I was bowling in one of the district playdowns last week in Toronto, and sitting at the table next to me in the clubhouse, a coach from the Canadian National Bowls team was telling some competitors whom she was coaching to visualize the path of their contemplated delivery and not to deliver the bowl until this was clear in their minds.
This got me thinking: could a person improve performance simply by taking 25-30 seconds to prepare for each delivery?
This would provide sufficient time for multiple visualizations that would move one’s gaze back and forth between a stare point (say at 3-5 meters in front of the mat) and the jack.
Doing this as part of a delivery routine would very likely dramatically improve proper concentration, and that would provide benefits to all the players with less than perfect discipline.
I would add that they should not do the visualizations on the mat in their bowling stance because there is a strong tendency to stiffen up and bowl short if you stand for too long on the mat. Seven seconds on the mat is about the maximum to avoid tensing up.
ReplyDeleteYes-- quite right, Ralph.
DeleteI move my gaze back and forth a couple of times between the stare point and the imagined shoulder (with the jack in my peripheral vision). I agree that you don’t want any more than 7-10 secs on the mat. Most important is that your pre shot is consistent each time.
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