In curling, the hammer (last stone advantage) is mainly decided by a pre‑game “last stone draw” and then moves based on who scores in each end.

Who gets the hammer to start?

In most top‑level events (Worlds, Olympics, major tours), it works like this:

  1. Last Stone Draw (LSD)
    • Before the game, each team throws usually two stones toward the button after practice.
 * Officials measure how far each stone stops from the centre.

 * The distances are added/averaged, and the team with the smaller total wins the hammer in the first end.
  1. Club / league play
    • Often it’s just a coin flip or some simple random method to decide who has hammer in the first end.
 * Some leagues may also use a one‑stone draw to the button, similar to top events, but less formal.

Think of the LSD as a short “skill contest” to earn last stone advantage before the real game starts.

How does hammer move during the game?

Once the first‑end hammer is set, it’s controlled by scoring, not by alternation:

  • Team that scores gives up the hammer in the next end; the non‑scoring team gets it.
  • Blank end (no points scored) : in standard team curling, the team that already had hammer keeps it.
  • This is why teams sometimes choose to blank an end on purpose : they’d rather keep hammer and try for a bigger score later instead of taking just one point.

In mixed doubles there is a twist: certain formats can force the hammer to switch even on a blank to encourage more aggressive play.

Quick illustrative example

  • Game start: Team A wins the LSD, so they have hammer in the 1st end.
  • 1st end: Team A scores 2 → Team B gets hammer in the 2nd end.
  • 2nd end: Nobody scores (blank) → Team B keeps hammer for the 3rd.
  • 3rd end: Team B scores 1 → Team A gets hammer for the 4th.

That’s the core of how it is decided who has the hammer in curling : a pre‑game draw to the button (or coin flip in casual play) for the first end, then scoring rules that shift or retain last stone advantage end by end.

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