point and you give the last rock back for the tenth. So take nothing. Run the gap between their guards with real weight, clear their stone off the button, and carry yourself out the back with it. An empty end, and the hammer coming home.
Force Them to One
One up, no hammer, last end, and they are lying two with the hammer still to come. One point for them and you play an extra with the last rock. Two and you are finished. Their corner guard seals the left, so come down the right and curl in behind their front rock. Front of the tee is not good enough. It has to be past the pin and fully in the four.
Coming Home Down One
Last end, one down, last rock. A point ties it and sends you to an extra. Two wins it here. Their stone is on the pin and yours is already counting on the far side, so this is one shot: take theirs out and roll across behind your own corner guard. Roll too far and you are open. Stick and you are second shot.
Runback for the Steal
Tied, last end, and they have the hammer. Their rock is buried in the back four, your own stone sits on the line in front of it, and their guard shuts the way around. No draw, no clean hit. So throw at your own. Catch it off the angle and drive it back through theirs: theirs has to leave the sheet and yours has to stop on the button. Their second rock sits right beside that lane, so drift and you clip it. Make it and they need a perfect last rock or you steal the game.
Raise Your Own for Two
Last end, one down, and the last rock of the game is yours. One only ties it. Your stone on the right is counting, theirs sits a little further out on the left, and their guards take away the draw and the hit. The way in is your own stone, parked short of the rings on the right. Catch it on the outside and angle it in onto the button for two. Straight at it and it runs up the side into your own counter.
Off Your Own for Two
Last end, one down, and the hammer is yours. Their shot rock sits in the back four with your stone in front of it and their guard out front, so there is no straight way in, and a draw to the pin only ties it. Your stone at the front of the twelve is the way in. Catch its right side, turn across the house between their guard and your stone, and take theirs out. Stick on the button and you and your stone count two. That is the game.
Take Both, Count Three
Eighth end, tied, and the hammer is yours. They are lying two on a diagonal through the eight foot with a corner guard out front, and your two sit just behind them, one on each side. Come past the guard and catch the front stone on its left side so it runs back into the other one. Both of theirs leave, you stay, and that is three. Take only the front one and their back stone is sitting shot.
Double and Roll
Ninth end, two down, and the hammer is yours. They are lying two on the left side of the rings, one straight behind the other, and both are inside your two stones on the right. Hit the front stone a little to the right of centre so it runs back into the second one. Both leave, your stone rolls toward the middle and stays, and that is three: one up going home. Hit it square and the front stone only takes the back one's place: you count one, and you are still behind.
Take Their Place
Their rock is on the pin and the house is full. Two of theirs sit on the shoulders, two more across the front, and the gap between those is barely wider than a stone. There is no roll available here: catch it thin either way and you slide off beside one of theirs, second shot, and the end is theirs. Straight down the chute, dead on the nose, and stop where it stood.
Skills competition
No opponent and no scoreboard. Three set pieces from the skills competition, scored on the pin.
The Long Raise
The skills competition raise. No scoreboard and no opposition, only your own stone on the centre line, halfway between the hog line and the rings. Hit it square and send it more than four metres up the ice to stop on the button. Two centimetres off the nose is a quarter of a metre wide by the time it gets there, and the weight has to be right as well. Full marks only for the pin.
The Drag Double
The skills competition double. Two of theirs at opposite corners of the house: one on the front left of the twelve, one at the back right of the eight, three metres apart. Catch the right shoulder of the front stone and drive it off the side. The hit slows your shooter, and a slower stone curls more, so its line bends as it rolls across the house. Allow for the drag, take the back stone out the back and stay in the rings for full marks.
Around the Horn
The skills competition triple. Three of theirs spread round the rim of the house: front left, back centre and back right. One shot takes all three. Catch the right shoulder of the front stone and drive it off the side, roll across the house and cut the back stone out the back, then carry on round to the corner and drive the last one out. Each hit spends speed, so throw it with everything. Full marks if your shooter stops in the ten-foot.
Legendary shots
3Not 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
Their shot rock sat on the pin behind a centre guard, with Sandra Schmirler's own stone right in front of it. So she went at it off the side. Throw wide, catch the inside edge of your stone biting the twelve, and let the contact turn you in onto theirs. Move it, stay in the rings, and you count three.
The Jones In-Off
Scotties final, 2005. Ontario were two up coming home and their shot rock was buried where nothing could reach it. Three of yours are already counting behind it, so the whole game is that one stone. Do not go at it down the middle. Throw wide, catch the inside edge of your own guard out on the wing, and let the contact turn you in. Their rock leaves, yours takes its place on the pin, and that is four.