You Can’t Do That in Curling… Or Can You?

As the above Rock Channel video shows (be sure to un-mute your volume), Rachel Homan had something to say to Japan’s Team Satsuki Fujisawa in Wednesday action at the Players’ Championship.

You see, with a few moments to go before the February Olympics, World Curling has thoughtfully introduced a new Sweeping Technique Policy to curb “unacceptable effects” on the stone.

The acceptable effects can “make the stone go further and to hold a stone straighter, while allowing for some enhancement of the curling trajectory.”

This means you can sweep a rock to make it travel farther or to hold it straight, and you can also sweep to enhance the natural curling trajectory, i.e. try make it curl.  

Some purists will think the latter ability shouldn’t be permitted either, but I digress.

More from their release:

The prohibited techniques now include those that increase the rate of deceleration of a stone, such as:

• Single brush strokes (standard or knifing orientation) using primarily a push motion

• Single brush strokes that keep the brush on the ice while returning to its original position

• Single brush strokes that lift the brush head off the ice before returning to its original position

These techniques, along with others, when used with the intent of slowing down a stone are against the Statement of Principles and are now prohibited from use in competition.

That boldface text was mine. Here’s a repeat:

Along with others.

The rules in curling have always been a little opaque. Curlers historically call their own fouls in bonspiels and even Grand Slams across the country.

This video is about that, among other things.

I have two opinions about what Rachel said.

Opinion No. 1:

Curling has new rules. No one really knows what they are or who will enforce them, but we do know that what we want is for sweeping to go back to making the rock go farther or curl less. We’ll accept that some people can make the rock curl. Snowplowing, or whatever this is, is not intended to do anything other than slow the stone down.

Opinion No. 2:

We have new rules that we don’t fully understand. Rachel Homan is the GOAT. Rachel is taking this moment of uncertainty and throwing additional uncertainty to her opponents. Call it a mild example of shithousery, wherein Rachel accuses the other team of breaking new rules no one, but Rachel, seems to understand.

Is it both? Neither?

Note: I love shithousery. I once asked a world champion about the rocks, and he said the No. 7 stone curls a millimetre more than the No. 8 rock. At the time, I was like, “I’m not that good.” But in retrospect, it was a glorious moment of shithousery wherein he made a claim that had me doubting my ability when compared to him. Just amazing. No notes.

When you write rules that include the words “along with others” and they are immediately adopted at an event that is self-officiated, you get people interpreting the rules differently.

Rachel, ever the competitor, used those rules to get into the head of an opponent. Perhaps intentionally, or perhaps simply because Rachel believed the vague rules were being abused.

The game of curling is arguably the game of sweeping now. Players can do things with the stones that are contrary to what we want in the game.

We want good shotmaking, helped by sweeping. Not bad shotmaking helped by sweeping.