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.