Gender of players - Teams either comprise four men (a men's team) or four women (a women's team), or two men and two women(a mixed team) as either a man skipping and a man playing second, or a man vicing and a man playing lead. There are world championships contested in men's and women's curling, but not for mixed curling. Canada organizes a mixed national championship that is held early in the season. Most individual clubs that offer mixed leagues for members use them as recreational events, but there are also very competitive mixed teams who aim for high-level tournaments and cashspiels.

Equipment - Curling shoes: The slider shoe (center), with its thin Teflon surface, is worn during delivery to slide on the ice; a slip-on gripper (left) is worn over the slider at other times; the other shoe (right) has a rough surface to give traction on the ice.

When curling, players need to wear specially designed shoes. The sole of one shoe has a thin strip of Teflon or another type of smooth surface, called a slider.

Broom (brush) - The curling broom is used to sweep the ice surface in front of the rock. Aggressive sweeping momentarily melts the ice, which lessens friction, thereby lessening the deceleration of the rock, while straightening the trajectory of the rock. The broom can also be used to clean debris off the ice, although this is often done in vain. The skip will also hold a broom at the opposite end of the rink from the delivering player as a target for the deliverer to aim the rock.

The curling stone or rock is made out of granite.

Curling stone (rock) - The curling stone, or rock, weighs a maximum of 44 lb (20 kg). It has a maximum allowable circumference of 36 inches (0.9 m). A stone may be a maximum of 4.5 inches (11.43 cm) in height not including the handle. The handle is attached to the stone by means of a bolt, which runs vertically through a hole in the center of the stone. The handles are coloured to differentiate the rocks belonging to each team. Two popular colours in major tournaments are red and yellow. However, the most common club rock colours are red and blue, although often they will be the "club colours".

Special needs in curling - Curling has been adapted for wheelchair users and people otherwise unable to throw the rock from the hack. These curlers may use a special device known as a "curler's cue" or "delivery stick". The cue holds on to the handle of the stone and is then pushed along by the curler. At the end of delivery, the curler pulls back on the cue, which releases it from the stone.

Last rock (the "Hammer") - Last rock advantage in an end is called the hammer. Before the game, teams typically decide who gets the hammer in the first end by coin toss or similar method. (In tournaments, this is typically assigned, giving every team the first-end hammer in half their games.) In all subsequent ends, the hammer belongs to the team that did not score in the preceding end. In the event that neither team scores, the hammer remains with the same team. Naturally, it is easier to score points with the hammer than without; in tournament play, the team with the hammer generally tries to score two or more points. If only one point is possible, the skip will often try to avoid scoring at all in order to retain the hammer until the next end, when two or more points may be possible. This is called a blank end. Scoring without the hammer is commonly referred to as stealing, or a steal, and is much more difficult.

Scoring - The score is marked on a scoreboard, of which there are two types. One is the baseball type scoreboard, which is usually used for televised games. On this scoreboard the ends are marked by columns 1 through 10 (or 11 for the possibility of an extra end to break ties) plus an additional column for the total. Below this are two rows — one for each team. The number of points each team gets in an end is marked this way.

The other form of scoreboard is the one used in most curling clubs. It is set up in the same way, except the numbered row indicates a team's progress in scoring points rather than marking ends, and it can be found between the rows for the team. The numbers placed are indicative of the end. If the red team scores 3 points in the first end (called a three-ender), then a one (indicating the first end) is placed beside the number three in the red row.