Jason Greenslade’s Delivery

 

Jason Greenslade has been among the top 14 indoor lawn bowlers for many years. His style is not imitated by anyone nor do I recommend that anyone try to imitate it. Particularly for a tallish man maintaining balance must be challenging.

 

Grip

Jason’s grip is a palm grip. His thumb is at the side of the bowl. The thumb is what prevents his bowl from falling throughout his unconventional backswing. In the ready position, Jason has his thumb on the grip but just before starting his delivery, he moves it to a position just past the grip onto the side of the bowl where it can support the bowl as he takes it behind his back. This thumb movement is captured in the close-up above where he is playing with the green bowls.

Stance

Jason stands on the mat with both feet close together pointing in the direction he plans to bowl. What is surprising is that he is slightly pigeon-toed in his stance with the stepping foot angled slightly inward. The reason for this becomes apparent when the delivery is executed. His forward step is actually across his body so that his legs are crossed as he releases the bowl. In his ready position, the bowl is at waist height.

 

Delivery

Greenslade’s draw-back is an exaggerated twist that takes his bowl behind his back. Although he starts lowering his body by bending his knees, he takes the bowl behind his back without raising or lowering it with respect to the ground. He steps forward during this backswing, stepping across his anchor leg. His anchor leg needs to bend in behind his stepping leg more than for any other bowler because otherwise, his forward swinging arm would hit this leg! As his arm comes through he straightens his wrist to set the bowl onto its running surface close to the ground.

Non-bowling Arm

As Jason begins his backswing his shoulders rotate and his non-bowling arm comes forward to maintain his balance (see topmost left picture). When he actually releases his bowl onto the carpet this arm is on his knee for stability. Even though Jason’s shoulders rotate his head is kept steady- eyes on the line.

Follow Through

Jason walks off the mat. If he didn’t I don’t think he could maintain his balance. His bowling arm follows his bowl in a sweeping motion so that his hand rises sometimes almost to his chest.

The Flip-Side of Using a Cocked Wrist

Back in 2015, I wrote a blog praising the benefits to cocking your wrist in a bowling delivery.

Well, folks, none of the top players do it! During the past few weeks of Covid-19 lockdown, I have examined the deliveries of the top professional bowlers and I have read what bowling manuals have to say. I am ready to admit defeat.

For example,  John Snell, the author of Winning Bowls, a book that is available free on-line says, “The wrist must not be cocked; for one thing, it is not natural. The hand is not a straight extension of the arm but normally points away at a slight angle. If you try to keep the hand straight, I promise you nothing more than bad deliveries, a tired wrist, and a case of tension at the end of the day. A cocked wrist is against all the principles of relaxation, which is one of the secrets of winning bowls.” [my italics]

I haven’t encountered the tired wrist or the tension. I have my share of bad deliveries but what convinced me is the sentence in italics about the fundamental requirement for a relaxed arm. If you have grooved your swing you must allow your body to become the servant of your subconscious mind and I think that demands relaxed spontaneous movements.

This is inconsistent with cocking your wrist.

The Bowls Delivery of Darren Burnett

Darren Burnett is most infamous to Canadians, like myself, because at the 2014 Commonwealth Games, he won the gold medal in men's singles defeating Ryan Bester of Canada. Darren Burnett is one of the professional bowlers who most clearly illustrates the Shooters’ Stance. Because his anchor foot is distinctly angled with respect to his aim line, he does not need to twist his wrist in his backswing. His grip is classical- four-finger claw grip.

Burnett delivers from an athletic stance. He stands tall and looks down the rink from a fully erect posture and sights down the rink. Then as his arm pushes forward in the delivery motion he looks down towards his bowl. It is unclear whether he keeps his eye on a stare point. Perhaps his stare point is very close to the mat. This is a bit mysterious.

Different from all other bowlers in his ready position he raises his bowl up as high as his chin by bending his elbow. He also raises his other hand which remains close by the bowl as if to steady it. This is evident in my first picture.

When he begins his bowling action he rapidly lowers the 
bowl as he draws it

back towards his anchor foot. He steps forward but not as with others close to his aim line but rather partially away from it. When his foot is firmly down he sweeps forward and drops the bowl onto the rink.

Burnett lets go of his bowl further above the rink than other top bowlers and the bowl gets away with a considerable wobble.

 Burnett’s non-bowling arm ends up resting on his forward thigh. Unlike other bowlers, his forward stepping leg, from knee to foot, angles away from his strictly vertically bowling arm.

