The sheet, the house, and what everything is called
Curlers name places on the ice the way sailors name parts of a boat: constantly, precisely, and without ever explaining it. Here is the whole vocabulary on one map. Point at anything to see what it is called.
Last updated 2026-08-16
The house, spot by spot#
The house is four circles: a twelve-foot blue ring, an eight-foot white one, a four-foot red one, and a one-foot button at the dead centre. Curlers almost never say "about a metre and a half in front of the middle". They say top 8, and everyone knows exactly where that is, to within a few inches.
The names work outward from the button in both directions. Top means the near side — the side you are throwing from. Back means the far side. The number is which ring's edge you mean.
Point at a name below to find it on the ice, or at the ice to find its name.
- The twelve-foot — The outer blue ring, twelve feet across. Everything touching it counts; nothing outside it does.
- The eight-foot — The white ring inside the blue. "In the eight" means a stone is at least this close.
- The four-foot — The red ring, four feet across. The strategically important one: a stone in the four-foot is close enough that the other team usually has to do something about it, and it is the zone teams fight over all game.
- 4Top 12 — The front edge of the house, where the twelve-foot ring starts. A stone here is in the rings but as far from the button as a counting stone can be. Also called the top of the house.
- 5Top 8 — The front of the eight-foot ring, two feet further in. The most common call for a draw that has to sit in front of something.
- 6Top 4 — The front of the four-foot ring. Close enough to the middle to be a real shot, far enough forward to be guarded by anything on the centre line.
- 7The button — The one-foot circle at the dead centre, and the default answer to "where do you want it?". The exact centre point is the pin, and a stone sitting on it is on the pin or frozen to the button.
- 8Back 4 — Two feet past the tee line, at the back of the four-foot ring. Behind the tee line and still close to the middle, which makes it awkward to remove.
- 9Back 8 — The back of the eight-foot. Deep, hard to hit cleanly, and a nuisance to draw around.
- 10Back 12 — The back edge of the house, which is also the back line. A foot further and the stone is out of play, so this is the last position that scores anything at all.
- A biter — A stone only just touching the outer ring. It counts, but it is the first thing an opponent will move, and on a crowded end it often takes a measure to know whether it is touching at all.
- The wings — The open ice either side of the house, out towards the sideboards. Sometimes called the open side. A stone parked out here scores nothing, but it can be raised into the house later, or used as a place to hide.
- The tee line — The line straight across the middle of the house. It matters for more than geometry: sweepers on the throwing team must stop sweeping their own stone at it, and the opposing skip may sweep an opponent's stone only after it crosses.
The numbers, and why they are on the ice#
Those numbers are not a difficulty scale or an invented rating. They are positions. The house divides itself into a ladder with two-foot rungs, and the ladder is what curlers call weight off: 4 is the front of the rings, 7 is the button, 10 is the back line, with 5, 6, 8 and 9 landing on the eight- and four-foot lines either side of the tee.
That symmetry is the entire point. Once you know a 7 is the button, you know a 9 is the back of the eight-foot without having memorised a thing — it is two rungs past the middle, and each rung is two feet.
In front of the rings the rungs get bigger. There are no lines out there to divide the ice, and fifteen feet of open guard zone would need eight numbers at two-foot spacing, so the guard numbers step three feet instead: 1, 2 and 3 cover the guard zone, with 3 being the tightest guard and 1 the deepest.
| Called | Where it stops | Feet from the hack | Hog to hog |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | A deep guard | 111 ft | 16.48 s |
| 2 | A guard | 114 ft | 15.58 s |
| 3 | A tight guard | 117 ft | 14.87 s |
| 4 | The top of the house | 120 ft | 14.27 s |
| 5 | The top of the eight-foot | 122 ft | 13.92 s |
| 6 | The top of the four-foot | 124 ft | 13.60 s |
| 7 | The button | 126 ft | 13.31 s |
| 8 | The back of the four-foot | 128 ft | 13.04 s |
| 9 | The back of the eight-foot | 130 ft | 12.78 s |
| 10 | The back line | 132 ft | 12.55 s |
Stopwatch times are for the game's calibration sheet. On a keener or heavier sheet the same spot takes a different time, which is the whole reason curlers time the ice — see ice speed.
Takeouts have no number. The chart stops at the back line because that is where the house stops, and a takeout is defined by the fact that it would keep going and leave the sheet if it hit nothing. Those weights get names instead: why the weights are called what they are.
In front of the house#
Between the hog line and the front of the rings there are fifteen feet of entirely blank ice. Nothing there scores. It is also where most of the game is decided, because a stone sitting in that space stops the other team reaching what is behind it.
Point at a name to find it on the ice.
- The free guard zone — Between the hog line and the tee line, and not touching the rings. For the first five stones of an end, an opposing stone that comes to rest here may not be removed from play — hit it out and the stones go back and yours comes off.
- A centre guard — A guard sitting on or near the centre line. It protects the button, which is why the team without the hammer puts one there: it turns the middle of the house into a place you can only reach by drawing around something.
- A corner guard — A guard out towards the side. It protects the wing rather than the middle, which suits the team with the hammer: it opens a place to hide a second stone without cluttering the path to the button.
- The top of the house — The half of the rings in front of the tee line. Stones here are easier to reach and easier to remove, and easier to draw around.
- The back of the house — The half behind the tee line. Harder to hit without rolling out, and safe from anything drawn in front of it — but a hair too deep and it is gone.
- The hog line — A stone must fully cross the far hog line or it is removed — that is what "hogged" means. It must also be released before the near one; in serious play the handles have sensors that light up if it was not.
- Through the back — Past the back line and out of play, removed as soon as it stops. A shot that runs through the house has done nothing at all, which is why weight is called to a foot rather than to a feeling.
The lines, and what each one actually does#
Every line on a sheet is a rule rather than a decoration:
- The hack — the rubber foothold you push out of. There are two, one either side of the centre line, so right- and left-handed players both throw from the middle.
- The back line — the boundary at the back of the house. A stone entirely past it is out of play. A stone touching it is still in.
- The tee line — through the centre of the house. Sweeping rights change here: the throwing team's sweepers must stop at it, and the opposing skip may sweep the stone only once it has crossed.
- The hog lines — 72 feet apart, 15 feet in front of each house. You must release before the near one; the stone must fully cross the far one. Both are hard rules with no judgement in them.
- The centre line — runs the length of the sheet through both buttons. It has no rule attached; it is there so everyone can say "on the centre" and mean the same thing.
- The courtesy lines — short marks near each hog line showing where the non-throwing team stands so they are out of the way. Etiquette, written down.
How it is actually said#
A skip calling a shot rarely uses a full sentence. What you hear is a place and a weight, and that is the whole instruction:
"Draw the top 8, come around the centre guard." — Land at the front of the eight-foot, passing behind the stone on the middle.
"Back 4, off the four-foot." — Draw to two feet behind the button, using the red ring as the line.
"Hit and roll to the open side." — Take that stone out, and let yours carry on into the empty wing.
"Guard, tight." — Put it in front, close to the rings, roughly a 3.
There is a full list of the shots themselves on the shots, and what each one is for.