Pushers and the ‘Shuffleboard’ Delivery

Lawn bowling grips can be divided into two categories. Those in the first category allow a person to hold a lawn bowl with arm and fingers of that hand pointed straight down.  These are all variants of the ‘claw’ between thumb and fingers. The second category of grip uses gravity to hold the bowl on top of some variant of a palm/fingers combination. These are variations of the palm grip.

People who suffer from arthritis may not be able to use their thumb to secure a bowl. No variation of claw grip is possible for them. They have no choice but palm grips. If these bowlers are to have any backswing, they must bend their elbow as they draw their arm back so that the bowl is steady in the palm of their hand. Bowl and arm are then pushed forward to release the bowl just as is done pushing the disc in shuffleboard. In fact I am calling this a shuffleboard delivery. Because fingers must be under the bowl, the bowl quite literally rolls off the finger tips.  A variant of bowling arm ( the Ubi Launcher^TM MSV Sports) is designed based on the same type of delivery. With some claw grips the fingers are more nearly down the back of the bowl rather than under it. The majority of bowling arms have adopted a mimic of the claw grip with two prongs symmetrically behind the bowl and one retractable one gripping the bowl on the running surface in front.

 Another way to handle these limitation on hand flexibility and hand strength is to get rid of any backswing while still using the palm grip. The starting position for forward motion is the bowling arm more or less vertical with the bowl in the palm grip, and the wrist slightly cocked so the palm is more or less horizontal under the bowl. The thumb is either under or along the side of the bowl.  In this configuration, the person executing the shuffleboard delivery needs to take a relatively longer step forward to add more velocity for long jacks on slow greens. All the bowl’s energy must come from faster combined body/arm movement, because there is no potential energy providing extra speed from elevation of the bowl. In another variant the bowler starts with the advancing foot already completely out in front. This is the complete ‘pusher’s’ delivery.

When the fingers are under the bowl the delivery seems to be much more sensitive to the location of the index finger on the running surface. When the fingers are more behind the bowl when it is released onto the carpet finger position seems to be of lesser importance.

Because these ‘shuffleboard’ bowlers need to accelerate their arm motion so much to get the required bowl velocity, they have an increased tendency to release the bowl too far in front of their advancing foot. This causes frequent narrow bowls for long jacks on slower greens.

The Effective Rate Statistic to Grade Lawn Bowling Performance

Commentators on lawn bowls videos often mention a competitor’s ‘effective rate’. A bowl is commonly seen as 'effective' if it improves the provisional score, i.e. it reduces the count against, converts, or increases the count in favor. This criterion remains fairly valid even in adverse conditions, i.e. when there is a gusty, variable wind, which tends to spread heads because the conditions affect all competitors. An alternative measure, distance from the jack, is strongly affected by weather and rink conditions. Effective rate also remains fairly valid within different levels of skill (i.e. A grade, C grade, etc). Another advantage is that collection of 'effectiveness' data can be done during a competition without intrusion or distraction. Thus commentators can have a running score for the effective rate for every competitor.

A perfect game does not correlate with a 100% effective rate because covering shots, block shots, and other positional bowls may not fit the ‘effective’ definition even though they are tactically correct.

A bowler competing out of his class will lose his matches badly and will have a very low effective rate. To win an end in singles one must achieve at least an effective rate of 25%; that is, the last bowl must convert the head! A bowler can lose an end even if his effective rate on the end is 100% if he bowls first because his competitor can still convert the head and score with the last bowl. The median effective rate thus is likely to be around 62-63%. Top bowlers playing well can have effective rates of 85%.

2015 Greenbowler Blog Present for Followers

Whether you are a practicing Christian or not, I want to wish all my followers a happy and peaceful Christmas, and a prosperous and successful New Year in 2016.

The unusually mild and dry weather these last few days in Toronto, Canada has allowed me the extraordinary pleasure of practicing outside on the synthetic green at James Gardens both yesterday and the day before. A fortnight from now I expect to be playing again in the Algarve province of Portugal at the Vilamoura and Valverde Lawn Bowls Clubs.

