About Bowling Round the Clock at Lawn Bowls

‘Bowling round the clock’ means always delivering one’s bowl either forehand or backhand. This results in bowling one side of the rink for the odd ends and the other side of the rink for the even ends.

Many lawn bowls instruction or coaching materials discourage this practice. For example:

Do not play “around the clock”, …. the variation does not allow the greatest consistency, and the team will be disadvantaged, and head-building will be adversely affected.

After the first two or three ends, choose the side of the rink that is playing evenly in pace and green, and thus gain a tactical advantage over an opponent who bowls “around the clock”.

It is not recommended to bowl “around the clock”….  as the grass is usually different on each side and so too can be the pace.

You should avoid playing “around the clock,” …. because this promotes inconsistency as you are effectively playing both sides instead of the most favorable one.

 

None of this makes any sense at all to me. A lawn bowling rink might be tilted or flat. It might play to an even weight on both sides or be different in this respect. It might have ridges that disturb bowls in some locations and not others. But whatever its characteristics, your starting assumption should always be that for odd ends it will play in some characteristic fashion and for even ends in another characteristic fashion.  You will be better off to take as your starting hypothesis that you are playing on two separate rinks; one in a first direction and a second in the second direction.

Your proper challenge is to find, as quickly as possible, which side is best for the odd ends and which side is best for the even ends. Then, whether it results in playing one side of the rink preponderantly or playing ‘round the clock’ more often, that should become your tactical choice. 

 

What a Left-handed Lawn Bowler Should Consider

A left-handed lawn bowler has some advantages. Such persons mostly competes against right-handed opposition. Right-handed players much less frequently face a left-handed bowler. For the left-handed player the situation is regular. For the right-hander facing a left-hander is not the 

norm. This has at least two strategic implications.

First: when the left-hander is required to bowl before a right-handed opponent, at the beginning of a game on an unfamiliar rink or at an unfamiliar length during a match, he or she can stand on the mat so that the opponent cannot follow the same line. To do this the left-handed bowler takes a position at the left-most edge of the mat so that the delivery line passes through the back left corner of the mat for a forehand and over the front left corner for a backhand. These positions are illustrated in the figure above.

 Second: if a right-handed opponent delivers a back-hand draw and encounters a run in the green that causes that bowl to back-up, The left-handed bowler delivering a fore-hand (for that bowler) is likely to suffer the same fate because the handed-bowler will be delivering a bowl most likely wider than the opponent’s and that bowl is likely to encounter the same ridge in the green (the left side of the top figure). There is, therefore, a strong incentive to change hands.

If it is a forehand that the right-handed opponent has delivered and that has backed up, the left-handed bowler can be somewhat less worried. Because the left-hander’s bowl can be delivered closer to the centre-line, it is less likely to get caught on the outside of the ridge and directed away from its normal path (the right side of my topmost figure). There is still some risk to staying on the same hand, but it is less. That bowl may be able to draw inside the ridge.

Notice that a ridge only causes a problem in the portion of the rink where a bowl is slowing down. Ridges in the portion of a rink closest to the mat do not appreciably change the path of a bowl because, at the outset of its travel, a bowl has enough momentum to push across a ridge with little distortion of its path. It is when a bowl is slowing down and curving in towards the jack that a ridge can cause a substantial disturbance. 

When to Change the Length and Mat Position at Lawn Bowls

 

Sometimes you will be playing other singles players or other teams that completely outclass you or yours. I acknowledge that in these cases, there is no tactical move that can realistically win for you. In that situation ( on the rare ends when the option is yours ), choose the jack length and mat position most comfortable for your side and try to make the head tight by executing your best deliveries.

BUT- when the game is competitive; that is, when there is no more than four points dividing the teams, stick to your predetermined strategic plan for the match unless your side observes something in the opponent’s game that suggests an even better plan.

HOWEVER in a close match, if your side falls behind by five points or more after at least three ends, if you do not change jack length, mat position, or both, when you get mat possession, you are not doing everything possible to win your match, and you deserve to lose!

Do you think this is obvious? But I see it all the time with teams of club bowlers and in inter-club matches. Players know they can change the mat position. They know they should carefully deliver the jack to a preferred length. But they doggedly keep sending medium-length jacks from the two-meter mark until the almost inevitable loss is consummated!

