Grassing a bowl is more akin to archery than it is to baseball or golf. Most of the energy that powers the lawn bowl down the rink towards the jack comes from the controlled descent to the green of the heavy bowl from whatever height you have raised it to in your backswing. In the same way, the energy that drives an arrow towards an archery target comes from the tension/energy that you store in the bow and bowstring when you carefully draw it back before the arrow is released. In both of these the energy is expended before the projectile’s release and then transferred to the projectile as it is released.
A healthy retiree discovers Lawn Bowls, a sport he can compete in for 20 years! After 12 years of playing year-round, he tells what seems to work. What doesn't. What can be changed quickly; what slowly, and what must be apparently left to chance.
Friday, July 26, 2013
The Physics of Lawn Bowling
One really doesn’t throw lawn bowls. The language we use to describe an
activity is picked for convenience and broad understanding but it is not always
as aptly descriptive as we might want it. We can give a wrong impression
of what is required to a lesser or greater extent and this impression can perniciously
stay with us. I think this is true from my experience taking up lawn bowling.
The verb throwing implies that kinetic energy is supplied to the object being
thrown by muscle action, the object is released from the hand and it travels
away consuming that kinetic energy. A corollary of this perspective is that the
point of maximum energy expenditure by the bowler must be the point of release
of the bowl. I have found that this perception of lawn bowling delivery can’t
make a good bowler because it is wrong.
Grassing a bowl is more akin to archery than it is to baseball or golf. Most of the energy that powers the lawn bowl down the rink towards the jack comes from the controlled descent to the green of the heavy bowl from whatever height you have raised it to in your backswing. In the same way, the energy that drives an arrow towards an archery target comes from the tension/energy that you store in the bow and bowstring when you carefully draw it back before the arrow is released. In both of these the energy is expended before the projectile’s release and then transferred to the projectile as it is released.
Grassing a bowl is more akin to archery than it is to baseball or golf. Most of the energy that powers the lawn bowl down the rink towards the jack comes from the controlled descent to the green of the heavy bowl from whatever height you have raised it to in your backswing. In the same way, the energy that drives an arrow towards an archery target comes from the tension/energy that you store in the bow and bowstring when you carefully draw it back before the arrow is released. In both of these the energy is expended before the projectile’s release and then transferred to the projectile as it is released.
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On well watered grass, an additional component of muscular force seems necessary to get the bowl to most jacks. I note this in a later post. The backswing should never be more than to an elevation of about 45 degrees from the vertical.
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