As a gift for all, I recommend a link below to an  exciting singles match from the 2014 world indoor championship. It features a rare, intentional short blocking shot at the end.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BZxMYJ6KCK0

Going Overseas to Bowl

The last month of the year is dribbling away. In Canada, the weather is getting near zero Celsius. Soon there will be snow in Toronto but New Year’s Eve my wife and I will fly away to Portugal where we will get the chance to lawn bowl at the Valverde and Vilamoura lawn bowling clubs in the state of Algarve.  We will stay until the end of March. The average daily temperature there is only between 9°C and 16°C, but temperatures in the sun are reported to be in the low twenties. This can’t match the 30-40 degrees in Australia at the same time of year but for hearty Canucks it will be just fine! We are told we will meet a lot of Brits in spring training for the 2016 English outdoor bowls season and because the area depends so much on tourism not knowing Portuguese will be no problem.
I’m already champing at the bit. I would be lost in retirement without bowls.

Round Robin Play at Lawn Bowls

During the summer I was involved in the Mens’ Novice Pairs Ontario Provincial Championship. The first day of this tournament is a four team round robin in which the best two teams advance. There are only three possibilities for the outcomes among four teams in a round robin 3:2:1:0, 2:2:2:0, and 3:1:1:1. 

In such a playdown, two things are important:  first, winning at least two games if possible, and second, having high ‘points for’ in games among teams that end up tied with you. Regular strategy applies in the first two games. You play your best percentage shots trying to either win or keep the margin of loss slim.

But notice that in such a round robin, thirty three percent of the time you can advance even if you win only one game, so long as your ‘points for’ are enough! So, if, after you have played your first two games, you still have not had a win, your only chance is to win your final game while at the same time building up your ‘points for’.

 If you have been badly shut down in your earlier matches, you need lots of points in your final game; therefore, you must expose your side to extra danger whenever it will improve your chances of have big ends. If those extra risks cause you to lose a third game, you haven’t lost much. Most probably you were going home anyway. 

Using a Cocked Wrist in the Lawn Bowl Delivery

While I was watching Nev Rodda’s video teachings the shooters’ stance, I realized that my wrist position was different. The way I was holding the bowl in the claw grip, my curled fingers were close to being in a straight line with my forearm. Nev, on the other hand, held the bowl in what he described as a scoop, with the wrist cocked and then locked at that angle so that it was his thumb that was on the straight line which can be imagined extending down the center of the forearm. It was not that my hand/forearm connection was not locked during a delivery but my locked position was not the same as his.

The way I had been holding the bowl required it to roll off my fingertip(s) onto the green. With the Nev Rodda wrist position, removing the thumb pressure releases the bowl which simply drops a few centimeters onto the carpet, because, using the claw grip in the scoop position, the fingers are at the back of the bowl rather than under it.

Because the bowl is no longer rolling off the fingers, it is less critical where the fingers last contact the bowl, although at least the middle finger should still be centered on the running surface since it pushes at the back of the bowl.

In 2020 I changed my view and wrote a blog about the reason.    

How No Dead Ends Changes Bowls

At one of the lawn bowling clubs to which I belong, we have, since 2013, implemented the rule that there would be no dead ends. If the jack is knocked out of play it will be centered two meters from the front ditch and play will go on. As usual, if the bowl that knocked out the jack ends up in the ditch within the boundaries of the rink it will be a toucher.  The professionals use multiple re-spot positions in their sets play, but this adds additional work setting up the rink before play begins.

This rule change increases the probability that a drive will have a successful outcome because the drive bowl will very likely end up in the ditch or very near the repositioned jack. Bowling to short jacks becomes even more complex because there is now a new possibility to evaluate. Back bowls have a heightened importance and the bowl(s) closest to the re-spot position(s) can be most important of all.

If a very close bowl becomes shot against you, playing no dead ends the odds are improved for the tactic of simply starting to accumulate back bowls near the respot position(s) if your skip is skilled at driving. Hitting the jack, which formerly just blanked the end, can now win big for your team if you have several well-placed back bowls.

As a corollary, where re-spot is implemented, the block shot can be expected to become more important. This should be true particularly on slower greens where bowling angles are narrower. In these cases, once a bowl has been placed close up to the jack, the team that owns that fortunate bowl may be more induced to try to place block shots to dissuade the opposition from driving to get a re-spot. The alternative is to match back bowls early on once a good draw shot has been obtained.  Your back bowls perhaps should be near the re-spot position(s). This is called 'running for cover'.

This rule change will also impact another popular form of lawn bowls. Under re-spot rules, the drive will become part of the 4-3-2-1 game, because a re-spotted jack can completely change the count; for example taking a player from a shutout position to dominance in an end. Prepare for some long measures!

