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Sports draw the line on equipment all the time. Professional baseball, for example, does not use aluminum bats. Pro golf has extensive lists of approved/disall

by LargeWu 11y ago

Sports draw the line on equipment all the time. Professional baseball, for example, does not use aluminum bats. Pro golf has extensive lists of approved/disallowed equipment. The key here is that the professionals claim it fundamentally changes the game. Not only does it allegedly drastically change the dynamics of how the rock travels, it also allegedly takes most of the skill requirement out of shooting and puts it into sweeping. Not to mention it also supposedly causes significant harm to the playability of the ice surface, which is paramount in curling. Somebody posted a video on youtube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ScelTWytLFQ&feature=youtu.be https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ScelTWytLFQ&feature=youtu.be) of a draw shot that the sweeper was able to manipulate the rock into traveling a straight line, while a rock a few feet over curled five feet. This sort of manipulation completely changes how the game is played, both physically as well as strategy. Now, I'm still not sure I believe all the claims, and the video leaves a lot of unanswered questions, and some claim it's just a smear campaign by BalancePlus against competitor Hardline. I don't know what to believe, and am reserving judgement until the evidence is more clear. BUT, if these brooms can in fact do everything people claim they can, I would be in favor of disallowing them.

mudetroit 11y ago
Having watched the video, and curled, to me it says little to nothing. Two stones thrown that far apart from one another can show wildly different amounts of curl. Every sheet has it's own characteristics, even across different pebblings things will change. Additionally, sweeping is supposed to make the stone go straighter, that;s the basic mechanics of the game. I think if they are going to look at putting some sort of rule in place then they need to look at it from something that can be strictly scientifically measured, like the rebound velocity of a golf club face, rather then something against a specific fabric type.
- LargeWu 11y ago
  Well I agree the video doesn't prove anything. Would need to see a more controlled study. At minimum I would like to see what that line does without any sweeping. If you watch closely you can see the sweeping appears to cause the rock to change handles multiple times, which would explain the straight draw shot. I mean, I've played on some very straight ice before, but never that straight, unless there was a problem with the ice itself. Even the straightest ice moves a couple rock widths on a draw. There are some shenanigans going on, not necessarily with the brooms.

by LargeWu 11y ago

mudetroit 11y ago

Having watched the video, and curled, to me it says little to nothing. Two stones thrown that far apart from one another can show wildly different amounts of curl. Every sheet has it's own characteristics, even across different pebblings things will change. Additionally, sweeping is supposed to make the stone go straighter, that;s the basic mechanics of the game. I think if they are going to look at putting some sort of rule in place then they need to look at it from something that can be strictly scientifically measured, like the rebound velocity of a golf club face, rather then something against a specific fabric type.

LargeWu 11y ago
Well I agree the video doesn't prove anything. Would need to see a more controlled study. At minimum I would like to see what that line does without any sweeping. If you watch closely you can see the sweeping appears to cause the rock to change handles multiple times, which would explain the straight draw shot. I mean, I've played on some very straight ice before, but never that straight, unless there was a problem with the ice itself. Even the straightest ice moves a couple rock widths on a draw. There are some shenanigans going on, not necessarily with the brooms.