Camera position, three checkable markers and the honest limit of the method: what a phone video of your delivery shows — and what it systematically cannot.
A phone video is good for exactly four things: stance, swing length, movement stillness, and the moment the handle leaves your hand. Everything else — angles, forces, velocities — you cannot judge from it, and for this sport no measurement reference exists either [1][5]. Anyone claiming more is measuring against invented target values.
But that is precisely what makes the method strong rather than weak. Because the four checkable markers happen to be the ones consistency hangs on: in action are only upper body, shoulders and wrist, the rest of the body stays in the base stance; no hasty and no clenched movements; swing length sits in practice at about 60 centimetres to one metre [1]. Three features a camera reliably makes visible — plus one rule that can even be decided objectively on video [5].
And the most honest insight of this guide comes at the end: a large share of the distance deviations players blame on their technique does not come from the movement at all, but from sole and surface [3]. Fail to separate those and you optimise the wrong end for months.
From the side you see swing length, lunge step, upper body posture and the moment of release. From behind you see direction: foot position, lunge step in the direction of play, alignment of the shoulder girdle.
The phases you want to make visible are always the same: grip, aiming, swing, lunge step, letting it glide [2]. Place the camera close enough that the stock stays in frame, and film whole series instead of single attempts — the meaning is in the repetition, not in the single frame.
From the federation teaching the starting position can be checked off cleanly: standing leg slightly angled to the direction of play, supporting leg pointing in the direction of play, both legs extended during the backswing phase, upper body upright, shoulder girdle parallel to the rear boundary line; the grip encloses the handle from behind, with the thumb resting on top at the front [6]. The movement itself is acyclic, from a static stance, with a repeated backswing [6].
On video you do not check whether that looks "correct", but whether it looks the same across all six attempts. Deviations between attempt 1 and attempt 6 are the real finding.
Do not measure swing length in centimetres but relative to your tape mark: where does the stock end behind the body, where in front? The practical corridor is about 60 centimetres to one metre [1] — a corridor, not a target value.
The most common pattern on video: swing length grows across the series. Attempt 1 clean, attempts 5 and 6 clearly bigger — and that is exactly where the overly long stocks land.
The target state is tersely put: no hasty, no clenched movements; in action only upper body, shoulders and wrist [1]. On video you recognise this by three things: a head that travels along, a raised shoulder, a hectic swing.
A comparative image from neighbouring research, explicitly flagged as transfer: in curling and motor-learning research it is described that beginners rigidly fix their joint degrees of freedom, while experienced athletes release that rigidity and transfer energy fluidly across several joints [7]. As a description of what "fluid" means on video, that is usable. As a measurement for ice stock sport it is not — it is a plausible hypothesis, not a finding for this sport [7].
The only marker that can be decided objectively on video, because it is a rule: the handle must have left the hand at the latest after the first lunge step; running along further or pushing invalidates the attempt [5].
Watch this in slow motion. Many players who play "somehow too long" push unconsciously — and never find the error, because at full speed it is invisible.
Two limits, both hard. First: distance deviations are often not a technique question. Sole and surface co-determine running behaviour — the harder the plate, the faster the stock runs, and rubber on ice behaves differently from plastic on asphalt [3]. Searching a uniformly long series in the movement means searching in the wrong place.
Second: for this sport there is no measurement reference. Published kinematic or kinetic movement analyses of the ice stock delivery do not exist — curling has three-dimensional measurements of the sliding phase, stock sport does not, and a direct transfer of that kinematics would be inadmissible because there the whole body glides along [8]. That is why this guide contains not a single angle or time value. Your reference is not the literature but your own best series.
Camera and tripod belong never on or beside the running lane, but behind the delivery spot or laterally outside the lane area. A tripod in the run-out zone is an obstacle for stocks and for people.
Anyone filming themselves tends to extend series until "there is a good one in there". That is exactly the point at which technique falls apart and the throwing shoulder and the back in the lunge step pick up the bill. Set a fixed number of attempts beforehand and stick to it.
And for any footage with other people in frame: ask first. This guide explains a method and motivates — it never replaces a supervised club or course where an experienced player reads the video together with you.
Keep your best documented series as a reference video and watch it before the new recording, not after. The reason is sober: after recording you look for confirmation, beforehand you set an anchor. And name the file after lane, sole and temperature — then at the next comparison you immediately see whether you are comparing technique or material [3].
Four things: the stance with standing and supporting leg and the shoulder girdle parallel to the rear boundary line [6], swing length in the practical corridor of about 60 centimetres to one metre [1], movement stillness [1] and the moment the handle leaves the hand [5]. Angles and forces are not among them.
In two positions: from the side at hip height for swing length, lunge step and release point, and from behind in line with the direction of play for foot position and direction. Both times on a tripod, outside the lane area, and with a tape mark at the delivery spot as reference.
Because distance does not come from movement alone. Running sole hardness and surface co-determine how fast the stock runs [3]. If a whole series is uniformly too long, that is a calibration issue, not a technique issue — scatter within the series, by contrast, is on you.
No. For ice stock sport no published kinematic or kinetic movement analyses exist; the three-dimensional measurements from curling cannot be transferred because there the whole body glides along the ice [8]. Your reference is your own best series, not a number from the literature.
Record a complete series of six — that is the unit the target competition also scores in [4], and it shows exactly the pattern single recordings hide: whether stance and swing length stay stable across the series or drift apart from attempt four onwards.
The Moar: Leading the Game, Reading the Lane and the Mentally Toughest Role in the Team