Another Singles Strategy

In the professional indoor lawn bowling match that you can watch on YouTube, the marker tells the players the length of the jack. In your club game it is your guesstimate.

This difference is the basis for a match strategy that you might find profitable. I used it this year in winning the James Gardens mens' singles club championship. Because the length of jack is not announced by the marker, the player who bowls the jack has an advantage not available in the professional contest. If you delivered it, you have a somewhat better idea of its length than your opponent because you have just felt the weight of that delivery. If you have practiced delivering a particular weight, you know rather precisely the correct velocity to provide to your first bowl.

Furthermore, by frequently moving the mat, you can continue to deliver that same length, yet disguise it so that your opponent cannot easily see that there is no change in length. For example, in my final match at James Gardens, I delivered short 23 meter jacks from mat positions at 2 meters, 6 meters and 10 meters out from the rear ditch. My opponent had to figure out the proper weight for each of these, but I knew from rolling the jack that every one of these was close to 23 meters away. Because I kept winning ends, I retained the jack and could keep applying the strategy.

Delivering the jack from an mat position except 2 meters from the back ditch is already unusual in Canada (probably because the center of the rink is not marked with a line), so placing the mat at 4 or 10 meters from the ditch is already surprising for an opponent. Players rarely practice such deliveries. Moreover, questioning whether a jack is 21 meters from the front edge of the mat is much more uncertain when the hog line cannot be used to judge it.  

Rotating Bowl and Wrist in the Backswing

Many expert Australian bowlers employ an inward wrist turn when taking back the bowl for a delivery. They then reverse this twisting during their forward swing so that the bowl comes out of the hand in the normal way. A coach has suggested that this is because these players started playing lawn bowls very young and they would have had difficulty holding onto the bowl on the backswing in those early years because their hands were small.

An Australian lawn bowling manual that recommends trying this modification does so with the codicil that first one should know exactly why you are making the change.  It can help to:

·         restrict the delivery arm from flaring out in the backswing

·         improve the completeness of the backswing

·         reduce the inclination to bowl across your body in the

   follow-through

Nevertheless, whatever its advantages, it adds an elaboration to the delivery. If simplicity enhances reproducibility using a straight back arm and wrist motion should win out in the end.

Bowlers who adopt the shooters’ stance gain nothing from this embellishment because their backswing is the freest of all and has no particular tendency towards narrow bowling.

Avoiding a Short Blocking Bowl while Obeying the Skip

It’s happened to all of us. Skip calls for a draw shot on a particular hand but there is a bowl sitting on what you recognize as your path to the jack. You comply. You hit the blocking bowl. Was there no help for it? Actually you can comply with your skip’s order without feeling powerless to avoid that collision. It is called ‘using the mat’.

I am called a ‘center line bowler’. That means whether on forehand or backhand I release my bowl along an aim line that passes through the front midpoint of the mat. If I anticipate a collision with a short bowl, I can move that release point six inches either to the left or the right but keep this new aim line parallel to the old one. My bowl should pass that blocker six inches to the left or right according to my adjustment. Geometry predicts the final resting position of my bowl will only be changed by six inches, much less than my normal bowling error.

 If there is a collision it is my misjudgment, but I am in charge of my own fate. At the same time I have complied with a directive and maintained team discipline.

Note that the technique of ‘using the mat’ is much more flexible since the foot fault rule was changed in the Crystal Mark Third Edition. Now, because only a portion of a foot needs to be on the mat or over the mat, there is much more room to maneuver.

Choosing Wide or Narrow Lawn Bowls

From four years’ personal experience, and after listening to others, this is my consensus judgment. Narrow bowls are a poor choice on slow, or uneven greens, or where windy conditions are common. Narrow bowls are a poor choice for novices because they are less forgiving of the wobble before we achieve a grooved delivery. For novice bowlers playing on fast greens, I feel the decision between wide and narrow bowls is more of a toss-up.

These conclusions seem to follow from the following.

Narrow bowls reduce the amount of bias error on the draw shots but narrow bowls require more careful weight control.
 Narrow bowls make it more difficult to draw around bowls (but they can go under them). Weighted shots can be played with less weight. The bowl that comes in narrow is more likely to stay behind the kitty.

Often narrow bowls play quite well in the morning but poorly in the afternoon because the wind usually increases in the afternoon and tilts narrow bowls. Also, by then many tracking marks have been left on the rink by bowls from the morning play. These marks are crossed at a more acute angle by narrow bowls and consequently are pulled offline more easily.

