Han Yu (center) of China competes during the Curling Women's Round Robin Session 1 of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics between China and Denmark at the National Aquatics Centre in Beijing, capital of China, February 10, 2022. Photo: Xinhua

Curling is a sport in the Winter Olympic Games. But, do you know that shouting is part of the strategy? 

In a curling competition, the "skip," the sport's jargon to describe a team's captain, is the one who mostly yells to give teammates or "sweepers" instructions when the stone slides on the ice. 

There are a few concise jargons that a skip would normally yell during competition. "Whoa!" means to stop sweeping. Sometimes, it can also be replaced with "up" and "off." Opposite to this one, "hard" refers to sweep fast and hard. Taking it to another level, the "hurry hard" means sweep intensely with downward pressure. 

Such yelled terms are based on the strategic nature of the game that the key to winning a curling game is to push the stone into the scoring zone while knocking the opponent's stone out of the zone. 

Began in 16th century in Scotland, the sport first appeared as a medal event at the first Winter Olympic Games in 1924. The curling stone used for the Olympic Games is made of a type of granite discovered on an island off the Scottish coast called Ailsa Craig. The granite is precious that it is some of the toughest and purest found in the world.