Head Analysis: When the Jack is Really a Wider Target at Lawn Bowls!

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The jack is only 64 millimeters in diameter. No wonder trailing the jack intentionally is so difficult. But sometimes it would seriously help your side if it were moved back a bit. Fortunately, there are situations where the target for moving the jack is significantly enlarged.

Suppose the head looks as in the figure above. Certainly, it would be very beneficial if the jack (lemon yellow circle) could be rolled a bit further down the rink since your bowls are the orange ones. The black bowls belong to your opposition.

You need not despair because the target to achieve jack movement is actually as wide as the cluster of bowls immediately in front of it. That is to say, if you can strike at any point on those two front bowls there is an excellent chance that the jack will be displaced backward towards your waiting catcher bowls.

Try practicing a running shot through the cluster with about 4 meters of weight!

The Remarkable Shot that Taught Us Some Rules

 

On Hallowe'en day the weather was mild in Toronto Canada so we had a pick-up men's pair match at James Gardens LBC. An unusual situation arose sending us scrambling to the Laws of Bowls Crystal Mark 4. Extraordinarily, we have images of the head position taken before the final shot of the end; the shot that elicited the questions. 

The top image shows part of the head before the delivery of the last blue bowl. My bowls are the lemon yellow ones; two close to the ditch and another in the ditch beside the jack. My ditched bowl is a toucher. None of my partner's bowls are close enough to be in the picture.  The green bowls and the single blue bowl belong to the opposition. The visible blue bowl is also a toucher. Although it can't be seen, all paths to knock my two yellow bowls into the ditch are blocked so my opponent with his last single blue bowl decided to try to move his single blue toucher to reduce the count.

He delivered a drive aiming to slice his toucher and send it in the direction of all the yellow bowls. In the event, he hits the shortest green bowl, bounces off it towards the yellow bowls, bounces off the bank, and removes the yellow bowl on the rink closest to the jack.  To add to the fun his blue bowl stays exactly where the yellow bowl it displaced had been sitting.

In the actual game, we incorrectly thought this bowl was live and the result was we scored just one - my yellow in the ditch. 

This was incorrect as we discovered later.

37.17.1 A bowl is a dead bowl if: 

• 17.1.1  it is not a toucher and comes to rest in the ditch; 
• 17.1.2  it is not a toucher and rebounds onto the rink after contact with the face of the bank or with the jack or a toucher in the ditch

37.5.3  Displacement of a bowl at rest

• If a bowl at rest or a toucher in the ditch is displaced by a non-toucher rebounding from the face of the bank, an opponent or the marker must put it back to its former position. 

My side should have scored three! But what a shot!

Controlling Weight at Lawn Bowls When You Take a Stare Point at 5 or more Meters

 

For a decade I worked with a stare point on my aim line 3 to 5 meters out from the front edge of the mat. This blog article is directed towards players who do this. If you take your stare point as the theoretical shoulder on the visualized path of your bowl, then this blog is not for you!

Using a stare point between 3 and 5 meters out along your aim line has the very significant advantage that you will know definitively after your bowl has been delivered whether you missed rolling the bowl over your stare point or whether it is your aim line itself that is wrong.

The disadvantage of the method is that you will have no instantaneous visual clue to help you get your weight correct. That will be entirely up to your recollection of the entire visualized path from a few moments before.

About 10 years ago I was in a roll-up at Broadbeach Bowls Club in Queensland Australia and a skip visiting from Melbourne gave me a tip about controlling weight when you use a stare point near the mat. He told me that if I was trying to deliver a bowl to a short jack my stare point should be no more than 3 meters out along my aim line, but if I wanted greater length I should be choosing a stare point 5 or 7 meters out.

At the time I tried following this advice and I remember my weight control did improve but I paid attention to it less and less thereafter, mainly because it didn’t make sense; why should it work?

Recently, during a practice session, a possible reason dawned on me.

If you are delivering a bowl to a short jack at 21-23 meters and you apply enough weight to get your bowl to travel along the aim line and over a stare point at 5 or more meters the bowl will be delivered too heavy. To roll straight along your aim line and over your stare point you have forced yourself to use too much weight. Instead, with a stare point only 3 meters away, you can bowl along your aim line, over your stare point, and still only apply the correct weight needed to reach the shorter jack.

