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!