The Hizzle of T-Fizzle

This is the exciting feature where I occasionally look for unsuccessful search queries used here or that lead here from google, and try to answer them.

Someone asked this excellent question.  First: I don’t know the difference between in turn and out turn.  Seriously.  I mean, it’s different for lefties and righties, and even then while I believe that for a right-hander in turn is clockwise, I occasionally see statements to the contrary.  But this is all made moot by the fact that the origin of the terms “in turn” and “out turn” has to do with the way the elbow moved when delivering a stone back in the day.  Due to the way curling has evolved, your elbow really shouldn’t move laterally.  If it does, you’ll probably pull the stone to one side or the other.  Because of this, they don’t even teach the terms at PCC classes anymore - it was confusing the noobs.

At PCC they teach the newbies that the skip holds the broom in one hand and points with the other hand in the direction OPPOSITE the desired direction of curl.  This may seem counter-intuitive.  The skip is pointing to your left even though he expects the stone to curve to your right.  But it’s easy to remember - you just point the handle toward the skip’s hand.  If he points to your right, aim it at 2 o’clock.  If he points to your left, aim at 10 o’clock.  In either case, the handle should be at 12 o’clock when you let go of it, now spinning the right way.  I don’t know if this is a universal custom, but it is definitely the standard practice at PCC.

But there’s another thing to note.  Most of the time there is no question which turn will be required - it’s often implied by the skip’s ice call.  If the skip calls for a draw right to the center and then gives you ice to your right, it should be fairly obvious that the stone is going to have to curl to your left and will need to spin counter-clockwise.  As such, many skips I have seen will dispense with signalling on these kind of shots and signal only when it’s less obvious, or when the thrower asks for clarification.  Interesting tidbit: the PCC house rules actually specify that the skip should always signal for a turn.

Use your head and watch the skip.  As you get to know your skip, you will begin to recognize subtle signals anyway….for instance, he may not actually point with his right hand, but he will hold his broom in his left hand.  But if you’re unsure on any shot, it never hurts to ask. 

This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 14th, 2006 at 5:54 pm and is filed under Ask The Search Box, Curling. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.