A guard stops on purpose in front of the house: free guard zone, weight just past the hog line, centre and corner guard, plus the rule that protects it.
The honest answer: a guard is a stone you deliberately place in front of the house so that it protects another stone [1]. It stays in the free guard zone, the area between the hog line and the tee line without the house itself [1]. Your opponent cannot just clear it, because a rule protects it: under the World Curling 2026 rules, no opposing stone may be played out of the zone before the sixth stone of an end is delivered. If one is, the delivered stone is removed and everything goes back [1].
How big is the target? Between the inner edge of the hog line (6.401 metres from the tee line) and the outer edge of the house (1.829 metres from the tee line) there are about 4.6 metres [1], roughly one car length. Your stone has to stop in that strip.
How hard is a guard? The weight is smaller than for a draw and the strip is narrow, so it needs a fine weight feel. Once your draw lands, a guard is a manageable next step. Older texts still describe the four-stone version of the rule [4], so ask your club which one is played.
Stand at the hog line and look at the house. That is your strip: just under 5 metres, clearly bounded [1]. A stone that stops short of it is gone ("hogged") [1]. A stone that ends up in the house is no longer a guard.
Milestone: you can show someone the zone and explain why a stone short of the far hog line is removed.
Throw stones at front house weight [1], then take off a bit of speed on purpose. Your target: fully past the hog line and well short of the rings. Two steps: see the draw first, then the guard as its "shorter brother". The weight comes from the legs, not the arm.
Milestone: five out of ten stones stay in the zone without sweeping.
The target is the middle of the sheet, broom on the centre line. A centre guard sits in front of the four-foot [3]. It blocks the direct way to the middle, and tactically it is the weapon of the team without the hammer that wants to steal a point [2].
Milestone: three out of five stones end up as a centre guard in the zone, without needing a second one.
The corner guard sits at the side. It protects the side and leaves the middle open for your next stone [3]. You need a different line, because the stone drifts sideways as it curls. The skip holds the broom correspondingly far out.
Milestone: three out of five stones end up as a corner guard in the zone.
The US federation's instructor manual gives the baseline: with the hammer you tend to play to the sides and keep the four-foot open for the last stone. Without the hammer you tend to play down the middle, to block access and score [2]. When you lead, the manual puts it like this: "when you're up in score, the guards are not". Keep play clean and give the opponent no stones to hide behind [2].
Place the guard so that it bothers your opponent without bothering you. The instructor manual gives two rules of thumb: control the top of the house and the path to the four-foot, and put your guard "straight on" in front of another guard when you want to score without the hammer [2]. In practice: look at where your next stone wants to go before you throw.
When you trail, you place guards to create scoring chances. With the hammer you tend to play to the sides, without it down the middle to block the way [2]. When you lead, the reverse holds: keep play clean and give the opponent no stones to hide behind [2].
The zone between the hog line and the tee line at the playing end, excluding the house [1]. Under the World Curling 2026 rules the opponent may not remove a stone from this zone before the sixth stone is delivered, otherwise their stone is removed and everything is put back [1].
The hammer is the last stone of an end [1]. The team that scored last throws the first stone in the next end, so the opponent has the hammer [1]. With the last stone you can play for several points [2].
The Takeout in Curling: Knocking Stones Out of Play