Delivery at Lawn Bowls: A Secret for Improving your Line

 

Bowling at Balaia (the whale)

I have repeated one piece of advice more than any other in my blogs: get your advancing foot planted before beginning your forward swing during a delivery. If you consistently miss rolling your bowl over your stare point this, I have said, is the first thing to check. I still stand behind that.

Nevertheless this winter, here in Almancil Portugal, I had been bowling poorly. The symptoms were the same but I was getting my foot down, so it was not the same ailment. Something different was the problem. As it turned out, I was choosing stare points too far up the green. (Your mark or stare point is the spot on the rink over which you try to roll your bowl.) When I changed to a stare point just 3 to 5 meters beyond the front edge of the mat my fortunes immediately dramatically improved. So great was the change that when the match, during which I discovered this, concluded my skip asked me what had happened halfway through the game.

Since then I have continued making sure that I picked a clearly visible mark 3-5 meters out and  I have consistently bowled with outstanding line.

So the first thing to check if you lose consistent line is still whether you are getting your advancing foot down before your swing but the second thing to check is whether your stare point is properly chosen.

 Good bowling!