Recently I was experiencing pain in my left knee when lawn bowling. I am a left
handed bowler. I experience no swelling. I tried applying ice packs after
matches. I also tried wrapping the knee in a heating pad while sleeping after
multiple matches in a day. Of the two the heat seemed to be more effective. I
searched the internet for descriptions by others of the same problem.
I found one case almost identical in a discussion on the Julian Haines site which I quote extensively below.
I found one case almost identical in a discussion on the Julian Haines site which I quote extensively below.
“I've had a knee injury for a while now that I just can't get rid of and wondered if anyone else has had a similar problem that they've managed to sort out.
This is the background:
I'm getting a pain over the top of my left knee cap whenever my left knee bears weight. The pain is at the crucial moment in delivery when I step forward with my right foot (I'm left-handed) and the left leg takes the strain. The pain is mild at the start of a game but towards the end of the game, I'm struggling to deliver a wood.
The injury started back in March/April at the end of the indoor season and I hoped that having already decided not to bowl outdoors this summer, the rest would cure it. However, it didn't, and as soon as I went back to bowling the pain returned immediately.
I've been seeing a very good sports physio who has determined that it is a problem with the tendon/muscle and not a cartilage or ligament issue. He gave me stretching exercises to do at first and then started on strengthening exercises for the quadriceps two weeks ago. On his advice I tried to bowl again last night, having not bowled or exercised my knee in almost any way for over a month, but the pain returned almost immediately and I managed about 20 minutes before coming off. I have also felt pain in my knee all day today so it's not getting any better.
Apart from starting to bowl right-handed, does anyone have any advice from experience with anything similar as I don't have much time left before the start of the new season now?!”
The link is provided so you people can see
all the responses.
A knee brace was a suggestion offered more than once in this on-line discussion; however, I looked for something in my delivery that was triggering the difficulty. The rationale was that I have never had joint problems and cannot recall any particular moment when an injury could have happened? Furthermore, I am only 68. If I have real physical damage now, what possibility do I have of bowling into a ripe old age?
I think I may have found something causing this problem in my delivery. In my delivery I have been almost completing my backswing before starting my forward step. I could do this because my backswing was very slow, measured, and deliberate. My step forward occurred during that hesitation moment at the top of the backswing. My hypothesis about my ailment was that stepping forward with the bowl raised was making balance shaky which transferred too much extra stress to my anchor knee. Facts supportive of this hypothesis are:
A knee brace was a suggestion offered more than once in this on-line discussion; however, I looked for something in my delivery that was triggering the difficulty. The rationale was that I have never had joint problems and cannot recall any particular moment when an injury could have happened? Furthermore, I am only 68. If I have real physical damage now, what possibility do I have of bowling into a ripe old age?
I think I may have found something causing this problem in my delivery. In my delivery I have been almost completing my backswing before starting my forward step. I could do this because my backswing was very slow, measured, and deliberate. My step forward occurred during that hesitation moment at the top of the backswing. My hypothesis about my ailment was that stepping forward with the bowl raised was making balance shaky which transferred too much extra stress to my anchor knee. Facts supportive of this hypothesis are:
If I swing the bowl forward so early that it coincides
with the start of my forward stepping this causes an instant of pain
If I do not transfer my weight forward onto
my advancing leg fast enough the weight remains too much on my anchor leg
causing this pain.
If I start stepping with my anchor foot as
the bowl comes to the bottom of the backswing (when the bowl is closest to my
anchor foot) the pain is greatly lessened
If I transfer more weight forward more quickly before the backswing is complete the problem is less
If I exaggerate my follow-through so that my anchor foot moves up to meet the foot I have advanced, there is improvement.
Making these changes has started to reduce the pain per delivery; also bowls are even more consistent in both weight and line! More testing is underway.
Since then I have consulted a physiotherapist. She says that my knee cap has not been sliding up on down a natural groove in the thigh bone. I have undertaken a regime of exercises to fix this; however, I can’t tell whether it is the exercises or the end of the bowling season that has resulted in the almost complete disappearance of symptoms when I go through the delivery motion.
If I transfer more weight forward more quickly before the backswing is complete the problem is less
If I exaggerate my follow-through so that my anchor foot moves up to meet the foot I have advanced, there is improvement.
Making these changes has started to reduce the pain per delivery; also bowls are even more consistent in both weight and line! More testing is underway.
Since then I have consulted a physiotherapist. She says that my knee cap has not been sliding up on down a natural groove in the thigh bone. I have undertaken a regime of exercises to fix this; however, I can’t tell whether it is the exercises or the end of the bowling season that has resulted in the almost complete disappearance of symptoms when I go through the delivery motion.
October 2017: Since changing to the shooters' stance (see relevant blogs) I have not had any recurrence of this problem. The more stable angle of the anchor foot may do the trick!
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