The raised seams of an artificial surface can interact with a narrow or wide bowl, more or less, depending upon the direction of the seam. If the seams are parallel to the rink boundaries wide bias is likely better, while if the seams run perpendicular to the rink boundaries, narrow bias bowls are likely better. When the seams run diagonally, each rink will display preferences dependent upon the location of the jack and mat with respect to the seams.

 It's the green’s condition and the tilt angle of the bowl that give different bias percentage to different deliveries of narrow bowls. Tilt angle, wobble, green quality, grass type, and especially wind have an effect on this bias-subtraction bowl type. If you lay down bowls with wobble, wide bias bowls are more forgiving.

 Narrow bowls allow for a flat, weighted shot to hit a target bowl square at lower velocity than with a wider bias bowl, but since novice leads are not often required to deliver run-through shots this advantage is minimal for them.

 A bowler can get a stronger bias bowl to hold a tighter line, but cannot make a straighter wood pull more.

 A swinging bowl is fine for smashing into heads because a wider bias bowl is straighter than a narrow bowl at higher speeds but hooks more at the end of its travel. The traditional bowl has the classic hockey stick shape to its delivery arc.

Names for Lawn Bowling Shots

Newcomers to the game of lawn bowls will have a better understanding of tactical considerations if they know the names for the different shots that can be attempted at bowls. Below is an alphabetic listing with synonyms where they exist.

Back Bowl: 

A bowl usually out of the count but closer to the front ditch; this bowl may contend for shot if the jack is moved backwards in the head. Back bowls have much more of a chance to get into the final count than short bowls.

Backest Bowl:

It is the back bowl closest to the ditch. 

Blocker: 

A bowl that may interfere with opposing efforts to get their bowls close to the jack by resting in the expected path for their delivery; therefore, a block shot is a short bowl. A bad blocker is a wasted bowl. Blockers usually have more psychological than actual value.

Chop-and-Lie also called Tap-and-Lie or Wrest:

A bowl delivered with about two feet overweight that it is hoped will hit another bowl, turn it away, and take its place.

Cover Bowl:

When a game is played under rules specifying no dead ends but rather respotting of the jack, a cover bowl is one intended to finish close to a/the respot position in anticipation of the jack being driven out of bounds. When such a bowl is delivered the bowler is said to be ‘going for cover’.

Draw:

A bowl delivered on a line and with a weight trying to end up closest to the jack; the draw shot is the most frequent shot in all of lawn bowling.

Drive also called a Runner:

This is a bowl delivered with sufficient force that the bias has minimal effect so that it runs fairly straight; it is a somewhat desperate shot delivered hoping to kill the end or radically change the head, when the other side is ahead by several shots in the end. If a runner does not hit its target it will end up in the ditch.

Firm Wood also called a Timing Shot:

An overweight shot played narrower than a draw but not velocity such that some bias is evident; the bowl is intended to stay on the rink even if it misses its target. The shot is a more gentle version of the drive.

Plant: 

A shot delivered in the special situation where two bowls are touching; any contact with the shorter bowl will send the second bowl away precisely along the line connecting the two bowl's centres.

Positional Bowl:

So-called because it is a draw shot intended to end, not near the jack, but at a particular location on the rink chosen for tactical reasons.

Rest:

A bowl that in its course usefully comes up to and rests against another thereby holding it in a specific place.

Runner (see Drive):

Running Shot (see Drive):

Run through Shot:

A variant of the ‘firm wood’ in which a bowl is delivered with several yards of weight to strike several bowls sitting in front of the jack; the bowl is intended to disperse the short bowls and continue moving to end near the jack.

Shot Bowl:

This is not a type of shot; the 'shot bowl' is that bowl sitting closest to the jack, as the head is disposed.

Tap-and-lie (see Chop-and-lie):

Timing Shot (see Firm Wood):

Trail:

A bowl that hits the jack so that both bowl and jack are moved backward, more or less together. When the jack is hit and the bowl goes in a dramatically different direction from the jack the bowl is said to have "sliced' the jack.

Wick:

A bowl that hits another in its travel and is deflected to a position it could not otherwise reach.

