KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — What do rocks, brooms and funky pants all have in common? They're part of the sport of curling.
Curling gains popularity every four years during the winter Olympics, but it's a sport you can play year round at one Knoxville ice rink.
"We came out to learn to curl and we've been curling ever since," said Bob Zasowski with the Great Smoky Mountains Curling Club.
A curler of 16 years, Zasowski knows people's interest gets piqued in their sport when the Olympics roll around.
You know you've watched curling, wondering why the biggest sporting competition in the world has ice shuffleboard.
"Curlers don't really love that title," Zasowski said. "We would prefer chess on ice maybe a little bit more."
Your probably also want to know who designs the Norwegian team's pants.
"They have the funny pants. We do have some unique people in our club who would rival their attire," Zasowski said.
He said curling is more than what meets the eye.
There's strategic thinking, teamwork, balance, and it's harder than it looks.
"Curling is a sport played on ice where you have teams of four people each taking turns delivering stones, 42 pounds of granite from one side of the ice to the other, and you total up the points after all 16 rocks have been delivered. It involves strategy, it involves teamwork, it involves a lot of fun," Zasowski said.
10News reporters Shannon Smith and Grace King joined the curling club at the Ice Chalet in Bearden, where they meet on Thursday nights.
"Oh this is way harder than I thought it would be," Grace said, right before falling on the ice.
First the class worked on form and balance, which are needed when throwing (note, they really mean sliding) the rock across the rink.
"Get that out of the way early, you will fall down," Zasowski said.
He was right, almost everyone fell at some point.
As you slide the rock, its path will curl as it travels.
"The rock is actually rotating four, five, six times as it goes down the ice," Zasowski said.
Once the rock is on its way, in come the brooms.
"First of all the ice is not flat," Zasowski said.
The curlers sprinkle water over the smooth ice, creating small bumps on the rink.
"What the sweepers are doing are trying to melt just the top of that pebble, putting a little sheen over it, which will let the rock go further down the ice," Zasowski said. "That helps you to place the rock strategically where the skip wanted it."
The skip is essentially the captain of the team.
The skip may direct you to bump the other team's rock out of the way, or go past a rock to get to the rings, or house, where the scoring happens.
The team closest to the center at the end of each round gets the point.
Shannon was not great at that part, and kept sliding the rock out of bounds.
"They didn't even need to sweep it, it went past the house. That's not how you curl," she said.
But it's not so bad if you don't walk away a winner on the ice.
"The winning team traditionally buys the first round for their counterpart on the other team," Zasowski said.
Plus, you congratulate the other team when they make a good shot.
It's the sportsmanship, teamwork and fun that keep people coming back.
The Great Smoky Mountains Curling Club is offering 'learn to curl' sessions during the Olympics.
They're on Thursday nights at 8 p.m. at the Ice Chalet, which is located at 100 Lebanon Street in Knoxville.