In the alternative, if you are trying to roll your bowl straight along the aim line and over your stare point 5-7 meters out, that forces you to apply more weight and forces you not to be short!

Pertinent Definitions

An ‘aim line’ is the imaginary straight line that runs from the intersection of the rink’s center line and the front edge of the mat to a selected point on the front bank of the green. The bowler selects an aim line.

A ‘stare point’ is an imagined spot on an aim line over which the bowler tries to roll a bowl. 

Knowing How to Drive is Vital to Avoid Being Defeated by Long Jacks

The most popular strategy in lawn bowls is to consistently play long ends. The smallest deficiency in an opponent's bowling delivery is exaggerated when the shot that must be played is a heavy one. Moreover, many bowlers just don’t have the physical strength to bowl one long end after another.

The best defense is to get very good at rolling the jack very short and getting very good at drawing to very short jacks, to keep possession of the mat so you can make most ends short. But there is another element to this strategy that is too frequently ignored.

No matter how skilled your side may be, sometimes your opponents will get the closer bowls. On these occasions, you must be able to dependably deliver a weighted shot to break up that head.

This is how to get it right!

First, delivering a weighted shot that disrupts a head does not demand great strength. When one tries to break up a head, especially those only 21-23 meters beyond the mat, as the ones we are talking about will be, most players swing too hard. The bowl then misses and finishes in the forward ditch. You should deliver the bowl that will disrupt a short end with the weight required to travel somewhere between 27- 32 meters, whatever is comfortable for you, BUT that weight, whatever you choose, must be precise and consistent.

Second, you must study, before you need the information, by what fraction you must narrow your normal draw angle so it crosses the center line at a distance of 21-23 beyond the mat. Depending on the playing surface this will be between 1/3 and 1/4 of your normal draw angle.

Third, and least appreciated and the cause of most failures, you must walk off the mat following your bowl. This is important because it forces you to keep your body weight moving smoothly forward along your aim line and eliminates any jerkiness that would throw off your line as you release the bowl. 

 Even with normal draw shots, I try to remember to walk off the mat but it is the most frequent element of my delivery that I forget. When delivering a weighted shot to a short jack it is crucial not to forget. 

Delivering a Useful Back Bowl is at least Five Times Easier than a Useful Blocker

Recently I wrote a Greenbowler blog article on the subject of making block shots easier. Afterward, in some practice sessions applying this advice, wherein I assessed whether these attempts actually provided the protection sought, I discovered that only a small percentage of the blocking bowls I tried delivering were effective.

On the other hand, putting in strategically placed back bowls was at least five times easier than bowling a successful block shot.

Covering the respotting position ( on the center line two meters out from the forward ditch )seemed to be the action of choice if the opposition otherwise would have the closest bowl there.

In addition, I found an unexpected advantage in delivering any back bowls that were aimed to finish midway between the centre line and one of the boundaries. When delivering these, I sometimes found that the draw needed to reach these locations was quite different from what I would have guessed. This information would prove useful in playing to displaced jacks later in a match!

Block Shots Made Easier

Delivering an effective block shot is one of the most difficult skills in playing lawn bowls. One reason: the target is not a real visible object. One is trying to place a bowl onto an opponent’s bowling path which is an approximate and imaginary curve. There are two ways to make delivering a block shot a bit easier.

Skip/Vice Stand at the Target Location

The Laws of the Sport of Bowls do state that placing an object onto the green to guide a bowler’s delivery is not allowed (Section 34) but this does not mean that the person directing the head cannot stand anywhere he/she wants on the rink (Section 12.1.3). It is only required that once the bowl has been released that person must immediately withdraw to a position behind the head. Therefore, the Greenbowler recommends that the person directing play should first visualize the path that the expected opposition bowl is likely to take when it attacks the head and then stand, with heels together and toes apart as pictured above, at the exact spot the block is needed, as a target for the bowler at the mat. Then, when the bowl is released the person directing the play should immediately and directly move back behind the head. In this way delivering a block shot becomes no more difficult than drawing to a displaced jack because the target spot has been made visible!