Wrest: (see Chop-and-lie or Tap-and-lie)

Yard-on:

This shot is directed against an opposition bowl calling for an overweight shot to displace it. The shot can also be used to promote a bowl of your own team that is short of the jack. The overweight is not necessarily a yard but whatever is needed to accomplish the objective.

Your Skip May Want to Accept a Jack that is Actually Too Short

When an opponent throws a jack that appears not to have travelled the requisite distance from the front mat line (21 meters in Australia and Canada), your skip might not raise an objection. Similarly, you as lead may deliver a jack that is actually too short and the opponents may say nothing. A short jack may be what your skip wants.  When the opposing skip raises no objection that jack, after being centered, will be played to. Neither you as a lead nor any other team member, should say anything. If asked by your skip how far the mat is from the rear ditch, you should give a good estimate but make no comment about jack length. According to the World Laws of Bowls, Third Edition, once the first bowl has been rolled the jack length cannot be disputed.

As part of good team communication it would be good to quietly draw a teammate’s attention to the shortness of the jack before he or she rolls your side’s first bowl. In a singles match, it is the marker who is responsible for making sure the jack length is at least the minimum length.

Ignorance of this Law of Bowls can cost you the Match

Often in in-club tournaments a match outcome hinges upon control of the mat; one team does better on short ends, the other on long ones. Yet, in such in-club games, the leads may both be very new bowlers. The lead with the mat may, for example, deliver the jack too short or too wide and the other lead may then put the jack out or in the forward ditch. In this situation, the rule is that the jack is centered two meters from the forward ditch and the origin lead delivers the first bowl. What is often not remembered is that in this situation, the original lead bowler may move the mat forward to wherever his/her skip wants it to be placed before that first bowl is rolled. This is crucial because the original lead’s team may be the one needing a short jack and, if they don’t know the rule, that team will be faced with a very long one!

To quote chapter and verse, in Laws of the Sport of Bowls, Crystal Mark, Third Edition, rule 10.3 states, “If the jack is delivered improperly once by each player in any end, it must not be delivered again in that end. Instead, it must be centered with the nearest point of the jack to the mat line being two meters from the front ditch, and the mat must be placed as described in 6.1.1 by the first player to play”.
 Rule 6.1.1 in turn states, “Before the start of play in each end, the player to play first must place the center line of the mat lengthwise along the center line of the rink, with the mat line at least two meters from the rear ditch and at least 25 [23 in Canada] meters from the front ditch”.
In other words, the team that will play first regains control of the jack length because they can adjust the position of the mat before bowling the first bowl!

 

Lawn Bowling from the Shooters Stance

I am very reluctant to suggest even to novice bowlers that they change their delivery after committing one delivery to 'muscle memory' but I am going to do it. I have watched the two teaching videos below and I have tried what they recommend. I have identified what is being recommended with what I am seeing world class bowlers like Alex Marshall MBE and Paul Foster MBE execute on youtube. I have tried the method out. Already I can see a difference in favor of the shooter’s stance! I can feel the improved stability in my body at that critical moment when I step forward with my advancing foot.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3b9cKvPeWj4&spfreload=10

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UkKgJWDq1GA

There is perhaps an additional huge advantage that may be related to this change. I am left handed. I was suffering from plantar faciitis in my left foot, which is my anchor foot. I suspected that this condition was being caused or at least agravated in my case by the stress created by the unbalance that was occurring at the moment that all my weight moved onto this foot when I was pushing my weight forward into my bowling swing. This hunch seems to be supported by the unusual wear pattern on the sole of my bowling shoes. My left, the anchor shoe had a worn spot, not at the edge where it is commonly found, but right at the center of the heel! The shooter’s stance, by giving me a more stable base, seems to have relieved the condition. To be fair I placed orthodic insoles into my bowling shoes about the same time, so this wasn’t exactly one variable at a time experimentation. 

Whatever works, right!  

Using the ‘Bryant Twist’ to Deliver the Jack on a Slow Grass Lawn Bowl’s Rink

I recently finished two weeks practically living at the James Gardens Lawn Bowling Club. I kept almost regular business hours so that new bowlers would know that the club was open for their free trial, practice, and/or instruction. I took two days off during that spell so I could play in a couple of open pairs tournaments; otherwise-at the club-at the club!

During this volunteer spell, there was plenty of free time for personal practice. I discovered that if I turned my wrist in to my body on the backswing my line corrected so that I could aim directly at a mark on the front ditch rather than having to trace a line back and pick a stare point about five meters out from the mat on the green. However, after trying this in a few matches I have returned to my previous delivery completely.

