Minimizing a Partner’s Delivery Shortcomings without Teaching

 

As is appropriate, most lawn bowling advice concerns how one can improve one’s own performance. It is usually regarded as poor form to try to teach during an actual match. Still, a discerning skip can improve the performance of another team member by choosing conditions that minimize that person’s shortcomings.

An exemplary situation arose recently. I was playing in a pairs match with a relatively new bowler, and I observed that she was experiencing difficulty with her line on short jacks. The reason was that while she maintained the same length of backswing for all her deliveries, she was cutting off her follow-through and dumping her bowl, trying to take weight off her deliveries to short and medium jacks.

“When we get the jack back,” I told her as we changed ends mid-game, “throw long jacks; not medium-long, but really long. I’ll be standing on the forward T. Don’t worry about putting the jack in the ditch.” 

What I had seen was that when playing to long jacks, her follow-through was complete because she was trying to transfer the necessary weight, and that might solve her line control difficulty.

Well, my partner didn’t put the jack in the ditch; she did get it close to the forward T; and she did follow with a good number of bowls close to the jack so that we upped our game and won the match! 

How to Determine which is the Flatter Part of the Green, on the forehand or the backhand?

When you are assigned a rink to play a match you will be able to detect visually whether the playing surface is smooth. What will not be obvious is whether the areas to the left and to the right are equally level. Usually they are not the same. That is why the bowling angle (the bias) may not be the same on each hand.

If practice ends are permitted there is a method to test and find which side of the rink is the closest to being level. Here is how it is done.

With your first practice bowl, with the small ring pointing to the left, deliver the bowl as close as possible down the centre line. The bowl will curve to the left and finish closer to the left boundary (#1 in the figure).

With your second bowl deliver it with the bias towards the centre line and an aim line directed precisely towards where the first bowl finished. If the green on the left side is essentially flat, this second bowl will draw back almost exactly to the centre line (#2 in the figure).

Your third and fourth bowls are played towards the right side of the rink in the corresponding way ( #3 and #4 in the figure). If the green on the left side is essentially flat, the second bowl will draw back to the centre line. If the left and right sides of the green are both essentially flat, bowls two and four will both have curved back and will have finished close to the centre line. In the figure the green on the left side must be essentially flat but on the right side it seems to indicating that it slopes down and away from the centre line.

Usually the flatter side of the rink is the most dependable hand to prefer in your play on but the other hand is by no means unplayable, it just requires more trials to discover the proper aim line.