What are the brooms used for curling?

Answer 1

Sweeping the ice quickly can warm up the ice and create a thin film of water, which helps the rock to go farther and into the house (a.k.a. target). Sweeping also makes the rock curl less as it travels down the ice, allowing you to help a rock travel straighter if it looks like it will curl too much for the result you wanted.

Answer 2

The purpose of the broom in Curling is to warm up the ice so that is creates a friction so that it is easier for the rocks to glide across!!! It can also be used to alter the path of the rock (make it curl less).

Answer 3

They still use brooms, they just don't look like the standard straw brooms you'd find in a house.

Straw brooms used to be standard for curlers, but they were fairly inefficient for sweeping and would shed bits of straw onto the ice that could affect the rock's trajectory.

Modern brooms have handles made of wood, plastic, aluminum or even carbon fiber, and the straw portion has been replaces by a flat, synthetic pad. The constant contact with the ice and the amount of pressure sweepers can push onto the broom with a pad broom means it's much easier to sweep.

Some old-timers still use straw brooms and you still occasionally see them at clubs, but in competitive play they've been phased out for a couple decades now.

Answer 4

The sweeping melts the ice a little creating a thin layer of water. The stone will go farther and straighter on the thin layer of water. By varying the location of sweeps, sweepers can influence the speed and direction of the stone, which will turn (curl) more when in direct contact with ice.

Although the thrower usually does not sweep, they carry a broom just in case, and use it for balance when throwing.

Answer 5

The brooms are used to "sweep" the ice in front of a sliding rock. The friction created from sweeping melts the ice just a tiny bit, enough to decrease the friction between the rock and the ice, making the rock both slide farther and slide straighter (curl less).

The broom is also used by most players for balance during their delivery (the process of "throwing" or sliding the rock down the ice).

Answer 6

Sweeping in front of a rock as it travels down the ice causes friction, and creates a thin film of water in the path of the rock. This can help the rock travel farther down the ice if it's not going fast enough (maybe an extra 8 feet or so if you have 2 sweepers sweeping hard the whole way down the ice). Sweeping also causes a rock to curl less (it goes straighter down the ice), so it can be used to correct a shot that looks like it's going to curl too much. Usually, the two players doing the sweeping take on the responsibility of deciding if they need to "sweep for weight" (they need to sweep to make the rock go far enough), while the skip (the team captain) is in charge of watching the path of the rock and deciding if the sweepers need to "sweep for line" to help the patch of the rock.

Brooms are also used by players for balance when shooting. Some players hold the broom upright with the handle across their shoulder or back, others lay it flat on the ground.