很多人提到冰壶运动的第一反应是那些拿着“墩布”疯狂“擦地”的模仿视频。问题来了：究竟这个“地”——冰壶运动中的冰面——为什么要“擦”？怎么“擦”才更科学？今天，我们带大家一起看看冰壶运动的冰面与冰层到底特别在哪里。

We should face the fact that when we talk about the sport of curling, most of us immediately think about the memes and gifs of curling players yelling and brushing. Very few people know how exactly it’s played, and even fewer know anything about the icy sheet those eight players stand on.

Q1:“擦”的是啥？

“擦”的是冰面上的冰珠。“冰面凝珠”是冰壶赛场制冰的技巧之一，简单来说就是在冰面上洒水珠。制冰师要在冰面上均匀喷洒水珠，这些水滴在结冰时形成无数的小冰珠使冰面形成点状麻面。这些冰珠在19.1公斤的石球下方创造出空间，某种程度上减少了摩擦，并且考虑到石球底部呈凹陷状，这个小小的空间也阻止石球吸附到冰面上。当石球滑行于冰面时，会使冰珠微微融化并形成另一层薄薄的水，有助于石球更平稳地滑行。

There's a technique in curling called "pebbling," meaning ice makers spraying water evenly across the curling lanes that turn into countless little "pebbles" as they freeze. These pebbles create a thin layer of air underneath the 19.1-kg stone, which in a way, reduces the friction and also stops the stone from sucking to the ice considering its concave bottom. And when it runs across the "sheet," the pebbles melt a little and create another thin layer of water and therefore it slides better.

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Q2：制作冰珠的水是什么水？

这个水可不是简单的自来水。制作冰珠的水是经过净化的——专业人士称之为“去离子水”。这种纯净水结冰的速度更快、硬度更强，可以让刷冰员的刷冰效果达到最佳。最重要的是，因为其物理性质，去离子水制作的冰珠可以保持长时间坚挺，持续整场比赛。

The water used to form the pebbles isn't just any water from the tap; it's purified, or as they call it, deionized water. Purified water freezes faster and harder, which makes the brushing much better and allows the pebbles to stay standing tall for the whole game.

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Q3：为啥要擦冰珠？

刷冰员沿着石球滑行的轨迹刷冰，从而改变石球运动的方向或速度。简言之，刷得越用力，给冰珠施加的压力越大，冰珠顶部就融化得越多、变得更滑，石球移动得越快越远。反之，如果石球离圆垒或圆心足够近，不需要滑行太远，刷冰员也就不需要过于用力刷冰。

The goal the players are trying to achieve by brushing along the track of the stone is to change its direction or speed. Long story short, the more and harder the sweepers brush, the shinier and more slippery the ice gets and so the stone travels quicker and farther. If the stone is close enough to the house or the button and it doesn’t need extra speed or distance, one just keeps the brush up and doesn't touch.

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Q4：冰面需要很平吗？

冰壶冰面的平整度非！常！重要！普通溜冰场，冰面三平方米区域内可能存在两毫米的高度差，但是冰壶运动的冰面必须是百分百水平。世界冰壶联合会的首席制冰师马克·卡兰（Mark Callan）说：“你可能想当然地认为只要把场地铺满水，让它结冰就完事儿了。但即便水面可以保持水平，但冻冰时却会产生偏移，因为它会从空气中吸收一些灰尘或颗粒。因此，冰层中会产生小洞和凹陷。所以我们要做的就是填充这些小洞和凹陷，使其达到完全水平。”

One other key factor for curling ice is the evenness of the rink. Unlike other ice sports where there could be a 2mm height difference within a 3-meter-squared area on the rink, curling ice has to be 100 percent level. "You certainly think just fill it with water and let it freeze then everything's good, "says Mark Callan, the chief ice technician at the World Curling Federation, "but water doesn't freeze levelly because it picks up some contaminants from the air. Therefore, it creates little dips and little hollows in the ice. What we have to do is prepare the ice and fill these little hollows in to make it absolutely 100-percent level."

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冰壶是一项对精确性要求极高的运动——冰面或石球上任何微小的纰漏都可能会导致比赛出现偏差。卡兰强调说：“如果球员的技术含量不是通过精湛的掷球或刷冰的手法来展现，而是要由克服糟糕的石球或冰面的困难条件来展现的话，那这就不是一场由运动技术决定成败的比赛，而是运气决定的比赛。这不是冰壶运动的应有之意。我们要确保它是一个竞技比赛。”

Curling is really about accuracy, and even a minor error on ice, or the stone, could potentially turn the tables in a game. "If the players skill is not being tested by how good they can play a shot, but by having to battle bad stones or bad ice conditions, then it becomes more a game of chance. That's not really what it's about. We want to make it a game of skill," Callan says.