Curlers use a stopwatch during a curling match to help aid in the judgement of both the current speed of the ice and the total power of the stone being thrown.
Throughout a Curling game, the condition of the ice can change considerably. Two stones thrown with the exact same weight on the exact same line will end up in totally different places at the start vs the end of the game. Generally the ice starts off slower (meaning it takes more effort to get the stone all the way down) and then speeds up (needing less effort to get a stone from one end to the other). The skip will generally try to track the time it takes for the stone to go from one Hog Line to the other (called the Hog-to-Hog time) mentally noting where the stone ends up and adjust their weight calls accordingly
Your team’s sweepers generally track the time from the back line to the near hog line and throughout the game use those numbers to best estimate and adjust the weight needed out of hand to get to where the stone needs to go.
Timing the rocks isn’t a perfect science and new curlers are often recommended to skip the stopwatch in the beginning. It’s better to be able to look at the stone and have a good idea of where it’s going to end up first. The speed of the stone can change as soon as the shooter lets go, either through a little extra push or a pull back or just something on the ice.
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