
The game consist of 8-10 ends (one more in case of deuce) and it last about 2 hours.
To make the first shot, the lead (the first player of the team) goes to a specific area of the sheet where a starting line - called
Hack - is bolted to the ice.
Holding the stone firmly by its handle, the lead
delivers the stone.
A stone has to be delivered beyond a
Hog line, to be valid.
First, the two leads alternate shooting their first two stones, followed by the four deliveries of the two seconds and the four deliveries of the two thirds. The last delivery of each end is that of the remaining four
stones of the two skips.
After delivery one player shoot while the skip defines strategy.
They run in front of the stone using the
brooms to clean the ice immediately ahead of the stone to make it curl better and longer.
Best results are achieved by fast movement and plenty of pressure on the ice.
Stopping sweep at the right time it is possible to make a too fast stone slow down and stop it in the spot indicated by the skip.
The sweepers can only work in the part of the sheet between the two
tee lines.
The target of each player is to deliver a stone in the
House, that is the area of the sheet where four differently coloured large concentric circles are drawn on the ice (from the inside outwards: red, white, blue and white).
The only way for a sure score is to deliver the stone exactly in the middle of the house, because each stone passed by an opponent's stone will not score.
A stone placed outside the house only serves the purpose of "protecting" the team-mates stones by obstructing the opponent team's lines (
guard).
During the game the two skips stay in the house providing instructions and strategy to their team.
A total of 16 Stones are delivered during each end. Consequently, the house will be rather crowded at the end of the game.
The skip places his broom in the point where he wants the stone to be delivered, inviting his team-mates to shoot in a certain way. The different shooting methods (the combined action of shoulder, arm and wrist) and the sweeping change the line.
There are two basic shots:
in-turn (by rotating the wrist clockwise) or
out-turn (by rotating the wrist anticlockwise).
A stone can take out an opponent's stone moving it away. For this reason, the skip can ask for a precision shot (
draw) or a powerful shot (
take out) to clear a stone from the scoring area.