The Usefulness of Moving Your Set Position On the Mat

 

What is the effect of moving on the mat and making the exact same delivery on a perfectly homogeneous and perfectly flat surface?

An assumption in this analysis is that one can repeat a delivery with exactly the same angle with respect to the center line and with exactly the same velocity. 

If your standard stare point is a spot on the forward bank you cannot use this technique.  Moving on the mat can have only a random effect. Your eyes are not good enough to change your aim point by such a small amount at such a great distance. 

If you are a bowler whose stare point is a physical discontinuity in the bowling surface between 3 and 5  meters in front of the mat, it is theoretically possible to effect a useful change in the finishing location of your bowl.

Suppose you move your anchor foot position 6 inches to the right in a horizontal direction with respect to the front edge of the mat while leaving unchanged the vertical location of your anchor foot. You then select a new stare point precisely six inches to the right of the first one at exactly the same distance in front of the mat line.

The original stare point, the new stare point, the new toe position of your anchor foot, and the old toe position of your anchor foot will now form the four vertices of a narrow parallelogram on the rink surface.

Now, so long as the bowl’s arc and your weight are the same as for the first delivery and so long as you exactly roll the bowl over your new stare point and have the exact same weight, then so long as the rink is perfectly homogeneous and perfectly flat this second bowl will finish 6 inches horizontal distance to the right of your first delivery. 

What this exercise leads one to conclude is that moving on the mat may be an effective strategy for a bowler that sets a stare point closer to the mat but will be futile for someone who aims with respect to a spot on the forward ditch!  

The Delivery at Lawn Bowls: Creating a Distinct Stare Point on your Aim Line

Apparently, most bowlers choose their aim line by looking for an aim point on or behind the forward bank. I also gauge the bias for my delivery using such a distant point, but then I go further and imagine a line from that point back to the centre of the mat and choose as my stare point a spot on that imaginary line about 5 metres in front of the mat line. I do this so that when I release my bowl I can clearly see whether I have managed to roll my bowl over that chosen stare point or whether I have been either wide or narrow of it. Based on where my bowl ends up I then know, when it is an unacceptable result, whether that poor result arose because I missed my stare point or alternatively because my stare point was itself just incorrect!

This post is directed to those who use a stare point that is close to the mat like I do. 

I have found that my consistency in rolling my bowl over a stare point about 5 metres in front of the mat line is improved if there is a real visible mark at that spot. A well-maintained green does not have many clearly visible marks on it; however, there are two ways that even a single mark on the rink can be used.

First, if there is a mark about 5 metres out but it does not fall on your aim line, moving your foot position on the mat can sometimes bring that spot onto your aim line and it can become your stare point. This is illustrated by (A) in the Figure.

The second method is more flexible. Suppose you can see a clearly visible mark on the green but it is too far forward to work as your stare point. When you get possession of the mat you can move the mat so that this visible stare point, your aim point on or beyond the front ditch, and the centre of the mat line fall on a straight line. This is illustrated by (B) in the Figure.

Using one of these tricks can make your stare point visible.

Changing Mat Position and Jack Length at Bowls

Which rink am I playing on?

Here are what I think are the key points concerning changing the mat location along with changing the jack length. Some of these assessments may be controversial. That is what the comment section is for.

⦁ If you are the lead, let your skip know if you are comfortable with moving the mat and changing lengths
⦁ Changing mat position and length in pairs, triples, and fours games is mainly used to help your lead outdraw the counterparty
⦁ Never change a winning trend….. always a losing one. Winning the last end does not constitute a trend.
⦁ If you need to change, change the mat position and length at the same time.
⦁ If it upsets the opposition more than it upsets your side, it is working!
⦁ Particularly when using a nonstandard mat position, visualize the path of your bowl before delivery.
⦁ Your initial delivery line at a new mat position should be parallel to the line you would have taken from a mat on the 2-meter mark; that is, your aim point on the bank gets narrower as you move the mat forward.
⦁ After your first delivery from this new mat position adjust your line; the rink is not flat and you are bowling across different ground.
⦁ If you get possession of the mat and need two or more points in the upcoming end, change the mat position. Although, the change may be just as likely to lose you two or more points as win them, if you must have more than a single you should risk it. 
⦁ If you are taking the mat well up the rink and plan to play a short end with a less experienced lead, place the mat two meters short of the hog line and call for the jack two meters from the front ditch. This gives your lead the greatest leeway to deliver an acceptable jack.