Where I did find this turning the wrist inward helpful was in casting the jack. On the slow Canadian grass, I was finding it difficult to roll the jack a full length green, from T to T. To achieve this I needed a very high backswing, where the bowling arm was coming well above the horizontal position. This was only comfortable when I turned my wrist 90 degrees in to my side as it passed my  leg and then another 90 degrees as my hand reached its highest point. For comparison, on a representative Eastern Canadian green,  to deliver the jack to the hog line (21meters) I needed only a 45 degree backswing. But whatever the length, the delivery was straighter and more fluid when my wrist is twists during the swing.

When done to deliver a bowl this is called the Bryant twist. It was also part of Tony Allcock’s delivery. 

What is Your Natural Length of Jack?

Rather often the skip at lawn bowls will tell the lead bowler to send the jack to the lead’s ‘natural length’. Well, what is your ‘natural length’? How is the term defined? Your ‘natural length’ is the length to which you can most dependably, smoothly and effortlessly send a bowl. On the  outdoor synthetic green at James Gardens in Toronto, Canada, for example, my preferred length happens to be the longest jack possible: two meters from the forward ditch when the mat is set two meters from the rear ditch. By good fortune, my natural pendulum swing delivers my bowls that distance.

When on another green, however, I can only discover my natural jack length by grassing a bowl with the same step and swing that I would use at James Gardens and then measuring how far the bowl goes down this new rink. This becomes my  natural length on that rink under those weather conditions.  Sadly, on the slow grass rinks in Ontario, Canada this can be just past the hog line! Whatever it may be, your natural length needs to be determined at the place you are going to play before the start of any competition there. Even if there are no practice ends (as in Ontario Canada), this can be done by rolling a few bowls at right angles to the direction in which the tournament games are going to be played, when warming up before play begins. Grass your natural weight and measure the distance it travels from the front of the mat. Then see how much weight is needed to deliver a jack to that length. Now you are better prepared to compete. Let your skip know your preferred length. 

The Skip can help a Lead by calling for the Jack at the latter’s Natural Length

Last Saturday, playing skip in the Aiken Cup at James Gardens Lawn Bowling Club, I noticed that my lead was bowling consistently 24-25 meters even when the jack was shorter or longer than this. At the same time, he had no difficulty sending the jack as directed, right to my feet, when we had the mat. Therefore, I started calling for a 24-25 meter jack every time we got the mat. Immediately, and consistently thereafter, he peppered the head with bowls like a bowling machine. I would say that this was the most significant reason we won the tournament.
It looks like helping your lead delivery the jack (his or her) natural distance can pay big dividends. The textbook advice is that the jack length should be adjusted for the best performance of the whole team, but this is usually difficult to figure out much less execute. For lead and skip to agree to seek the lead’s natural distance is simpler. The vice and skip, as the more experienced players (usually), are better equipped to do the adapting for that weight!

The Drawmaster’s Dilemma in Social Lawn Bowls: the Swing Lead and a Proposed Alternative

The person who arranges the teams for games of social bowls at the local lawn bowling club never faces all the problems that the draw master at an open tournament encounters, but there is one problem this club volunteer faces more often, indeed, at least half the time: what to do when you have an odd number who want to play?

The answer, wherever I have gone in the world, is to have a ‘swing lead’. A swing lead delivers bowls for each team alternately. In some places, the number of bowls that the lead delivers is reduced. For example, in a game of triples a swing lead may play two bowls for each side rather than the three bowls that a regular lead would play. Half of the swing lead’s bowls are marked with tape and the other half have none. This is so, at the completion of each end, the lead bowls delivered for each side can be identified for the scoring.

Some players don’t mind being in a game where there is a swing lead; others hate it. Some would rather not play than participate in a game with a swing lead! There are certainly disadvantages. When starting a game with a swing lead the skip should always give away the mat because you want the swing lead to deliver bowls for your side after learning weight and line from the other side’s bowls. 

Looking at the situation another way, the swing lead bowler gets no thrill of competition because (s)he is not up against any opponent but is part of both teams. All the swing lead can do is practice technique. Also, the swing lead is doing the raking at every end.

