Braemar Weight and Why

If you want to keep people happy, pick a weight they're used to.

The Braemar stone is a pretty screwed-up concept. At most games in Scotland, there's a light stone (or shot) at 16lbs, thrown open style. If there's a second, it's 22lbs, also thrown open style. That used to be the standard here, too, although the lower limit for the heavy stone was 20lbs.

For some reason, people got fixated on the idea of the Braemar stone, with no approach. At Braemar itself, the stone is 28lbs, and involves no movement of the feet until after the release, which is substantially different from what people do here. Rather than switching to the 28lb stone, which is frankly harder to find and to throw, games seem to have stuck with the existing stones and restricted technique.

So 20lbs was the lower limit by NASGA rules, but 22lbs the common practice, matching the Scottish standards for the heavy (but open) stone. To make it more complicated, the Bethlehem and Enumclaw rankings only include stones of 22lbs or more.

As an AD, decide what you want. For pro games, go with 22lbs - any lighter and it won't count for rankings, any heavier and it will earn fewer points. For the rest, if you want stones to fly, go light. If you want tradition, and a greater test of strength (versus greater speed with the light stone), go heavier. Or just ask your athletes.

Or screw it all, go traditional and throw 16 and 22 lb open stones. Or better still, make it a true Braemar stone and go heavy.

16 and 22 pound open stone?  That intrigues and scares me all at once.