Place Your Blocker to One or the Other of Just Two Lengths

A blocking shot can be effective at any position along the opponent’s bowling arc from mat to head; however, the shot is easier to deliver if it is delivered with a weight that is as reproducible as possible. Furthermore, a blocking shot is more obtrusive the closer it is to the mat, but to still be a live bowl, a bowl must travel a minimum of 14 meters “from the center of the mat line” ( Section 17.1.3 ).

The Greenbowler recommends that the first distance that should be attempted is just a bit over 14 meters. This distance is reproducibly achieved on many Canadian rinks by taking a stance with the feet positioned as they would be after stepping in a normal draw shot and then pushing the bowl firmly forward but with no backswing. That is to say with neither any stepping forward nor elevation of the bowl to accelerate it. The only momentum delivered to the bowl will be the arm push. With only that one element contributing to the velocity, consistency is easier and the required length can be achieved.

The second distance the Greenbowler recommends for a blocking shot is 21 meters, which is the distance to the hog line in Canada. In other countries, the hog line may be at 23 meters and then that should be the target distance.

The person directing the head should stand, heels together and toes apart as illustrated, at the spot where the imagined path of the opponent’s bowl and the hog line intersect. The bowler on the mat should visualize a path (usually choosing the inside-out path) from the mat to where the person directing the head is standing and then bowl with the same weight as for a jack at the minimum distance. Once the bowl is released the person directing the head must promptly move back behind the head.

Who and When

It is the skip or the person directing the head who must decide, first, that a block shot should be played, and second which delivery, forehand or backhand, draw, running shot, or drive the block shot should be attempting to thwart. A block shot should not be considered unless it is pretty clear what the opponent is likely to do. 

Getting Weight Right: Standing on the Aim Line 2/3 of the Way to the Jack

I have discovered a way to avoid short bowling by my lawn bowling team members. I do not understand why it works but it does seem to work with a variety of different subjects.

To do it you must learn the correct aim line for the bowler you wish to assist. The easiest way to do this is to make some deliveries with that team member’s bowls and compare the draw with your own.

Then stand at a spot on that aim line, 2/3 of the way from the front of the mat to the jack, and ask the bowler on the mat to bowl at you. For some mysterious reason, the bowl gets delivered with a weight appropriate to get it to the position of the jack!

I don’t know why this works but I can hypothesize. The bowler senses that at least a certain velocity is needed to take the bowl to you along the aim line without substantial bending away and that is quite a good approximation to the velocity required for the bowl to curve towards the center line and arrive at the jack. 

 That is to say, your request asks two things of the bowler:

1. Bowl along the proper aim line, and
2. Bowl with sufficient weight that the bowl does not curve away from me very much

These two demands actually indirectly define the perfect draw path. The bowl must start out on the required aim line and it must not curve to any substantial degree until it is 2/3 to 3/5 of the way down the rink!

If you adopt this methodology in a match the opposing skip may claim that your positioning is illegal and the rules require that you at all times stand behind the head. This is not correct. The applicable rule from The Laws of the Sport of Bowls Crystal Mark Fourth Edition is:

12.1.3  As soon as a bowl is delivered, a player who is controlling play from a position that is either level with or in front of the jack, must take their position as described in law 12.1.2.

12.1.2  Players at the head-end of the rink and who are not controlling play must stand: 

12.1.2.1 behind the jack if they are members of the team which is in possession of the rink; 

12.1.2.2 behind the jack and away from the head if they are members of the team which is not in  possession of the rink; 

12.1.2.3 on the surrounds of the green if the jack is in the ditch; or

12.1.2.4 well clear of the head if it is not possible to stand on the surrounds.

This means that once the bowl, whose play you are controlling, is released you are required to move immediately to a position behind the jack and then, once that bowl stops, away from the head. 

When You Need a Big End to Win a Set and You have the Last Bowl

 

I am not of set play at lawn bowls. Set play was devised to make the game more suitable for television broadcasting. When there is no such media necessity, I see no reason why we should abandon the traditional 21 up game.

