In curling, the hammer is the advantage of throwing the last stone in an end (a round of play).

Quick Scoop

  • The hammer means your team delivers the final rock of that end, after every other stone has been thrown.
  • It’s a big strategic edge because you get to react to how all the other stones ended up and try to score or rescue the situation with that final shot.
  • Teams with the hammer usually aim to score at least two points in an end; the team without the hammer tries to “force” them to just one or even “steal” a point.

How a Team Gets the Hammer

  • At the start of a game, the hammer is typically decided by a Last Stone Draw (LSD) : each team throws stones toward the center, and the team that gets closer earns the hammer for the first end.
  • After that, the hammer usually switches to the team that did not score in the previous end; if no one scores (a “blank end”), the same team keeps the hammer.

Why The Hammer Matters So Much

  • Think of it like having the final possession in basketball or the last penalty kick in a shootout: you know the situation and can choose the safest or most aggressive shot.
  • Because it’s so valuable, a team will sometimes prefer to blank an end (score 0) just to keep the hammer for the next one, hoping for a bigger score later.
  • When the team without hammer scores anyway, that’s called a steal , and it’s a huge momentum swing.

TL;DR: The hammer in curling is simply last-rock advantage in an end, and it’s one of the most important strategic factors in the sport.

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