The Case For Dead or 'Burnt' Ends at Lawn Bowls

Before the advent of televised lawn bowls, the rules allowed for what were called ‘dead’ ends. If at any point during the delivery phase of the end, the jack was knocked out of bounds, then play stopped, all the bowls and the jack were taken back, and the end replayed from the beginning. Whichever side possessed the mat in the dead end, retained the mat.

Such was the accuracy of the world’s best bowlers that this made matches among them of completely unpredictable duration. Many ends were ‘burnt’ and had to be replayed and towards the finish of a match an end might be ‘killed’ over and over.  This was called burning or killing the end and it made televising lawn bowls impossible because producers could not even approximately predict what time allotment they should schedule for a match.

Because elite lawn bowlers wanted their matches popularized by television, lawn bowling authorities changed the rules, for the most part eliminating dead ends. Henceforth, if a jack was driven out of bounds rules required that it be replaced at a designated spot on the rink and play was continued.

Because amateur sports enthusiasts generally try to play the same way as the best in their sport, clubs started adopting this same ‘no dead end’ practice even though the necessity of meeting the demands of television did not apply for them. 

I will argue here that this rule change has had some negative and unintended consequences and that burning or killing an end should be restored to the game whenever mass broadcasting is not an issue. In the case of tournament play, where games cannot be unduly prolonged for the sake of overall tournament scheduling, each team should be entitled to a small fixed number of burnt ends per match. I propose that two burnt ends be allowed per team/per match.

Why should we go back to allowing dead ends at all?

First: Allowing burnt ends permits a tactic that enables competitors who are on the verge of losing a match to preserve a chance to recover. No team will have realistically lost until its last bowl has been delivered because with that last bowl the end could be burnt and the entire end replayed. This increases the suspense in the lawn bowling sport and enables more games to be close games.

Second: The best defences against opponents burning an end thereby preserving their chances to come back and win are:

• delivering long jacks from a mat at the back T ( harder to be accurate over a longer distance ) and
• delivering short jacks that get spotted on the forward T ( the jack is more likely to be knocked into the forward ditch than go out the side of the rink )

These defences require that leads be able to deliver the jack an accurate length without ditching the jack. This means more skill is required to bowl well. The game becomes more challenging- more fun.

 Third: Returning the most aggressive shot in lawn bowls to the game instantly makes it more attractive to younger more athletic players. Aren’t these the very people we have been wishing would be more attracted to our game? 

Why Top Bowlers Tuck in One Knee During their Delivery?

 

For the past dozen years, when I looked at pictures of the top professional lawn bowlers delivering lawn bowls, I was mystified as to why they tucked the knee of their anchor leg (the one that stayed at the mat) behind the knee of their stepping leg (the leg that moves forward as they deliver a bowl). Then one day recently, while I was practising my delivery motion (without a bowl!!) in the hall of my condominium in Portugal, I found myself doing it.

Why was I now doing this? Let’s see whether you would also. 

Stand with one foot on an imaginary mat, with that foot at 45 degrees to the proposed line of delivery (as in the shooter’s stance). The line of delivery should run about 5 inches from the toe of your anchor foot.

The heel of your stepping foot should be level with the toes of your anchor foot, but about a foot away from the aim line. Your weight is essentially completely on your anchor foot. The stepping foot is only touching the ground for balance. The toe of your stepping foot should be pointing towards a spot on your aim line about 3 to 5 meters in front of you.

Rest your non-bowling hand gently on the thigh of your stepping leg.

Now slowly pull your bowling arm back along the aim line like it is a pendulum holding an imaginary bowl, and then step forward a foot towards that stare point on the aim line. Now, let your arm containing the imaginary bowl hang down beside the advanced stepping foot. When I do this, my hand is still a couple of inches above the ground. 

Now I lower my body to bring my hand to the ground. How do I do this lowering?  To my amazement, I do it automatically by tucking the knee of my anchor leg in behind the knee and ankle of my stepping leg. 

Why had I not recognised this before? The answer— because I was not lowering my body enough— I was dumping my bowl these last centimetres onto the green. Most top bowls delivered their bowls right onto the ground and they achieve this by tucking in that knee!!

