Curling’s five-rock rule in full swing this season
Curlers are adapting to the newest wrinkle in the sport
The experimenting is over for curling’s five-rock rule. From the clubs to the world championships, curlers are adapting to the newest wrinkle in the sport this season.
Rocks in front of the rings can’t be removed from play until five rocks have been thrown in an end. Previously, the rule was four rocks in what’s known as the free guard zone.
So the team with hammer now has the option of throwing a second guard that can’t immediately be removed on the next shot.
Sounds simple, but there are a host of ripple effects from new strategies to more demands on shotmaking skills, particularly at the second position.
“It’s another thing to kind of wrap your head around,” Olympic gold medallist and television commentator Joan McCusker said.
The world’s top teams have been playing the five-rock rule in the World Curling Tour’s Grand Slams for the last four years.
The World Curling Federation’s vote to adopt the five-rock “FGZ” for 2018-19 put it into widespread use this season.
The theory behind the change is there will be more rocks in play, fewer blank ends, the ability to come back from a big deficit and thus fewer blowouts in which teams shake hands early.
Elite teams such as Jennifer Jones, Rachel Homan, Brad Gushue, Kevin Koe and Brad Jacobs got a head start on it playing in Slams.
Those who have played few or no Grand Slams, as well as club teams, are still on a learning curve.
“If you look at the very top at Jennifer Jones, Rachel Homan, Brad Gushue, Kevin Koe, those kind of teams, for sure I think they’re going to have that advantage,” Edmonton skip Kelsey Rocque said.
“They’ve played in the Slams consistently ever since the five-rock rule (was) introduced really. Definitely I think they’ll have that slight advantage for the first maybe year before everybody else catches on.”
Darcy Robertson’s Winnipeg team played five-rock in one Grand Slam prior to this season. So she and her teammates are still adjusting to it.
“Even for us six weeks later we are more comfortable, although we still do have a lot of questions in our heads,” Robertson said.
“Sometimes a situation comes up we haven’t seen before. We’re still learning.”
Down 6-1 after four ends, Rocque lost in an extra end in a game in Calgary earlier this month. She says her team’s comeback was an example of the five-rock rule at work.
McCusker said her mixed team gave up six in the second end at Regina’s Callie Club one night.
“We came back and it was tied up coming home,” she said. “Did we employ the five-rock rule? Oh, you betcha. We’re throwing everything out there and not taking anything out.”
Two-time world champion Russ Howard invented the free guard zone rule in the 1980s to jazz up curling.
The WCF implemented the four-rock rule in 1993. Canada went with a threerock version before adopting four in 2002.
Ice chips
The WCF has revamped world ranking criteria, making results from Olympic and Paralympic Games points equitable with world championship points. Games points were previously double the weight.
Points will also be scored over four years instead of six, so only one Winter Games is taken into consideration.
The first set of rankings under the new criteria has Canada ranked first in the world in both mixed doubles and mixed team curling.