I would like to propose an alternative applicable to games of triples; the most common social game.
A team of four players can compete against a regular triples team. Each team will deliver 9 bowls as in regular triples, the difference being that for the team of four, the lead will deliver two bowls, the second two bowls, the vice two bowls, and the skip the usual three bowls.  For the three-person team, each member will deliver three bowls as usual. Each team will have grassed nine bowls in each end. In this way, seven players will be engaged on one rink and each player will be part of just one team.

The drawmaster should intentionally make up the team of four with stronger players because it is a disadvantage for any team member to only play two rather than three bowls.

Playing Bowls in Honolulu: Leads as Greenskeepers’ Assistants

 On my way home to Canada, after avoiding any winter weather in Australia, my wife and I played bowls at the Honolulu Lawn Bowling Club.  This is the only lawn bowling green in Hawaii. It was built by Australian troops during the war. It fell into disrepair afterward, was rehabilitated, and is now maintained by its present membership, who total about 35 souls. The club is within walking distance of the Hilton Hawaiian Village resort where we were staying.  Apparently, many visitors come for a game from the tourist sites. There is play on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday but see their website for current details. We were not the only visitors. There is a large selection of bowls to borrow and a friendly atmosphere.

As you might imagine keeping up a natural grass green with only a small group of player-volunteers is a challenge and I could see that not all the rinks were playable at one time. This reminded me of something very important for novice bowlers to remember. Novices very often are lead bowlers and they have the freedom(at least within 3 or 4 meters) to decide where to place the mat. Leads should choose the position of the mat with respect for the condition of the rink. They are the most important assistants to the greenskeeper because they can keep the heavy traffic away from areas where the grass needs time to recover. Most often this is the area two meters out from the back ditch where so many players think the mat must be placed!

Try moving the mat five meters up the rink. When the mat has been centered with the help of your skip, on the green mark the position of the front center of the mat with chalk. That way you will be putting your mat down where there is less wear and tear while still making it quick to center the mat at the same place again and get on with the next end.

Another Reason for Lawn Bowling’s Decline

A couple of generations ago very few women worked outside the home. As homemakers they could arrange their affairs to free-up three or four hours during the working week to bowl. Men in contrast by and large were only available on the weekends. It was in this era that the customary practices at lawn bowling clubs were established. Women played during the week. The weekends were reserved for the men.  In many bowling clubs in Australia this practice seems to have continued. That is how things operated both at Burleigh Heads and North Turramurra, two of the clubs I played at during this past Canadian winter.

If I had discovered lawn bowls while my wife and I were still both working, I would never have taken up the sport because, first, my wife would not have been able to bowl during women’s hours that coincide with her work and, second, I would choose a weekend sport that we could both play at the same time. Fortunately, the situation is better in Canada than in Australia. Social bowling is more often than not mixed and there are many more mixed competitive events as well.
If bowlers who have played for 25 years or more want to preserve their beloved game they will have to give up playing arrangements from another era! I know you love those old boys’ club arrangements but don’t you love this great game even more?

Tactics: Wicking Off Jack High Bowls

There is a saying, very common in the days of all wide-bias bowls, that a jack-high shot bowl doesn’t stay shot on slow to medium greens. With the wide-spread use of narrow bowls, this has become true even on fast greens. The reason for the aphorism probably is that the wick into the jack off this wing bowl is very attractive because the other possibilities for deliveries from that side are also inviting: a better shot bowl or a trail of the jack away from the jack-high shoulder bowl. If the wick occurs it usually results in the delivered bowl becoming shot and the former jack high bowl being turned away.

Whether the jack-high bowl is yours or an opponent’s, bowling to achieve this wick is good tactics; however, whether one should change hands to try this is debatable. If the shot also requires that you both switch hands and bowl the wider side it may be, on balance, unwise. Whatever the case, the novice needs to follow the skip’s instruction. Do not select your bias and step onto the mat until you receive that call. The reason: wrong bias bowls are most frequently delivered when you misguess the skip’s shot selection. 

The Control of Weight at Lawn Bowls

For the novice lawn bowler, the first consideration in bowl delivery is the control of line or learning to take advantage of the particular bias of your lawn bowl. I suppose this is the first instinct because the arcing path of the lawn bowl is its most distinctive, and non-intuitive feature. As beginners we expect an approximately round object to roll approximately straight! When we find it does not but has a controllable arc and when our instructors offer an insight into how to master this, doing so is our first desire. However, more significant for how close to the jack the bowl ends up, is the influence of the initial speed or ‘weight’ with which the bowl is laid down.

