What is meant by the hammer in curling?

Answer 1

The "hammer" belongs to the team that has the last shot in that end (inning). Having the last shot is an obvious advantage, since you have the last chance to make something happen before the score is taken.

The hammer switches between the teams based on which teams scores in each end. Whichever team does not score will have the hammer in the next end. Another way to put it is: the team that scores goes first the next end (it then works out that the other team has the last shot). If no one scores (a "blank end"), whichever team has the hammer keeps it. For the first end of the game, the hammer is either decided by a coin flip, or a closest draw to the button competition between the teams' skips before the game (this is how it's done in the Olympics).

Because the hammer gives such an advantage, much of curling strategy depends on whether your team has the hammer or not. For example: if your team has the hammer, and there is nothing in the house when it comes to your hammer last shot, you would think that you would want to simply put your rock in the house and take one point. However, taking only one point and giving the hammer to the other team for the next end doesn't really put you in a much better position in the big picture of the tame. Most of the time, you would rather just purposely throw the rock through the house and blank the end, so you can keep the hammer and try to score at least 2 in the next end.