Playing 4-3-2-1 to Win

 

The lawn bowling clubs I belong to in Canada have special events called Pizza & Play where the bowling is exclusively the 4-3-2-1 variety. I rarely participate. I find it too simple tactically. However, if one decides to play one needs to understand that the strategy for winning is different.

In regular lawn bowls a person or a team must have the single best bowl ( called ‘shot’ ) in each end to score any points at all. As a consequence, obtaining the shot bowl is absolutely essential. It is the only priority. Playing 4-3-2-1, one is awarded 4 points for that best bowl but also 3 points for second best, 2 points for third best, and 1 point for fourth best. In other words one can score (3+2+1= 6 points) even when you do not deliver the traditional shot bowl.

Because scoring the shot bowl is so essential to the regular lawn bowls games, particular bowl placements are designed to protect a shot bowl (blockers, catchers, back bowls) and other deliveries are designed to disrupt  the nearest bowl placement (overweight shots, drives). 

Playing 4-3-2-1 is essentially a game whose outcome depends on the precision of one’s draw shot. Every delivery has a single goal, getting close to the jack. There is no necessary need to have the closest bowl; the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th closest can accumulate enough points for you to win. There is no need to defend the show bowl or attack a shot bowl. There is no need to worry about displacing your own shot bowl. Just keep smoothly drawing to the jack- delivery after delivery.

Enjoy any pizza. Enjoy the socializing. But don’t confuse it with practice.

A Strategy for Fours (Rinks) at Lawn Bowls

 Playing fours gives each member of the team just two bowls. This presents a unique opportunity because every bowls set comes with four identical bowls. Only two sets of bowls can outfit an entire team. Lead and second could have identical bowls and Third and skip could have identical bowls.

How would this be advantageous? Each set of partners playing with identical bowls could gain better information from watching the other’s deliver result. For example, the person playing second by watching the leader’s bowls could get more perfect knowledge concerning what line to play. A skip moving to the mat could get better advice from the vice who just delivered two bowls that perfectly match those two remaining to be played.

The disadvantage is obvious. Two of the four players would be using bowls that they had no experience with. Also it would be particularly problematic when the two players preferred different sizes or weights for their bowls. Even with identical bowls left handed and a right handed players could not precisely reproduce each others deliveries; try as they might.

Nevertheless, with a little forethought the disadvantages could be minimized. For example, a team could first practice using only two sets of bowls. It’s a novel idea worth considering. 

When Winning in the Last End Cover Your Opponent’s Bowls

Eric Galipeau, a club-mate of mine, playing in the indoor world championship at Potters lost a singles match because he failed to “cover’ his opponent’s bowls in the final end of a set. This is the most dramatic example of this situation that I have ever seen and the shot that beat him was extraordinarily good!

It is a textbook example of the need to cover opposing bowls at the end of  game you are winning. The relevant end starts at  1:29:14 in the video against Z. Hadar which can be found by searching:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h09UQar6HRE&t=4978s

 

Why are the Lawn Bowls Delivered by Club Players Predominantly Short?

Keep track of the numbers yourself or simply observe a typical head. Club level players deliver bowls, mostly finish short of the jack. Is there a reason for this? Is there a cure for it? 

Despite what the manufacturer of Aero Bowls says, no bowl travels in an arc that resembles the Sydney bridge! Lawn bowls have a substantial hook  towards the end of their  travel; the less bias the lawn bowl has, the less hook at the end, but a hook is still there.  Furthermore, viewing the jack from the mat, it is the last few yards of its proposed travel that are most difficult to visualize. As a consequence, our mind’s eye simplifies things and imagines that portion of the trip as just a smooth extension of the earlier part of the path. And we estimate too short!!! The hook shortens the the last bit of distance the bowl travels down the rink.

Is there a solution for average bowlers that a skip can implement? I think there is. Place your foot about 1meter behind the jack and ask your team members to bowl to your shoe as the target. Then those bowls will finish on average longer and the number of long bowls will more nearly equal the short bowls.

Both Being Polite and Getting Useful Practice Playing ‘Social’ Bowls: Delivering Short Jacks Near the Ditch

Successful lawn bowling clubs have regular roll ups where, because the teams are drawn randomly, players who only dabble at bowls can play with and against dedicated bowlers who most often compete in tournaments.

