Removing Strain from your Lawn Bowls Delivery

 

Every so often I deliver a very wobbly bowl often called a ‘pineapple’ or sometimes a ‘cucumber’. I ascribe this error to having too tense an arm and pushing out the bowl aggressively just at release.

In one video of a great YouTube series from the ‘Delivery Doctor’  Bowls Delivery Sequence 04 The No Backswing Backswing, he prescribes at one point the solution to this problem. The Doctor says that in the pre-delivery set-up position, the bowler should support the bowl with his free hand by placing it under that hand thereby cupping both bowl and the bowling hand. With this support by the free hand the bowling arm can then be completely relaxed since all the weight of the bowl is being supported externally. This cupping support is put in place after completing a few practice swings along the chosen aim line and just before the actual backswing is started.

Now with the bowling arm completely relaxed, the supporting hand is withdrawn and the bowling arm is allowed to naturally fall and then swing back to whatever amount flows naturally propelled by the simple force of gravity. Being set up correctly assists and even enforces the arm swing to stay over the chosen aim line. The forward swing is then subconsciously directed according to the length of the required bowl’s path, as visualized moments before during the set-up for the delivery.

Although my own delivery differs from that taught by the Delivery Doctor in some respects, this cupping of the delivery hand allowing the delivering arm to become totally relaxed is an effective modification of delivery that promotes a smoother launch of a bowl.