(bright music) (upbeat music) - [Dave Traut] A history of curling goes back to curling on frozen rivers and lakes in Scotland.

(broom swishing) It's grown exponentially in the past at least five years, ever since the US won gold at the Olympics it's seen a big boom in the states.

(stones clunking) (stone scraping) It's been described as chess on ice.

So an understanding of the strategy and an understanding of you're always thinking a couple shots ahead.

(stones clunking) So curling, it's played with four member teams.

You play against another team.

So eight people on the ice at once.

Two rocks per person for a total of eight rocks per team.

You play eight ends typically.

An end is like an in inning in baseball.

And you go back and forth, you alternate shots with the other team and then you also rotate positions.

So you might throw two stones and then you sweep.

The only person that doesn't sweep is the skip, who's calling the strategy at the other end of the house.

The house is the target.

The bullseye that you see on the ice.

(stones clunk) And once you're done throwing all eight stones of yours and all eight of the opponents, you count up how many rocks are in the house, which is the bullseye, and the closest to the center before your opponent's rock scores.

Only one team gets to score and you can score up to eight points or just one.

This is your typical curling stone.

On average, they weigh about 42 pounds.

It's made of granite and it comes from the island of Ailsa Craig, just off the coast of Scotland.

You have your striking band on the side, your handle up top and the running surface on the bottom is only about a quarter inch wide right here.

That's the only part that touches the ice.

And the ice is textured in a pebbled kind of way.

Unlike hockey ice, which is Zambonied flat, we put a texture of pebble on it to give the rocks the ability to travel the entire distance, about 150 feet.

To deliver the rock you figure out right or left-handed, I'm right-handed, so my right foot goes in the starting block, which we call a hack.

So you'll squat like a catcher in baseball.

Right hand on the stone, left hand for your stabilizer or your broom.

Find out where you're throwing, align your shoulders to where you're gonna throw.

You kind of wanna bring your hips up, lean back to get your weight back.

And then push with your right foot, slide onto your left.

(stone scraping) (broom swishing) The sweeping will help you keep the stone moving straighter, and moving farther.

So as soon as you let it go, it's gonna wanna slow down.

But the idea with sweeping is to melt just a very fine layer on the top of the ice so the rock can't grip it and slow down or curl.

So it's a 12 foot house.

The rings have no value.

Scoring is determined by the rocks that are closest to the center before your opponent.

So this yellow rock is closest.

This red rock is second closest.

Meaning that yellow gets one point 'cause they are the closest, before their opponent's rock.

So if I move this rock out to here.

Say it bumps that one, rolls off to the side.

This one is technically still on the house rings, even just by a sliver, but there is one, two yellows closest to the center before this red rock.

Which means yellow would grab two points.

(stone scraping) In curling, you'll see different types of shots.

So you'll see guards, like that red one, which will be out front.

Then you'll see what are called draws, which are slower shots, which try to get to certain areas maybe behind the red, like this yellow.

You might even see a faster shot called the takeout, which comes along and then knocks another rock out.

(upbeat music) Minnesota and Wisconsin have a huge curling population.

Our club, we have just under 300 members.

Yeah, there's a club in Cedarburg.

There's a club in Racine.

And Kettle Marine's out in Hartland.

So just in the Milwaukee Metro you have four clubs.

It's a great winter activity.

It helps the winter go by quicker.

And we have ages 8 through probably into their 80s at our club.

And you'll find probably lifelong friendships in the curling club as well.

(upbeat music fades) (bright music)