A tenth of a second is nearly two metres: how to separate split and hog-to-hog times, learn target times and calibrate a sheet across a whole game.
A tenth of a second of difference in the interval time means about six feet — nearly two metres of running distance — at the far end of the sheet [1]. That is the conversion which turns "that was heavy enough" into a number, and it is why competitive teams work with a watch instead of adjectives.
Two different things are being measured here, and club jargon confuses them constantly. The split time is a short opening section, usually from the back line to the near hog line — it describes the pace with which the stone leaves your hand. The long time or hog-to-hog time runs from the near to the far hog line and describes how the sheet carries the stone [1]. The first judges you, the second judges the ice.
And the target values are remarkably tight: a draw typically runs 13.0 to 14.5 seconds hog to hog, takeouts around 9 seconds (firm), 10 (bumper) and 11 (hack) depending on weight [1]. Your entire sport happens inside that window — two seconds of spread between "through the house" and "hung up short".
The split time from the push to the near hog line measures what you gave the stone. The hog-to-hog time measures what the sheet makes of it [1]. If your split times are constant while the hog-to-hog times drift, you do not have a technique problem, you have an ice problem. That separation is the entire value of the method.
Draw: 13.0 to 14.5 seconds. Takeout firm: around 9 seconds. Bumper: around 10. Hack: around 11 [1]. Learn those four numbers the way you learn scales — not to recite them in a game, but so that a 0.3-second deviation registers immediately as what it is: about five and a half metres.
The rule of thumb: 0.1 seconds of difference in the interval time equals about six feet, nearly two metres [1]. That makes every time deviation instantly translatable into a stone position. Measure in seconds and you correct in metres. Measure in "heavier" and you guess in hopes.
Times without sheet context are worthless. On good ice a draw runs around 14.3 seconds at the start of a game and around 13.8 seconds towards the end — the sheet gets faster because the pebble wears down [1]. The same picture from ice-making practice: under stones and brooms the pebble breaks down, and the sheet becomes noticeably faster from the second or third end [4]. So recalibrate every two ends, not once a game.
A time produced under sweeping needs marking as such. In the ice-chamber experiment, the type of sweeping had a significant main effect on the stone's running distance, while the stone's speed itself did not differ between conditions [3]. And the dosing is known: doubling the downward force doubles the heat generated, doubling the speed gives only a factor of 1.55 [2]. So note per stone: swept or not, and how far.
The mean lies, the spread does not. Log target time, actual time and deviation over 20 stones and compute the standard deviation. There is a useful side effect too: estimating before you look at the watch trains time perception — and in curlers that is associated with delivery performance [5].
Timing work tempts you into high stone counts in a short time, because every number calls for the next. That is exactly the loading pattern overuse grows out of. Set a hard upper limit per session and keep to it, even when the spread still displeases you.
Make sure the person at the far end is not standing in the running path. They are looking at a watch, not at a 20-kilo stone — and a stone has to be released before the near hog line anyway [6], not braked in front of it.
And the substantive limit: the time values in this guide come from coaching and association teaching material, not from controlled studies [1]. They are orientation values and measurement method, not performance norms — and this guide replaces neither coaching nor performance testing.
Keep a sheet card instead of a player card: note only two numbers per end — the hog-to-hog time of your first unswept draw and the curl you observed. After eight ends you have a curve showing you how fast this particular sheet is ageing today.
The payoff comes in the deciding end. While everyone else plays on the feel they built in the first end, you know your draw now needs closer to 13.8 seconds than 14.3 [1] — and that this comes from the breaking-down pebble, not from your daily form [4]. That is the difference between a team that suffers the ice and one that reads it.
The split time measures a short opening section, usually from the back line to the near hog line; the long or hog-to-hog time runs from the near to the far hog line [1]. The first judges your push, the second the sheet. Kept separately, they show you instantly where an error sits.
A draw typically runs 13.0 to 14.5 seconds hog to hog. Takeouts sit at around 9 seconds (firm), 10 (bumper) and 11 (hack) depending on weight [1]. These values come from coaching material and are orientation, not norms.
About six feet, nearly two metres [1]. That is the conversion with which you translate any time deviation straight into a stone position — and the reason teams argue in tenths of a second rather than in "a bit heavier".
Because the pebble wears down. On good ice a draw runs around 14.3 seconds early and around 13.8 late [1]; under stones and brooms the pebble structure breaks down and the sheet gets noticeably faster from the second or third end [4]. That is why you recalibrate every two ends.
The Ice Changes: Pebble, Nipping and Why End Eight Runs Differently From End One