When and How to Deliver a Yard-On Shot

 

Turramurra LBC 2015?

An "up-shot", "yard-on" or ”on-shot” is a lawn bowl delivered with weight, greater than a draw shot, indeed enough to displace the jack or disturb other bowls in the head, without killing the end or losing the delivered bowl in the ditch or outside the rink boundaries. It is also referred to as "controlled weight” or as a “rambler".

The on-shot to a medium length jack is, for me, the most difficult shot in bowls. The target must be imagined. The exact length is more difficult to estimate compared with the very short or very long jacks and the correction in aim-angle compared to the normal draw angle is close to the error I have in actually bowling on the aim-angle.

The on-shot can only be dependable if you can correctly imagine the path your bowl would take on the rink if unobstructed. You also need to be able to estimate the velocity with which your bowl needs to hit the assemblage in the head and convert that velocity into an assessment of what distance that weight would carry your bowl if it was unobstructed. Combining this information with the imagined bowl’s unobstructed path that passes through the head provides a target location.

You then need to deliver your bowl with the correct line and length so that, if the path had been unobstructed, it would roll to the target location. To accomplish this, it is helpful if the person directing in the head indicates the target location with his(her) extended foot to provide a distinct target that can be seen from the mat.

An attempted on-shot should never be short. You only give oneself a chance to disrupt an unfavorable head by reaching it! A short bowl may make your next attacking bowl more difficult.

A yard-on shot should be considered when the opponent’s shot bowl is rather close to the jack or the opponent has a number of very close bowls or even if access to the head is simply blocked leaving you down in the count.

 The yard-on shot is characteristically used by skips and vices, not leads (who should be drawing their bowls to build the head and in so doing making sure that all their bowls are behind the jack).