Some of these social-only bowlers may not be able to deliver a bowl with any kind of accuracy the full length of the rink. Indeed, it is only on the shortest jacks that they can usefully participate. Therefore more skilled bowlers who are also thoughtful and polite try to keep the jack length short; however, this means that this time, which could be practice time, is not well spent.

An answer for this situation is at hand but in my experience few avail it. Bring the mat up the rink to 2 meters short of the nearest hog line and deliver jacks to within 4 meters of the forward ditch. This will give jack lengths of between 23 and 25 meters. Furthermore, it will provide practice playing on a part of the rink and at a length that is used infrequently. Furthermore, the skilled player who practices for tournaments should play lead and thereby getting practice delivering the jack consistently over this shorter distance.

A useful skill is practiced while showing consideration for all the bowlers.

Place the Mat Carefully

 

One of my pet peeves is that most social lawn bowlers, not to mention a great many who play in small local tournaments, never move the mat. Real tyro bowlers may not even know that the mat is allowed to be moved! The result is that the area at the edge of the green near the ditches gets seriously worn, often to the point that the green slopes significantly towards the ditches; so much so that in some instances neither the jack nor any bowls can come to rest in that area. They may just roll off into the ditch. (This was true at the now-defunct green of the Balaia Bowls Club in Portugal’s Algarve.)

Furthermore, positioning the mat with the mat line (the edge of the mat closest to the forward ditch) on the 2 metre line has a risk that you need to be aware of. If by accident the mat line is placed even a few millimetres short of that two metre distance and the jack is delivered, and then the opposing side draws attention to this before the first bowl is delivered, then Rule 6.1.3 of The Laws of the Sport of Bowls Crystal Mark 4 states:

6.1.3 If, after the jack has been delivered but before the first bowl is delivered, a player or the marker finds that the mat line has not been positioned within the distances described in law 6.1.1, the opposing player must place the mat as described in law 6.1.1 and re-deliver the jack, making sure that it is centred, but the opposing player must not play first

That is to say, the side that does not have the mat will get the mat and can deliver the jack that side’s preferred length!

What does this mean in practice for your own game? First thing- even if you, as a skip, strategically or tactically want long jacks, your lead should always place the mat line at least a few centimetres in front of the 2 metre mark on the rink. You don’t want to lose possession of the mat, precisely when you judge it most important to have it.

Second thing- when you are at the other end of the rink directing the play, you will not know the exact position of the mat. When the game is sufficiently important, and the situation is sufficiently critical, you need to have taught another member of your team to call out the misplaced mat after the jack has been delivered but before the first bowl has been delivered.

Notice that if your side draws attention to a mispositioned mat before the jack is delivered, all that happens is that the mat is placed properly, and play continues. If attention to an improperly placed mat is only after the first bowl is rolled, there is no penalty at all. It is only when the objection comes after the jack is rolled but before the first bowl is delivered that the other side gets to deliver the jack their chosen length.

WARNING: Do not exercise this rule in a social game or in any situation where there is no umpire. You will be correct in calling upon this law, but you will not be appreciated. Furthermore, in the absence of an experienced umpire, your claim will just be ignored. 

Alternatively, perhaps we could warn everyone about this rule. It might scare people into moving the mat up the green more often and give the grass a rest! 

 

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.

A Tactic at Lawn Bowling Triples When Your Vice Can’t Get the Right Weight

The Greenbowler blog has regularly expressed a preference for playing your second-best player and, wishfully, your best draw bowler in the lead position. When this is the choice you have made, you probably have a lead who is also able to deliver a jack within a meter or two of where the skip asks.

A situation can sometimes arise when really no player on the rink is bowling particularly well, with the effect that each side is winning its share of ends. What you sense is holding you back from moving in front in the game is that your vice is all over the place with respect to weight control. You feel that if your vice could get some bowls decently close to the jack, it would make a consequential difference.

The skip will have been noticing how far down the rink these vice—delivered bowls predominantly finish, and when in possession of the mat, he/she can indicate to the lead to deliver the jack to that length. This is an instance of using jack length to support the member of your own team experiencing the most difficulty. Often, this required jack length will be an intermediate length because that is often the vice’s natural length.

