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!