Very few instructions enumerate all the variables that determine this initial velocity. Barry Pickup in his PDF file names them all although he does not provide them in a clean list and all he says about selecting some combination from them is “The fewer variables you allow into your delivery technique, the easier this muscle and memory training will be and the more accurate your bowls will be.” 

This article contains one sentence that is actually at odds with my own observations. Pickup says, “Since the position of your arm as you assume your stance on the mat has an effect on the amount  of back-swing you use and thus the degree of arc in your overall delivery swing, this is a good place to start your adjustments for varying weight and the distance your bowl travels.”  My own bowls teacher has a very gradual, very measured backswing that is quite unrelated to the position of her arm as she takes up her stance on the mat. I have adopted this. Where I start my pendulum motion is fixed and completely unrelated to how large or small my backswing is. Nevertheless, Pickup’s is the most complete presentation I have found and the most useful to me.

The elements that contribute to the distance a bowl will travel are:

 back swing elevation
degree of crouch
length of your stride
release of the bowl above the grass
rotation applied by fingers if any
arm bending at the elbow
added muscular acceleration from the arm
wrist bending at release if any


I have tried to list these in the approximate frequency with which I have observed them. Most deliveries are some combination of the eight elements.

When Delivering a Lawn Bowl the Score Should be Absent from your Mind

Sports commentators are always talking about the tension and nervousness that athlete’s must be feeling at critical times. The fact is: thoughts about winning or losing and the emotions associated with these are exactly what top athletes have been trained to banish from their mind. Outcome is supposed to become irrelevant; proper execution is everything. Once the routine of the learned behavior is begun, for many top athletes their subconscious takes over. The activity seems to proceed in slow motion (see http://ishi-in-sn.blogspot.com.au/2012/12/your-mind-heads-computer.html). To me, it seems the lawn bowler concentrates visually on the correct line, thinks of the correct weight and feels the proper arm motion. Everything else is pushed aside. It is even important to control breathing and heart rate because these, if different from normal, can adversely affect a normal delivery. Bowls announcers on the Australia network often comment that under pressure bowlers more often deliver too short. Thus deep breathing and muscle relaxation exercises can help.

Similarly sports commentators will talk about giving 110% or wanting to win more than the opponent. The top athlete does not buckle down more at certain times than others but aspires to peak performance throughout a contest. Wanting to win too much actually destroys performance; striving for your personal best, win-or-lose, by reproducing drilled performance results in more wins because it banishes worry and other distractions.

Updating the Control of Weight at Lawn Bowls

At the Turramurra LBC near Sydney Australia, when I sought help to control the weight of my deliveries, Bob Hawtree, one of the coaches, told me to really look closely at  the distance of the jack from the mat and silently in my head ask the question, “What does it feel like to bowl to a jack at this distance?" I was told this would elicit a response from my muscle memory. Then, “You should simply bowl with that memory in your mind.”

Essentially this means don’t first try estimating the number of meters from mat to jack and then putting a number on it. Rather, let your internal computer take the data from your eyes and let it control your muscles directly.

I was not spending enough time just looking carefully at the distance of the jack from the mat and letting that feed to my ‘mental computer’.

This advice must, of course, be combined with a fundamentally reproducible delivery motion. The coach emphasized three things for me in this area: the position where the bowl is released (about 6 inches in front of the advancing foot; the point in one’s swing where the step out begins (the bottom of my backswing); and the height to which one raises one’s arm in the follow through (not more than the height of the knee). 

Gratifyingly, this works amazingly well! I have dramatically upped my game. This is in fact the most significant improvement I have made in years!

Age is No Barrier Bowling in Burleigh Heads

On Saturday January 3^rd I bowled in Burleigh Heads, Australia, against a triples team whose lead was 97 years old. He was terrific. He used a bowling arm but he had no problem getting around for more than three hours on the green. I was playing second. Our best bowler was leading, but even so invariably by the time I came up to bowl, the head was seriously against us. I think we score three points in the entire match while several times they scored five in a single end. Their second told me, jokingly, I think, “We pay him to play with us.” It’s wonderful to see how lawn bowls can keep us elders active. Another fellow on this same day surprised me,  telling me. “Three days ago I was in hospital. I’m 92, you know, and I thought it was a heart attack but it was just vertigo so here I am.”

I chose lawn bowls because I wanted to participate until 90. I think I should choose a more challenging target!