In curling, “shot rock” (or “the shot”) is the stone that is currently closest to the center of the house, so it’s the one that would be scoring if the end stopped right then.

Quick Scoop: What “shot rock” means

  • In any moment during an end, players check which stone is closest to the button (the very center of the circles). That stone is called the shot rock.
  • It doesn’t matter which team threw it; whichever team owns the shot rock is the one “lying one” (lying one point for now).
  • The rock that is second closest is called second shot , then third shot, and so on.

So when you hear a commentator say, “They need to remove shot rock,” it means they’re trying to knock out the opponent’s closest-scoring stone and become the new shot rock themselves.

Tiny example

Imagine the house from above, with three stones:

  • One red stone sitting almost on the button
  • One yellow stone a bit farther away in the 4‑foot ring
  • Another red stone even farther out in the 8‑foot ring

Here:

  • The red stone nearest the button is the shot rock.
  • The yellow stone is second shot.
  • The outer red stone is third shot.

Only the team with shot rock can actually score that end, and they score one point for each of their stones that is closer to the button than the opponent’s nearest stone.

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