Understand curling tactics: use guard, draw, freeze and takeout properly, think with and without the hammer, and plan your ends three stones ahead.
Curling tactics collapse into one question: do you have the hammer or not? With hammer you keep the centre clear and play wide to score multiple points; without hammer you occupy the centre to steal or force your opponent down to a single point [4]. Everything else is craft built on that one decision.
And the hammer is no soft advantage: in competitive statistics the team with last stone wins roughly 60 to 62 per cent of ends at a level score [2]. That also explains why strong teams sometimes deliberately blank an end — a blank end costs no hammer, a cheap single point does [3].
What beginners underestimate: tactics are not the last stone, they are the first. Since the world federation introduced the five-rock rule for the 2018/19 season, guards in the free guard zone — the strip between near hog line and tee line outside the house — may only be knocked out from the sixth stone on [1]. The purpose: more stones in play, more offence, fewer dead ends [1].
Which is why an end is almost always decided on stones one to four — nobody notices at the time.
A guard sits in front of the house and covers, a draw runs into the house, a freeze settles right in front of an existing stone and becomes nearly impossible to remove, a takeout knocks a stone out, a hit-and-roll knocks out and rolls itself to a better spot, a come-around curls in behind a guard, and a peel clears a guard away [4]. A come-around behind a well-set guard is one of the hardest positions in the game to remove [4].
With last stone you want multiple points, not one. So you deliberately place your stones off centre, keep the four-foot open and split the house [4]. The goal is a situation where your last stone collects two or three points instead of one.
Without last stone you play centrally — guards and draws on the centre line — to either steal (score without hammer) or force the opponent down to a single point [4]. For a sense of what is on the table: elite teams aim for a steal rate of 0.30 or higher; at a top 2025 event the median sat at 0.25, with the best teams between 0.31 and 0.47 [2]. And one top team forced its opponent to exactly one point in over 60 per cent of ends without hammer [2].
If you lead clearly in the closing ends, your game turns defensive: takeouts, peels, keep the house clean [4]. If you trail, you flip completely: get as many stones into play as possible, guards, come-arounds, create chaos, because only a big end saves you [4]. The most common club defeat is not bad technique — it is the right game at the wrong score.
Before every stone, two questions: what does the opponent answer with? And where do I want to stand on the second-to-last stone? A guard only makes sense if you can then draw in behind it [4] — otherwise you built cover for your opponent. And factor in the curl: on club ice with four feet of curl you get behind guards where straighter ice would leave you stuck [5].
Tactics change your load profile: a defensive hit game means many hard takeouts in a row, an offensive draw game means many precise draws with a long slide and considerably more sweeping. Both are fine — but not without a warm-up, and not with cold hips on the first call.
Concretely: if your skip calls three takeouts in a row, the load on trunk and shoulder jumps. Deliberately take your full seconds between stones instead of releasing with a rounded back out of hurry.
And as in every guide in this series: this explains principles and makes you want to think — it never replaces a supervised course or a coach's eye that reads wrong decisions in real time.
Keep a mini log for one game: note just three things per end — hammer yes/no, result, and whether your plan was offensive or defensive. After eight ends your actual problem is there in black and white, and it is almost never what you assumed. Usually it shows up as too many single points with hammer (you lack width) or too few steals without hammer (you lack the centre). Elite teams measure exactly those two figures — hammer conversion and steal rate [2]. Log your ends and you play in a different class next season.
By hammer and score. With hammer at a level score you keep the centre open and play wide for two points; without hammer you occupy the centre to steal or force to one [4]. If you lead clearly late, you clear the house; if you trail, you get as many stones into play as possible [4].
A guard sits in front of the house and covers a later stone, a freeze settles right in front of an existing stone and becomes nearly unremovable, a takeout knocks an opposing stone out of play [4]. Hit-and-roll, come-around and peel are the further variants [4].
Because the hammer is worth more than a single point. After a blank end you keep last stone [3], and with it you win roughly 60 to 62 per cent of ends at a level score [2]. A point that does not change the score but costs the hammer is a bad trade.
Ask two questions before every stone: what does the opponent answer with, and where do I want to be on the second-to-last stone? Guards only make sense if you can draw in behind them afterwards [4]. And factor in the day's amount of curl — four to six feet decides whether a come-around is possible at all [5].
Your First Bonspiel: Format, Etiquette and What a Full Curling Day Does to You