Moving the Mat at Bowls

Walk along behind the rinks at your local club. More likely than not most of the mats being played from are set within two feet of the T line. In almost every one of those matches one team is losing (ties excepted). In quite a few, one team is losing by more than three shots.  Why haven’t these skips started looking for a change that can turn their fortunes around? Yes, you can change the length without moving the mat but remember that when you are losing, you may not get that many chances to control the mat. Why not introduce two changes in one end? If you can turn it around you won’t be able to tell which change worked for you or whether it was the combination but we aren’t running a clinical trial here. You are just trying everything to give yourself a chance to win.

If a team loses badly and the skip has not taken every opportunity to alter the conditions of play by changing length and moving the mat, the loss should be charged to the skip. It is my opinion that when a skip falls behind by three or more shots, (s)he should make some change when the mat is regained.

What do you think?

Lawn Bowling Tactics; Moving the Ground Sheet- Moving the Mat

At some lawn bowling clubs in Canada, groundsheets are permanently put down at the mat end of the rink except for special championship matches. The Etobicoke Lawn Bowling Club, one of the clubs to which I belong, is one of these. I understand how this protects the greens and avoids embarrassment for those bowlers who would otherwise make regular divots in the surface. It is not too heavy a price to pay. It respects the diligent work of the volunteer greens tenders.

It should not, however, discourage skips who believe that a strategic advantage can be had by moving the mat. There is a rule that the front edge of the mat must slightly overlap the back edge of the groundsheet, meaning that mat and groundsheet must move together. In Canada, because groundsheets are not just put down when it is necessary to protect particular damaged areas of the rink, there is a national rule that groundsheets may be moved, without the greenskeeper’s permission, up and down the green as required to position it-- so that the mat will go where the skip who controls the mat wants it. 

Nevertheless, the inconvenience of moving both groundsheet and mat before starting every end is a real disincentive to adopting this tactic. It should not be. It is not necessary to move mat and groundsheet a big distance to obtain a benefit from this tactic. Just moving them together one or two mat lengths forward will change the path the bowl follows. Furthermore, by making this change your side is asserting itself, taking charge of the end, and increasing respect for your team vis-a-vis ordinary social bowlers. If the opposition wonders aloud whether what you are doing is legal, all the better. Whatever authority is in charge will confirm your right in the matter. If there is a referee invite the objectors to consult him or her.

When the end is finished, do not offer to move the groundsheet back to the two-meter mark. Leave it to the skips to decide; besides, you expect to win the next end and use the same mat position in the one subsequent as you continue to win ends!

Many skips are accustomed to playing over the groundsheet at the head end of the rink. Other skips will want to take up this groundsheet and then relay it when the end is complete. Accommodate the opposing skip in whatever suits him or her.

 It is not a requirement to pick up the groundsheet at the skips' end of the rink simply because the jack is being delivered past it and closer to the forward ditch. In fact, this is routinely accepted when the groundsheet is in its standard location and the jack has been rolled to within 2 meters of the forward ditch even though it is this configuration that most often causes visible interference with good draws to the jack. If the groundsheet at the skips' end is up nearer the hog line and the jack has been delivered long there is actually less chance of groundsheet contact with a normal draw shot. Nevertheless, many opposing skips will want to take the groundsheet up in this situation. If it makes them more comfortable, I suggest that you readily agree to this also.

When moving the groundsheet up the rink it may be useful to mark where its corners sit with chalk. This way returning the groundsheet to the same location will be simplified for subsequent ends. But even if you don't do this, remember that it is not actually necessary that the groundsheet be either completely straight or perfectly centered so long as the mat itself is properly centered with respect to the rink's center-line. 

Those club players who play open tournaments infrequently, typically bowl varying-length jacks all from a mat at the T.  For some reason, it is my experience that women club bowlers are the most easily disturbed by mat/groundsheet movement. To give your team the greatest legal advantage you should choose any configuration different from the one with which they are most comfortable. Don't let groundsheets take away this valuable tactic that is totally within the rules.

When Losing: Move the Mat When You Change the Length

Author in Vilamoura Portugal 2016

In a triples match on Monday at Valverde LBC, a missed opportunity by the opposition illustrated the importance of moving the mat to change length as opposed to simply shortening the roll from the two meter mark.  I was leading for my team and we were winning playing full length jacks. Our opponents, each time they won one of the odd numbered ends, tried a shorter jack coming back. The difficulty was that they didn’t change the mat position. They didn’t realize that both my vice and I were using an unusual discoloration on the green as a visible stare point (the Valverde green is otherwise annoyingly uniform?!) and this was helping us disproportionately.

If our opponents had moved up the mat at the same time as they changed the length, our very useful visible stare point would have become useless and our better bowling, with respect to line, might have deteriorated