The inside of the Rochester Curling Club looks much like the inside of any recreational or social club in the area. There's a full bar in one corner, a big-screen TV along one wall, and a big trophy case along another wall.

But there's one key difference between the RCC lounge and other clubs: this one has two huge windows that overlook massive sheets of ice, where club members, guests, and visiting curlers ply their trade on a nightly basis.

On this Friday night the lounge is quiet, but the ice below is a beehive of activity. Four simultaneous games are being played, three of them casual league contests and one of them a tense match between the Rochester Institute of Technology club team and the RCC junior men's team.

Up above in the lounge, club member and self-described "curling mom" Deb Bower sits by one of the windows, a laptop in front of her. She's the official scorer for the junior men's team; using a computer program called CurlStat, Bower records every shot and compiles them into a detailed file that team members will analyze after the match is over.

Such devotion to the game shows that, in many ways, curling is a very serious sport; when pursued on the 146-foot-long playing areas, or sheets, competition is vigorous, intense, and loaded with team strategy.

However, in other respects curling is one of the most laid-back sports in the world, one in which community and fellowship are just as important as the games themselves. "It's a very social, friendly sport," says RCC member and instructor Scott Wagner. "Everyone shakes hands after the game, and players socialize afterwards. The winners even buy the losers a round of drinks."

In fact, imbibing is frequently a key part of the curling experience. On Saturday, January 20, the RCC hosted a club from Utica for a friendly tournament, or bonspiel, and club officials asked City not to attend the event because, they said, things might get a little wacky.

Curling's sense of community and shared enjoyment stems largely from the fact that unlike many sports, it's a pursuit that just about anyone can pick up. Bower notes that both men and women can curl at roughly the same level of play, and age usually isn't a hindrance.

"What I love to see is an 8-year-old kid playing with an 80-year-old man," she says. "In what other sport can that happen?"

Adds RCC president Bill Stringer: "All you need is a little bit of balance and you can do it."

That's not to say, however, that curling is easy or simple. At first glance, it looks like bocce on ice. At each end of the sheet is a circular target, or house, 12 feet in diameter. The basic goal is for a team to place its shots as close to the middle of the house as possible.

Each curling team is composed of four members, and the opposing teams take turns sliding their eight rocks --- all of which are made of granite and conform to a universal size and weight of 42 pounds --- down the sheet as two members sweep the ice in front of the moving rock to affect the distance the rock travels.

Games are divided into ends --- Wagner likens them to innings in baseball --- in which a total of 16 rocks (eight from each team) are thrown. At the conclusion of each end, points are awarded to the team whose rocks are closest to the center of the house. At the end of each game (friendly contests last eight ends, while championship matches go for 10) the team with the most points wins.

It seems simple enough, but strategy becomes hugely important, especially as a game develops. "It's something you can learn how to play very quickly, but it takes years to learn the strategy," says Wagner, who calls curling "a sport of precision."

It's also a pastime that prizes sportsmanship and etiquette above all else. Games always begin and end with handshakes, and contests are self-refereed by the players themselves. If a player breaks one of the rules, he or she is duty-bound to report it to the rest of the players. Cheating is the sport's cardinal sin. "No player will take advantage of an opportunity to cheat or do something illegal," Wagner says. "If they do, no one will play with them anymore."

It's such sportsmanship that curling devotees are currently using to grow the sport in the United States. While curling is huge in the United Kingdom and Canada, it's starting to develop slowly stateside, thanks largely to the exposure it has received at the last two Winter Olympics.

"A lot of people have seen curling on the Olympics, and they had fun watching it, so they'll come out and try it and love it," says former RCC president and current board member Dorothy Roach.

Locally, Roach said, the RCC has experienced a 45 percent growth rate in recent years. Current club membership hovers between 160 and 170, with most of the new members in the under-35 age bracket.

The RCC routinely holds open houses and plays host to interested community groups like the Boy and Girl Scouts, as well as business clients who use curling as a team-building exercise. "I tried it and loved it right off the bat," says Stringer, "and a lot of people do that."

For more information about curling or the Rochester Curling Club, go to www.rochestercurling.com or call 235-8246.