Suggestions for Videographing Lawn Bowls

All November and December-It’s too cold to bowl outside in Canada. It’s too early to leave for a more hospitable climate; so, I watch a lot of lawn bowls online. 

General Atmosphere

Why is it required that spectators be quiet during play? Other sports do not ask for this. A basketball player throwing a free throw does not have silence or lack of motion from spectators. A baseball pitcher trying to throw strikes doesn’t. In the Australian Premier League there does not seem to be any such requirement for quiet. What do players think about this topic? If we want popularity, let’s lighten up!

Videography

Couldn’t the broadcast show some slow motion and freeze frame pictures of the different bowlers’ deliveries?

 Couldn’t a camera show some overhead shots from behind the bowler when he is delivering so we can see how wide a line is being taken? I have seen such shots but they do not continue long enough to provide all the information they could.

Sometimes a commentator seems ( from what is being said ) to be  marking on the screen where the best bowl should come in but I can’t see the marking on my screen. Why is that? Can’t it be fixed? 

In ice hockey, video is available from a camera mounted on a referee’s head. Couldn’t this be available for bowls by mounting a camera on the marker’s head (wearing a helmet!). It would also be useful when the marker is asked for an opinion about close bowls. The viewers could  see what the marker sees.

You have a ditch camera but it is only used when there is jack and/or bowl in the ditch. Couldn’t it be used for variety at other times?

Couldn’t overlapped pictures of a bowler’s deliveries be used to show how consistent these  deliveries are? The amazing skill of top bowlers is that they can do exactly the same thing over and over. We need videographer expertise to be able to make this point. 

Would it be possible to show close-ups of the grip of a bowler or his eyes during delivery? This would interest viewers and provide variety in the telecasting.

The sport has an inherent problem. There is an extended period of inaction between when a bowl is released at the mat and when it arrives in the head. Perhaps during this space, when the commentators are speaking, a camera could switch so we can see them. It would be more interesting than all the time watching a close-up of a running bowl.

The Participants

Viewers would be interested in the previous bowling history of the participants. This is already done to some extent but could be expanded. This would include what tournaments they had already won or participated in with a good outcome. Have these bowlers ever played against each other before? What was the outcome? What previous matches have they played in the present tournament? Where are they ranked in the world now? Have either of them been members of national teams? Do the participants play both indoors and outdoors?

What about injuries; have any of the competitors had injuries that have kept them out of competition for long periods? Have any participants had foot, leg or knee injuries? It would be comforting to compare their travails with our own.

Do these participants have good anecdotes about themselves? Talking about the players can nicely fill during the play. Viewers can watch and listen at the same time.

The Rink and the Rules

What is the maximum length of jack in this game? On typical outdoor rinks what is the maximum length? What is the speed on the surface being used in this match? How does this speed affect the shots chosen?

Can a bowling arm be used by participants in top level play? I know Kelvin Kerkow uses a cane.

 Strategy

What is the preferred length for each player? What lengths has each player preferred in prior matches? If involved in a tie breaker and given the mat, what positions and lengths does each player prefer?

What bowls does each player use in the match? Is either player under contract to use a particular make of bowls?

Tactics

Some top bowlers drive very hard, apparently to reduce the bias of their bowl; others have a more controlled delivery, apparently just trying to produce a consistent but small amount of curl. What is the best strategy given the rink conditions?

Why are on-shots so difficult on the carpet?

Do professional bowlers deliver their bowl differently when they need to deliver a.bowl close to one of the re-spot points?

Very rarely does one see bowlers at this level try to push one of their short bowls over to make it closer to the jack. Why is this?

Discussion of the use of the mat and possession of the mat. do statistics indicate that possessing the mat is an advantage or is possessing the mat just the consequence of being the better player and hence being forced to take the mat.

Why is it that we so seldom see professional bowlers bring the mat up to the hog line and bowl short lengths with the jack on the front T?

Style

What are the stare point for the different participants? What about particulars of stance? Why does the marker tell the participants the distance of the jack; ordinary bowlers need to estimate the length themselves?

Some bowlers use a Bryant twist in their backswing; what are the pros and cons of this?

Many professional bowlers walk off the mat in their delivery and are not behind the mat when their bowl stops. Isn’t this a violation of the rules?

Many bowlers bend the knee of their anchor foot behind their advancing leg during delivery. Why do they do this?

Some international bowlers seem to be looking down at their feet when they deliver the bowl (like Darren Burnett ). How are they controlling line? Along each side of the indoor rink there are pictures on the siding. Do bowlers use these images as aim points?

Andy Thomson has a strange set up in which he stands straight without any knee bending, then he bends over completely from the waist placing the bowl on his shoe tops and then proceeds to deliver. Comment on the advantage of this approach. Ask him how and why he developed this style? Other bowlers have other unique habits that viewers would be eager to learn more about.

 At least one former world champion, David Gourlay, often asks the marker to move apparently because he needs to see the boundary strip on the front ditch. Is he using the boundary marker for taking his grass? Many everyday bowlers take as a stare point some discolouration on a carpet or pock mark on a grass green but the indoor carpet appears perfectly blank. How does this change, taking and maintaining a draw line?

