About the MIT Curling Club: a short FAQ

About the Club Curling club? MIT has a curling club...?! Yup! Founded in December 1999, in September the MIT Curling Club will be entering its second year of existence. The idea for our club was conceived by our founder in 1998, when curling was officially recognized as an Olympic sport. In the spring of 2000, a group of MIT graduates and undergraduates began practicing and learning the sport of curling from the Broomstones Curling Club in Wayland, MA. OK... what do you do? Here's a good description, excerpted from our bi-annual budget defense: The purpose of the MIT Curling Club is to introduce and promote the sport of curling within the MIT community and add to its list of diverse interests. Curling is a newly recognized Olympic sport but is not well known in the United States, due in part to the few curling clubs in the country. To promote this sport, we seek to provide its members the opportunity to learn about curling, improve their skills through lessons, to play in leagues with other more experienced curlers (some of whom are competitive at the national level), and possibly to represent MIT in intercollegiate competition. These goals are attained by developing a relationship with Broomstones, the largest local curling club. With the generosity and assistance of Broomstones we are able to give students (most have never even heard of it) a chance to try curling without any investment (Broomstones provides the facility and equipment), to have weekly two hour lessons with a private instructor, to be eligible to play in any of their numerous leagues with the other members of Broomstones, and to use Broomstone's contacts with other curling clubs at universities to set up competitions. Why curling? Our goals as a club are to: Have fun Don't fall over so much when throwing rock Build experience in Broomstone club bonspiels Enter established collegiate competition Winter Olympics 2006 Sounds cool! How can I join the club? Email us if you would like to join. We'll put you on our mailing list. I missed your Open House. Can I still try curling, just once? Yes. We welcome guests, even the ones who can't drive! Just get yourself on the club email list (see question above), and hitchhike with us to one of our weekly excursions to Broomstones. Our ice time is usually on Fridays from 4-6pm.... exact details will arrive via email. You won't be obligated to join the club after. But we hope you do! Curling-related questions What is curling? The sport of curling is the latest Winter Olympic craze. It's kind of like team shuffleboard on a 126-foot long sheet of ice. In a typical play, one player throws a 42-pound rock down the ice, while two teammates run alongside the rock with brooms and sweep the ice in front of it. A fourth teammate stands in the bullseye area and directs the first player where to throw the rock and the other teammates how much to sweep. Each team throws 8 such rocks in an end. Teams score points by counting the number of its rocks closer to the center of the bullseye than the opposing team's rocks. A game is typically 8 or 10 ends long. Uh-huh. Why's it called curling again? Curling rocks have handles on them. As a player releases the rock, he/she places a slight spin on the rock. The spin causes the rock to arc (or curl) away from its original straight-line trajectory as the rock slows down. Here's the spinning rock graphic again. Note the handle: ---------------------> What's with the brooms? They're for sweeping! The ice is dusted with small pebbles. The brooms are for cleaning the ice in front of the rock, and also to melt the pebbles and create a thin layer of water for the rock to glide on. Sweeping can extend the distance a rock travels by 15 feet.