This use of jack length contrasts with the more common ones I usually recommend, whereby I call for very short or very long jacks to try to interrupt superior play by the other side that is defeating, to that point, your best efforts. 

My Nomination for Best Bowls Game Ever

 

Great ends from 15-19

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qs7peI7nTTc&t=1s

Watch the Grass an Opposing Lawn Bowler Takes in the First Two Ends

 

In Canada, whether in open tournaments or club rollups, there are no practice ends. Consequently, at the start of play, lead bowlers have no evidence upon which to assess the correct grass for their first deliveries in the first two ends. Even so, more often than not, I see the lead given the advantage of playing the second bowl, paying no attention to the line taken by that opponent who is required to play first. Sitting on the bench, chit-chatting with other bowlers, arranging the bowls in neat lines, polishing bowls, or wetting a bowl’s cloth; all of these are more frequently witnessed than a lead who conscientiously stands a few meters behind the bowler on the mat and carefully notes that opponent’s aim line and that bowl’s finishing position, to learn from it.

Yes— different makes of bowls have different biases, but no rule forbids one from learning the model and the manufacturer of your opponent’s bowls. If this can not be interpreted at your stage of experience, your skip can tell you whether the player whose position opposes yours has wider or narrower bowls than yours. Furthermore, on slow greens, like we too often encounter in Canada, the aim line will not vary a whole lot among makes. 

With proper attention, the lead, who bowls second, should more often than not, outperform with the first bowl in either of the first or second ends!  

A Bold Lawn Bowling Strategy

A sports strategy is a plan that can be made before a sports competition begins. It is not determined by the fine details of a particular match situation. This latter is the business of tactics.

I propose that a team ( let us consider a pairs team ) decide that when it has possession of the mat during a match, it will place the mat at the closer hog line and deliver a jack that gets centred on the forward T. 

The end is played tactically from that point on. If the end is won, the same strategy is repeated in the next end. If the end is lost, the side attempts to recover the mat and restart its strategy. The strategy tries to force the opponents to play a game with a fixed minimum jack length and a dead bowl line 2 meters behind the jack.

The idea upon which the strategy is based is that there will be an advantage in playing a game the details of which your side has practiced much more than the opposition and which has some features distinctly different from the standard bowls contest.

To be successful in the execution, the lead must be accomplished at rolling the jack reproducibly 21-23 meters. This seems like a tall order, but it is a precise challenge that can be practiced by borrowing a box of 16 jacks from the clubhouse.

Why should this strategy work?

 

In Canada, the minimum jack length is 21 meters; in most other countries, the minimum distance is 23 meters. First, few other teams practice bowling either 21 or 23-meter ends from a mat at the hog line.

According to bowls.co.uk, “At the beginning of the first end, the mat is placed lengthwise on the centre line of the rink, the back edge to be four feet from the ditch.” I can find no official evidence for this purported rule. There is no such requirement in the Laws of Sport of Bowls, Crystal Mark 4. Consequently, this is no longer required. The lead in the first end can place the mat anywhere from T to the closest hog line. The strategy proposed can be applied from end 1, so if the toss is won, you can take the mat and move it forward!

What is so different about playing this short game?

The re-spot position is identical to the initial spot for the jack. Putting the jack cleanly out of bounds will get it returned to the position from which it came!

Knocking the jack out of bounds is extremely unlikely; unless given a sharply glancing blow, the jack will end up live in the ditch. 

The team using this strategy should have learned to deliver the more accurate running bowl (since this is a more accurate delivery than a drive, with the best chance of ditching the jack), and this shot also provides the best chance to drive an opposing shot bowl into the ditch, where it will be dead. 

If the jack makes it to the ditch, the area available for the opposition to draw their own shot bowl is only half as big as usual. This is because the available area is only a semicircle around the jack. When the jack is in the ditch, placing a shot bowl behind the jack is not available.

 It is almost guaranteed that some deliveries will finish in the ditch as dead bowls. If the opposition does manage to deliver the shot bowl, your side has available the running shot to cancel it.

The probability of a rebounding bowl is much greater, and a rebounding toucher is live: 17.2.3.

The probability of a jack rebounding onto the rink is much higher, and a rebounding jack is live: 21.1.

Many more dispositions of bowls near the jack will constitute a target for a running shot because the depth of the head can be no more than 2 meters, so the gaps between bowls, or between a bowl and the jack, will be effectively smaller. A running shot is more likely to hit something.

