Time on the Mat

According to the World Bowls’ Laws of the Sport of Bowls Crystal Mark Fourth Edition, no maximum time for delivering a bowl is set. That being said, it is a courtesy not to be the slowest person on the green all the time. In Australia, they say, “A fast game is a good game.”

This blog author confesses to being a slower bowler. From getting on the mat until my bowl comes to rest in the head (or elsewhere) I do take more time than most. I have bowled slowly ever since I started playing. After ten years I am still bowling more slowly than many others. I do not do this to annoy. It is just that I enjoy the game only if I feel I am doing the best I can, and I think that I need more time than others to produce my best outcome.

If you need a consolation to avoid guilt at your slowness, realize that more time is typically spent by skips and vices visiting the head between bowls than you, as lead or second, are ever likely to use preparing yourself on the mat.

Fortunately, with experience, everyone’s delivery becomes more grooved, and some things that the novice needs to consciously check, become automatic. Thus, experience will decrease the time you need to spend on the mat before grassing a bowl. In fact, one can reach a point where spending extra time before delivering your bowl becomes counterproductive. I think it is universally true; you start bowling better when your routine on the mat is consistent and abbreviated. In Australia, over the Canadian winters of 2014 and 2015, I was told, “When you step onto the mat, you should already have been signaled the skip’s instructions and know what you are to do. Just step up and deliver.” Note that you should not step onto the mat until you have received and understood what the skip wants from you. If the skip is slow signaling, too complicated, or difficult to understand, this does not subtract from the time you have to execute your delivery. Also, if you have questions about the length or the distance between bowls or between a bowl and the jack, ask these before you step onto the mat; thereby, preserving your delivery routine.

There is a caveat; if anything disturbs you as you perform what is supposed to become a grooved delivery, immediately stop, step back off the mat, and begin your routine again. If you feel you are losing your balance during a delivery hold onto the bowl and restart. If some uncertainty such as whether you have the correct bias jumps into your head- stop the delivery. These things won’t happen often, but you should take the proper corrective action. Consistent excellence in sport depends upon undisturbed routine. With experienced players, bad shots most often arise from a loss of mental concentration.