how do you get the hammer in curling

In curling, you “get the hammer” by earning the right to throw the last stone in an end, usually decided before the game and then affected by who scores during play.

What the hammer is

• The hammer is the last stone of the end, a big advantage because you get to react to every other stone before you throw.

• The team with the hammer always throws second in that end (their skip usually throws the last two rocks in traditional 4‑person play).

How you get the hammer to start

In most organized or championship play, the first‑end hammer is decided by a “Last Stone Draw” (LSD).

• Before the game, each team throws stones toward the button (the center of the house) and the distance from the button is measured.

• The team whose stone(s) finish closest to the button wins “last stone advantage” – that is, they start the game with the hammer.

• At many club levels, leagues or casual games may instead use a simple pre‑game method (like a coin toss) to award the first hammer.

How the hammer changes during the game

Once the game starts, who has the hammer depends on who scores.

• If you score in an end, you lose the hammer in the next end; it goes to the other team.

• If you do not score (your opponent scores or the end is blank), then in standard team curling you keep or gain the hammer for the next end.

• That’s why teams sometimes “blank” an end on purpose: they give up scoring now to keep the hammer for a better scoring chance later.

Mixed doubles has some twists (like pre‑positioned stones and slightly different hammer transfer rules), but the core idea remains: the hammer means you throw last and that’s a strategic edge.

TL;DR: You get the hammer either by winning the pre‑game last‑stone draw (or coin toss at some levels) and then, during the game, by being the team that did not score in the previous end in traditional team curling.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.