Keen lawn bowlers (like myself) can get into a
bad habit while practicing lawn bowl delivery off the rink. We want to go
through the motions of a standard delivery and we want to hold the bowl during
that practice swing to maintain proper balance; but, we can’t actually let go
of the bowl, because it would seriously damage the furniture (or whatever else
is around us). As a result, we hold onto the bowl while we simulate the follow
through.
This, I have discovered, creates a bad habit that requires still more practice on the rink to eliminate. The difficulty is that such practice causes me to hold onto the bowl past the time when my bowling arm is vertical to the green when I am actually playing. That is, the bowl gets released further along the rink and not just a few centimeters in front of my advancing foot, as it should be.
This has unfortunate consequences. The further my arm extends out in front of my body the greater the inclination for it to pass slightly across my body, making forehands narrower and backhands wider than planned. But this is the least important potential problem, because so long as I force my bowling hand to stay over the aim line and resist turning my open palm inward, the bowl should still go straight along the planned path. The second and more serious, unavoidable consequence is that the bowl will receive less push down the rink and will have less weight than one properly released. The reason: when a bowl is released late with the bowling arm less than vertical, some of the muscle impetus that should go into pushing the bowl down the rink will instead be wasted push it slightly upwards. A further consequence is that the bowl will dump onto the playing surface to some extent. Because differing energies will be lost depending on the place where the bowl is released, consistent weight will become more elusive.
This, I have discovered, creates a bad habit that requires still more practice on the rink to eliminate. The difficulty is that such practice causes me to hold onto the bowl past the time when my bowling arm is vertical to the green when I am actually playing. That is, the bowl gets released further along the rink and not just a few centimeters in front of my advancing foot, as it should be.
This has unfortunate consequences. The further my arm extends out in front of my body the greater the inclination for it to pass slightly across my body, making forehands narrower and backhands wider than planned. But this is the least important potential problem, because so long as I force my bowling hand to stay over the aim line and resist turning my open palm inward, the bowl should still go straight along the planned path. The second and more serious, unavoidable consequence is that the bowl will receive less push down the rink and will have less weight than one properly released. The reason: when a bowl is released late with the bowling arm less than vertical, some of the muscle impetus that should go into pushing the bowl down the rink will instead be wasted push it slightly upwards. A further consequence is that the bowl will dump onto the playing surface to some extent. Because differing energies will be lost depending on the place where the bowl is released, consistent weight will become more elusive.
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