Why do so many bowlers deliver their first bowl short when it would be ssooooo much better if it was long? Is it because they feel that adding a yard is easier than taking a yard off? Perhaps that is it. I have been told that to add a yard just deliver the same bowl but consciously try to make the delivery smoother. I don’t remember anyone supplying me with a ‘rule of thumb’ for taking a yard off. The closest thing I can recall is being advised that if you are within a yard change nothing but just think, “My bowl was short” or “My bowl was long” as the case may be. Conscious corrections for small amounts of weight are almost always over-corrections.
When playing skip I have
often thought it would be wise to ask leads to deliver their first bowl to my
feet when I am standing three feet behind the jack. Then, if they are short,
they will be right on the jack and if they are precise they have a useful
starter bowl.
Since I control my weight by switching
among four different degrees of backswing to give four different ’natural
lengths’, when I lead, I will try never to deliver a first bowl with my lightest
delivery. This way I have a more gentle, yet natural, delivery available if I
am too long on my first bowl.
After 6 or more years experience bowling, no-one should need to adjust weight by making a physical change in their delivery as described in the last paragraph. Instead, look carefully at the jack position, imagine the correct path for your bowl; make conscious preparation and pass control to your subconscious as you start your backswing. Your subconscious knows howt to bowl the correct length. Feed it correct information and then trust it.
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