But, if the authorities select set play and with repotting centered on the forward T of any jack out of bounds, then strategy should be directed to take advantage of these rules.

At set play, it doesn’t matter by how much you lose a set. When your side is behind by more than 1 point going into the last end you should play to do whatever is required to position yourself to win. If you fail it doesn’t matter by how much you lose.

Your object is to get a multiple in the end. To achieve that you need to retain the maximum number of ways this can happen.Having the last bowl in the final end is the better situation when you need a multiple to win or tie.

The opposition has the choice of mat position and can try for a preferred jack length. If the mat is taken up the rink to try for a short jack get ready to ask for a measure to see whether the jack has been rolled the requisite length. An extraordinary outcome would be if your side gets the jack back (if so see the close by blog article).

Another possibility is that they try for a long jack. If you see the opposition placing the mat at the 2 meter line say out loud, “Here comes that long jack.”  The idea is convey the idea that your worst nightmare is a very long jack. Actually, what you would like the opposition to do would be to ditch the jack or throw it out of bounds so your side could choose the mat position and jack length.

Once the mat position and jack length are settled the bowl deliveries begin. Your goal is to be in a position where you can secure the required multiple with your last bowl. Hopefully this can be done with a simple draw but often this will not be enough. If your deliveries are not very close to the jack they should be grouped together and behind the jack. Be particularly careful to get enough length because short bowls most likely won’t finish in the count.

When it comes down to your last bowl you need to:

• Draw to the jack if that will win or tie the end as needed
• Displace an opposition bowl if that will give you the required multiple
• Trail the jack to a grouping of your bowls if that will give you the required multiple
• Knock the jack out of bounds if that will give you the required multiple
• Push the jack into the ditch if that will give you the required multiple

No matter how difficult the shot that will give you the required multiple, there is no point in playing a simpler shot that even if successful will be insufficient.

When You Need a Big End to Win a Set and You have the Mat

 

I am not a fan of set play at lawn bowls. Set play was devised to make the game more suitable for television broadcasting. When there is no such media necessity, I see no reason why we should abandon the traditional 21-up game.

But if the authorities select set play and repotting of any jack out of bounds centered on the forward T, then, strategy should be directed to take advantage of these rules.

At set play, it doesn’t matter by how much you lose a set. When your side is behind by more than 1 point going into the last end you should play to at least tie the set. If you fail it doesn’t matter by how much you lose.

Your object is to get a multiple in the end. To achieve that you need to retain the maximum number of ways this can happen. You have the mat in this scenario but your opposition has the last bowl. Your goal is to have at least the required shots to tie the set when your opponent comes to the mat to deliver that last bowl.

To retain the most chances for this to occur you need a short jack and you need to have the respot position about 2 meters behind this jack. To do this you should place the mat about 5 meters behind the closer hog line and deliver the jack to about 2 meters in front of the forward respot position.

You play the end trying to score in the usual way. If the opposition delivers a very close bowl you should prepare to remove it but you do not need to try the removal immediately. All your side’s bowls need to be behind the jack either scoring or as potential catchers.

The idea is that when your side comes to its final bowl you want to have several alternative plays:

• Draw the shot for the required multiple
• Remove their closest bowl for the required multiple
• Trail the jack for the required multiple
• Knock the jack out of bounds with repotting for the required multiple
• Push the jack into the ditch for the required multiple

No matter how difficult the shot that will give you the required multiple, there is no point in playing a simpler shot that even if successful will be insufficient to win.

Then you must just cross your fingers and hope the opposition's last bowl doesn’t destroy your work.

Remember that if you are playing the first set or if you have already won or tied the first set, all you need is a tie.

The Disadvantages of Lawn Bowling from a Fixed Stance

 

No top-flight lawn bowler that I have seen, either professional or on a national squad, bowls from a fixed stance. By fixed stance, I mean delivering a bowl without taking a step forward of some length- small or large.  This suggests to me that this technique has some inherent disadvantages that cannot be completely overcome even by relentless practice.

Not all bowlers who use a fixed stance exhibit all the disadvantages and all of these bowlers do deliver many excellent shots. The problem comes from the inherent disadvantages of the technique causing increased inconsistency.

