Setting Up for Your First Bowl of an End at Lawn Bowls

 

Lawn Bowls is not like the winter sport of curling. The target is not a constant distance from the position one takes for each delivery. The target is not a bullseye painted on ice. The jack can be delivered any length between 23 and, on some rinks, 30 meters.

After you have delivered your first bowl in any end, your subsequent task is to correct line and weight based on that first result. Your first bowl in an end, however, has nothing to guide it except perhaps the fate of an opposition bowl played in front of you.

Of all the bowls you deliver this first bowl requires the most painstaking visualization of its contemplated path from your hand at the mat to the target position in the head. Because of this extra care visualizing, this first bowl of yours requires a bit more time preparation in your set up. 

Do not be rushed! I recommend at least twice tracing in your mind’s eye the contemplated path from hand to jack. The result, I predict, will be superior weight control.