How do Professional Indoor Lawn Bowlers on Youtube take their Stare Point?

About five years ago, when I was spending January-March in Australia, I visited one of those bowl stores that had an indoor rink for trying out new bowls. When I went to deliver a test bowl, I discovered that the carpet was so perfect that I couldn’t pick out a physical spot 3-5 metres in front of the mat that I could use as a stare point. I had to stretch my neck up from my crouch and try to take a line from objects near the front ditch.

I have since been asking myself the question, “How do professional bowlers playing on the portable rink pick a stare point?” They are playing on a perfect carpet so they must face the same problem that I did at the sporting goods store.

The video camera positions for major bowls competitions do not help answer that question. There is rarely a camera shot from behind a bowler while he is executing a delivery. Finally, I saw such an angle. I show a screen capture below.

The bowler is Alex Marshall MBE. I don’t know how the picture was taken. It is not one of the usual camera angles.  It looks like the Scottish Championship, perhaps, since I can see tables near the side ditch. 

The angle reveals two interesting things. First, because the top bowlers use wide-swinging bowls, their stare points are on the billboards along the sides of the rink. Second, it looks like the fact that the advertisements have alternate light-coloured and dark-coloured backgrounds is important for providing highly visible stare points.

For example, in this image, it looks as if Alex is setting his aim line on to the Dales advertisement far down the rink that appears in the upper right corner of this picture.

How appropriate those semi-circular, multicoloured target shapes that appear to be the perennial decoration on the side barriers at these bowling venues turn out to be!

Learn from Greg Harlow’s Bowls Delivery

In the 2018-2019 World Bowls Season, Greg Harlow finished 2nd. After the 2020 World Indoor Bowls Championship, Greg Harlow was ranked sixth. He is the resident professional at Potters Resort where the World Championships are held each year so he has plenty of occasion to practice on the portable rink that is used in these matches. In my estimation, he has one of the classically most perfect delivery actions. It is interesting for bowling enthusiasts to examine this delivery.

Stance

Greg Harlow bowls from a traditional stance with both feet parallel to the aim line and the ‘stepping foot’ slightly in advance of the anchor foot in the ready position. At the beginning of his delivery action, he lowers his body slowly swinging backwards with his bowling arm in concert with it. but does not begin his backswing until the bowl is at ankle height. 

Grip

Greg Harlow’s grip is the claw grip. He does not bend his wrist in a scoop but it remains locked. The running surface of his bowl is consistent with his aim line.

 Harlow’s Opposite Hand Position

The ‘opposite hand’ refers to the hand that does not do the bowling. This hand in the cases of most top bowlers participate very little in their deliveries. Greg Harlow exemplifies this. His non-bowling hand neither steadies his bowl nor does he place it on his advancing leg as he sinks down by bending his knees to lower his entire frame. In his set position this hand rests lightly on his upper thigh. The whole action, without the support of this hand and arm, requires top-tier athletic balance. Perhaps because of the tremendous strain applied to his knees to do this lowering, smoothly and totally in control, Harlow has had somewhere in the neighbourhood of four knee operations- His bowling action is beautiful to see but Greenbowler would not recommend it. This is not something that one can expect to continue in one’s advancing years!

 Harlow’s Back-Swing

Greg Harlow has a regular backswing throughout that brings his bowl to near the heel of his anchor foot (see first picture). Greg does not noticeably tuck his anchor knee in behind his forward heel because his backswing does not go behind his anchor foot. Greg’s swing provides momentum to the bowl more than his shoulders and body.

Forward Stepping

 Harlow’s entire body moves forward with his bowl swing. His forward stepping foot first contacts the bowling surface heel first and then he rocks forward onto his toes. The bowl is not released until his advancing foot is solidly grounded as is the case with all top bowlers.

Follow Through

Greg Harlow has one of the most reproducible follow throughs in the game. His arm elevation and even his finger positions are consistent. This is seen in the picture.

Walking Off the Mat

Harlow walks off the mat smoothly without the exaggerated interrupted stepping that is the hallmark of Marshall and Foster. but his weight completely forward at release and his anchor foot is only touching the mat with his toes.

Positioning on the Mat

Harlow uses the mat more noticeably than most bowlers his standard. Commentators mention this more often than with other bowlers. When he wants to be sure that a bowl will get back to center rink he will stand on the front corner of the mat on the side opposite the side to which he is bowling. That is, for a forehand, he stands on the forward backhand-side corner.