The first difficulty is that a fixed stance almost completely curtails the opportunity to contribute the body’s momentum to any shot. Every delivery depends upon arm strength for all the velocity transferred to the bowl. For this reason, extra effort is required to reach long jack placements.

Nevertheless, fixed stance bowlers often have excellent arm strength, so if you are trying to take advantage of this potential problem do it for best results at the end of a match or even better at the end of a full day of bowling.

The second shortcoming of fixed stance bowling is less obvious but cannot be overcome with strength. For a bowler who takes a stride as part of a delivery, the pendulum arc of that bowl has a greater amplitude than for a fixed stance delivery. By this I mean the length of the horizontal traverse of the bowl, from the top of the backswing to the point of release of the bowl from the hand, is longer for the person who takes a step. The increase in horizontal traverse corresponds to the length of the step. The result of this difference is that for any given deviation of the backswing away from the backward extension of the aim line, the error in bowling angle is less for the bowler who steps forward.

The result is that the bowler who takes a step makes smaller errors in the angle of delivery. This difference is most consequential in delivering to short jacks because with the necessarily shortened backswing, any step is a greater part of the horizontal traverse and the step contributes more to overall angle accuracy. So to take advantage of an opponent's fixed-stance delivery deliver short jacks!

I have tried to illustrate this in the Figure above wherein the fixed-stance bowler is right-handed and the stepping bowler left-handed to keep them out of each other's way in the figure. Each is trying to bowl the same line and each has the same magnitude error in the backswings.  

Teaching and Learning Lawn Bowls Badly

I made a mistake this spring when teaching new bowlers how to deliver lawn bowls.

I told them that the only requirement mandated by the Laws of Bowls was that when one released a bowl at least a part of one foot must be on or over the mat. This was true.

I also told them that lawn bowls was a game where consistency determined good performance; that is to say, although anyone, experienced or inexperienced, can occasionally deliver a perfect bowl using any manner of delivery, a simple delivery like we would be teaching, is the easiest to do consistently. Which is also true.

But what I ought to have also said— but failed to say, was that if one doesn’t adopt a delivery style mimicking a top-flight player, the kind one can watch competing on YouTube for example, one’s ability to improve is going to be limited. To put it another way, the reason there are almost no champion players bowling with unusual styles is that, no matter how much these styles are practiced, they have inherent limitations that cannot be overcome.

What I also ought to have said— but didn’t, was that a new bowler should perfect a style that he or she could continue to deliver for an entire bowling career. 

I remember well that I started bowling delivering from a severe crouch. See the blurred image above of me in those days taken from a publicity poster. A coach at the Turramurra Bowls Club in Sydney Australia, where I was spending the winter, asked me, “How long do you plan on playing bowls?”

“’ Til I’m over 90“ I replied.

“Well,” he said, “You're not going to be able to squat like that when you’re 90. Better change it now.”

So, I should teach, and new bowlers should learn, a delivery that will last their entire bowling life!

Getting Your Weight Right: Using the 2/3 Rule at Lawn Bowls

 

Delivering your lawn bowl the same distance as the jack is the most difficult skill in lawn bowls. Visualization of the path that your bowl is going to travel is the most common method taught for achieving this; but, I have found, that most players need about 6 years of experience to get this right.

For new bowlers, I have found a simpler approach called the two-thirds (2/3) rule.

As always the first step is to decide on the correct aim line. The aim line is an imaginary straight line that runs from the center of the front edge of the mat and ends at some spot on or behind the forward ditch. The new step is to focus or stare at (as best you can) a section of that aim line 2/3 of the distance towards the jack. Then deliver your bowl as if trying to roll your bowl over that spot by delivering it down your aim line.

What will happen is that your bowl should travel without much deceleration as far as this stare point, passes it on the inside, and slows down from that point on to arrive at the jack length!

Why this works I have no idea. Perhaps our ancestral caveman intuition for how to throw projectiles controls our muscles once the target is 14-21 meters away. What we do learn from bowling experience is that a well-delivered bowl starts to slow down visibly once it is 2/3 to 3/5 the way towards the jack and continues rolling and curving in towards the target for the last 1/3 to 2/5 of its journey.