Paul Foster bowls all his deliveries with the form required to deliver a runner; no backswing and a big forward step. In a famous open singles match, he came from behind in the last two ends by moving the mat up to the hog line and delivering a minimum length jack. You can see this starting at about the 1:17:02 mark in the online video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3VEGkkHgZ6o

Rule About Standing in the Head

A question arose during a club match. Where could the skip of the team not in possession of the rink stand? There was no disagreement that such skip should be required to move if so requested by the bowler on the mat. Rule 13.4 forbids the players in possession of the rink from being interfered with, annoyed, or distracted in any way by their opponents. The question was whether the person directing the head and whose side was in possession of the mat could require the opposing directing person to move entirely away from the side of the rink where the planned bowl was going to be delivered even in the absence of a request from the person on the mat. Is that skip’s personal feeling of annoyance, interference, or distraction encompassed by this rule? On that precise point it would probably take an actual umpire to decide! 

But what is indisputable is that a skip, that is not controlling play, because he/she is not in possession of the rink, must be behind the jack. This is established in rule  12.1.2.1.

12.1.2.1  Players at the head-end of the rink and who are not controlling play must stand: behind the jack and away from the head if they are members of the team which is not in possession of the rink.

There might be a question of what ‘behind the jack’ means. Rule 12.1.3 assists in assigning a meaning by specifying what ‘behind the jack’ does not mean: it is not “either level with or in front of the jack.” 

• 12.1.3  As soon as a bowl is delivered, a player who is controlling play from a position that is either level with or in front of the jack, must take their position as described in law 12.1.2.1. 

So behind the jack does not mean directly behind ( as in parallel with the centre line). It means beyond the jack and closer to the front ditch than the jack.

The next point at issue is what precisely “away from the head” means.

Since the definition of ‘head’ in the Laws of Bowls Mark 4 Edition is “the jack and any bowls which have come to rest within the boundaries of the rink of play and are not dead” it seems likely that all portions of the rink (i) short of whichever live bowl rests closest to the front ditch and (ii) between the left-most and right-most live bowls, would be part of the head. 

Thus, the person who is currently directing play could require that all members of the opposing team be outside of, and not obscuring, any part of this defined ‘head.’  Thus it becomes an act of generosity and sportsmanship if that person allows any opponent, including the opponent who in turn directs the head, to stand immediately behind him/ her and inside the head!

So the skip ( or designated directing player) not in possession of the mat should follow any requests of the opposing skip. Otherwise, the Laws of the Sport of Bowls, strictly interpreted, could move him/her much further away! 

Helping a Teammate without saying a Word

I think it is bad form to offer another player advice during a roll-up game of bowls. But sometimes it is possible to improve a person’s performance without saying a word.

Recently, I was skipping in a game of drawn triples. I had no knowledge about my other team members. In fact, I hadn’t ever met them. In the first end, I signalled my lead to deliver forehand and he brought his hand across his body in the follow through and the bowl almost left the rink after it cut across the centre line. This was repeated twice more, even though I was giving him grass with an allowance for this difficulty.

I never signalled for another forehand the whole rest of the match— always backhand, no matter what the situation in the head. Intuitively, people do not bring their arm across when bowling backhand. His weight was good, and he made a significant contribution in the remainder of the game!

Only afterwards did I tell him what he needed to fix on his forehand.

Take the Full 30 Seconds

 

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.

Another Reason to Move the Mat

 

James Gardens Lawn Bowling Club has an outdoor sand-filled carpet. This is the second season of play since its installation and much of the fine whitish sand has worked its way into the carpet fibers as they are supposed to; however, most bowlers release their bowls slightly above the carpet surface and this leaves a series of dots where the bowl has bounced ever so slightly. This is caused by the re-emergence of sand where the bowl hits. The result is that one can see clearly the track of a prior bowl.

A first bowler who finds a good line gives away that line to the opposing bowler who bowls next. Furthermore, subsequent bowlers are gifted with increasingly well-marked paths on both forehand and backhand.

The remedy is to move the mat so that these paths no longer apply.

Only a small forward or backward change will do the job while leaving plenty of marks from the previous bowling to obscure the correct line.