Top bowlers, like Greg Harlow, are noted to be moving around on the mat to make fine adjustments to their deliveries? Could the commentator point out when this is being done, explain more about it and propose a reason for doing it under the circumstances of play?

 The Play

What are the statistics concerning which hand each bowler is playing? How is each bowler’s performance going away from the commentary box versus coming towards it? Is either bowler leading off playing consistently around  the clock?

Sometimes the competitors use different grips. Could the commentators demonstrate these grips on camera?

Quite often commentators make some remark intended for viewers new to bowls; however, these usually pertain just to the rules. Couldn’t it sometimes be mentioned about the built in bias of the bowls and how that bias is quite independent of the velocity with which they are rolled (so long as the surface is completely flat and horizontal). Even long time social bowlers seem to think that if a bowl ends up short but on what seems like a perfect path to the jack, all that is needed is more weight on the same line! It is not intuitive that line and length are not correlated!

Commentators are often heard to maintain that differences in bowling are attributable to changes in the temperature inside the rink (during indoor bowling). Using a bowling ramp to deliver identical bowls, could you produce a video to show that this is true?  Is this difference, if any, significant compared to the natural variation in a top bowler’s delivery? Such a clip could be could be shown to break up monotony in a match.

The Delivery at Lawn Bowls: Add/Subtract Length

Only one of the leads in a bowls match gets to deliver the jack. Rolling the jack is the single biggest aid for getting the weight of your first bowl correct. Ideally, your first bowl should end up a bit further down the rink than the jack. You will then want to reduce your length for subsequent bowls.

Physical Aspects

Experienced lawn bowlers can leave it to their subconscious mind to correct a delivery that is the wrong weight; however, it is my personal experience that if you have played for less than six years, you will need to think about some specific physical change in your delivery to produce a planned as opposed to a random length change. The modification in delivery could be one or more (preferably one) of:

a. Shorten/Lengthen your stare point

 
With the differing ‘run’ of modern bowls, my method to establish line is to pick a point on the aim-line of the bowl to stare at. Only personal experimentation will teach you how far down the rink this stare point is best for you! My choice is a stare on my aim line about 5 meters out from the front mat line. Once I have established a standard stare point distance, it seems that lengthening this distance causes me to subconsciously add weight while bringing my stare point back closer to the mat subconsciously causes me to take off weight. 
When the light is poorer, I choose my initial, standard stare point a meter or two closer (less than five meters). The lengthening or shortening is not changed.  If groundsheets are in use, a point on the front edge of the groundsheet (3 meters) may be an alternative.

b. Lower your body height

The higher you stand the more ‘weight’ is put into the bowl when your body moves forward in the delivery. Since I bowl from a stance with my advancing foot already a half step out from the mat and with my free hand on my knee, lowering my body height is not a possible choice for me but it is reported to work well for others with more flexible stances.

c. Reduce your forward ‘step’

 
This is another way to reduce the amount of body momentum delivered to the bowl. A disadvantage is that changing your step length can make it harder to hold your aim-line.

d. Reduce the arm pendulum amplitude

By lowering the position where you hold the bowl initially, before starting your delivery, you reduce the pendulum swing amplitude. Try to maintain your usual swing tempo. If you are a palm bowler, your thumb will not be gripping the bowl so your backswing must be restricted (or the bowl will drop). Instead of a pendulum swing you need to push the bowl out, so will be forced to control the length with your stride as in (c) above.

Mental Aspects

If you have played for more than six full seasons, you probably don’t need to think about any particular delivery modifications such as I have described above; you just need to ‘see’ more clearly where the target destination is. I am not talking about improved 'eyeball' vision but a feeling for what the distance means for how such a delivery feels. You have bowled this length many, many times before. Your body knows how to do it. As the sporting goods manufacturer, Nike, says in its advertisements, “Just do it!”
 Set up consciously, imagining the path your bowl will follow from release to the head, then concentrate on a deliberate straight backswing then turn the forward push over to your subconscious. When the bowl is on its way be conscious of how close you were to passing over your stare point so you can make a correction, if necessary, on your next bowl. 
One of the mental suggestions is to ’focus’ on the jack as the last-but-one thing to do prior to looking down the line to your aiming point, and, have the jack’s position in your ’mind’s eye’ during delivery (never look at the jack). David Bryant says that before bowling he looks back and forth between his stare point and the jack and he only stares exclusively at his stare point as he begins his bowling action. This helps the ‘hand-eye‘ coordination. Something else that works for many people is to imagine the path of a bowl rolling down the rink and stopping against your target. This will impress upon your subconscious the weight that the path requires.

Lastly, remember that using the subconscious to control your delivery only works when you have had both experience playing on the surface and a history of consistent practice. You cannot, "Just do it!" unless you have already often done it.

Grip, stance and all other aspects of the pre-delivery routine need first to become automatic and entirely replicable.