The downside of this trick is that you must give up using a stare point at 3-5 meters in front of the mat. As a consequence, it will be harder to recognize when you have chosen an incorrect aim line. 

Suggestions for New Bowlers

 

New bowlers tend to be particularly enthusiastic. They want to know whether their team is doing well and particularly if their bowls are in the count. Consequently, they have a tendency to stand around when measurements are being taken and even an inclination to offer suggestions about what bowls are likely important in the count. This is understandable but is simply not acceptable bowling etiquette. 

Leads are supposed both to keep quiet and to leave the determination of outcomes to others. Instead, get ready with the rake to bring the bowls together for the next end if your side is going to lose the end. The lead on the side winning the end should get the mat ready and be prepared to throw the next jack. I found it useful when playing lead not to worry about the score and just concentrate on my own good bowling.

During every game when I am lead [I play lead in interclub tournaments] I keep a bowl in my hands continuously once the jack is in place until my bowls are finished. That way I am immediately ready to receive instructions from the skip and make my delivery. That way, even if I take more time setting up for my delivery, I don’t unnecessarily slow down the game.

Leads, more than other players, are very often permitted to roll whichever hand they prefer because there are fewer interfering bowls in the head. 

You may have a preference for one hand over the other based simply on a better stare point because of a fortuitously placed inhomogeneity on the rink. 

You should not change hands unless specifically requested by your skip. If there is a bowl that seems to be in the way of the delivery your skip is calling for, shifting the position of your anchor foot on the mat by a few inches can increase the likelihood that your bowl will reach the head and not suffer collision even while not defying your skip.  

Teaching the Correct Bias to Beginners

 I just finished teaching some new bowlers how to deliver lawn bowls at the James Gardens LBC Open House.

I was incorrectly teaching them how to avoid wrong biases and as a result, there are a lot of wrong biases. I was telling them the same thing I was taught 12 years ago. That is “ The small circle needs to be closest to the centre line of the rink.”

This doesn’t work!! The students are confused. I think it would be clearer if we said, “Make sure the bigger emblem on your bowl faces the side of the rink you will be bowling on.” That is, if you are bowling down closer to the left boundary, the big emblem should be on the left; if bowling closer to the right boundary, the big emblem should be on the right.

The boundaries are easier to recognise than the centre line. Particularly because the centre line is not marked in Canada and many other jurisdictions.

Delivering wrong-biased bowls is embarrassing. Let’s make it less likely to happen during these critical moments when new bowlers are deciding whether to take up our game! 

Laser Focus on your Stare Point at Lawn Bowls

 In lawn bowls terminology a stare point is a point on the surface of the lawn bowling rink that is from 3 to 5 meters in front of the front edge of the mat and on the aim line down which a bowl must start to roll to finish close to the target (which is usually the jack).

What does the word ‘stare’ mean? Is it no more than to consistently look in the direction of some object? Is it no more than positioning some target in the center of your visible field?

Well- if that is all staring means then I am not communicating adequately when I advise lawn bowlers to stare at the particular ‘stare point’ over which they wish to roll their lawn bowl. No- I am looking for much more than that. I want the person delivering a lawn bowl to focus his eyes so narrowly that the surrounding square meter of the rink goes out of focus. I am looking for that person to achieve such tunnel vision that if their eyes were shooting a beam of light like a laser they would ignite that spot. Yes- they should be laser-focused!

Why do I say this? Because I find that if you can do this, then you can much more dependably roll your bowl over that exact spot and the bowl so directed will be a better bowl.

The Lead Bowler in Triples

For the lead bowler delivering the first bowl in the end it needs to be emphasized,: line is not the most important concern, weight is.  If you are within three feet on either side of the jack, that is probably not going to get you a reprimand but being three feet short may. What one must emphasize is proper depth and it is your first bowl in the end that is most likely to be wrongly weighted. It is OK to be a yard past the jack and one should err on the side of being that distance past rather than short. Four feet short is a bad bowl; four feet long can be useful for the development of the head. Four feet short cannot be promoted easily so it is likely to stay out of the scoring, since the jack will probably be moved backward during the end. Grassing two bowls three feet past gives the vice and skip some things to work with in developing a scoring situation. A close bowl by a lead in triples rarely survives as the shot bowl. There are too many good bowlers to follow and a bowl close to the jack makes an excellent target for run-through shots. Even if both of the opposition lead’s bowls are 1^st and 2^nd shot, your side’s situation is not too bad so long as your bowls are behind the jack!  

True Shoulder & Imaginary Shoulder at Lawn Bowls

The true shoulder in a lawn bowl’s delivery is that point on the path of the lawn bowl at which it is furthest displaced from the center line. This is the point at which it ceases moving towards the rink boundary and starts returning towards center rink. A perfectly delivered bowl actually rolls over the point that is this ‘true shoulder.’

The imaginary shoulder is that spot on your aim line that is the same distance down the rink as the true shoulder. The imaginary shoulder is the stare point one aims at when preparing to deliver a bowl from the mat.

This distinction had never been taught to me. The difference is taught in the following reference.

https://www.wivenhoebowls.club/bowls-tactics/

Heretofore, I have been taking as my stare point an imaginary spot on my imaginary aim line from 3 to 5 meters in front of the mat line. I had been disregarding every teaching that one should choose as stare point the [true] shoulder of your imagined delivery path because I realized that doing so would cause narrow bowling. Choosing as stare point the imaginary shoulder, however, is consistent with theory and needs to be considered seriously.

Taking the imaginary shoulder as one’s stare point has the advantage that it keeps the jack in your field of vision, makes visualization of the complete bowl’s path top of mind and so possibly improves weight control. 

Who is the Greatest Lawn Bowler Ever?

A popular choice would be David Bryant.

What is interesting to me about this, is that from everything I have observed in my 12 years playing bowls in Canada, the USA, Portugal, Malaysia, and Australia I have never seen a single bowler who has modeled his/her delivery style after him. Neither have I ever found a book recommending his form or met a coach teaching his style.

The reason for this becomes apparent if you try to imitate. To achieve it would require you to have the skill of a gymnast!  

If you have never seen David Bryant bowl, there is a famous YouTube video of his world championship match against Chok at

 

youtube.com/watch?v=HtLLDKIhQ7M&t=169s 

As you can see David Bryant squats on the mat to take his aim line. He then delivers his bowl not by lowering his body from an erect position but as he rises from his squat. He then takes a substantial step forward and releases his bowl substantially further ahead of this stepping foot. Then finally in his follow through he raises his anchor foot completely off but high above the mat! All these features seem to me to be unique.

The Strategy of Really Long Ends at Lawn Bowls

In the northern hemisphere, on slow rinks, the most frequently adopted strategy in lawn bowling contests is to deliver very long jacks when the opposing team seems to prefer something shorter. 

Even so many bowlers underestimate the effectiveness of this strategy because they do not realize how dramatically the average bowler’s line control falls off as the jack length increases. As jack length trends towards full length each additional meter of length is responsible for a greater and greater decline in accuracy. 

That is to say, many bowlers underestimate the significance of jack length because they confuse ‘longish ends’ with ‘really long ends’. I would characterize ‘really long ends’ as being only those within 1 meter or less of full length (T to T).  It is on these ‘really long ends’ that the performance of many bowlers falls off precipitously.

“Aha,” you may say, “but to gain the advantage you claim, your lead must be able to consistently deliver these ‘really long jacks.’ “

“Well,” I say, “practice it.”

 Delivering a small white ball to within 3 meters of the forward ditch without any substantial need for line control is really not very hard for anyone. Besides, all that happens if your side does ditch the jack is that the other side gets their chance, and from what I have seen they don’t pay much attention to their delivery at all!

So the situation is this. You get a chance to deliver the jack for a ‘really long end’ for which your side has trained or is naturally advantaged. If you succeed in getting the jack you desire, you are odds on to win the end and furthermore you retain the jack. On the other hand, if your side makes a mistake rolling the jack it suffers no significant penalty!

Where can you find odds like that?