The Secret to Controlled Weight Delivering Lawn Bowls

I learned something today that was so startling and made such a dramatic difference that I was tempted to keep it as a secret- just for a year or two- I thought. Why should I share the secret? Then I thought again, “What is the point of writing a lawn bowling blog especially for novices if you hide the most important thing you discover?”

So here it is! You all must have heard, “It doesn’t matter what your style, consistency depends upon reproducibility of the delivery whatever it is.” This is true; but, I didn’t realize how precisely the statement must be interpreted. You need to be able to reproduce the same form exactly, in every detail, even those things that you think can’t be very important. This is why simple delivery styles are best, even though any style can be perfected. Uncomplicated movements are the easiest (I didn’t say easy) to repeat consistently, end after end, season after season. There is a valuable dividend that follows from this simplicity. If your style is reproducible in every little respect then your mental computer will make corrections to the speed with which you release the bowl to correct for previous short or long bowls.

I say I have magically improved my draw accuracy. What was I doing inconsistently before? My follow through was not sufficiently controlled. My bowling hand came up somewhat higher sometimes than other times. My fingers flexed sometimes while remaining straight other times. I would not have expected that these are consequential differences, but they are. 

I discovered these differences watching professional indoor bowlers on Youtube and asking myself, “How does my delivery deviate most from theirs?” The answer was that, in the follow through for any draw shot, their hands were still pointing to the ground. They never raised their bowling arm more than 45 degrees from the vertical. They stopped the arm rather more abruptly after releasing the bowl and never curled their fingers up. Moreover, many of the best players followed through by walking. with halting measured steps off the mat following the line of delivery and as they watched the progress of each bowl. See for example Foster and Marshall in http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zql2KzXudGI who exhibit this distinctly. With these two champions the exaggeration of these points makes it even easier to see.

So now I keep these little things constant, concentrate on a smooth release onto the green and let my subconscious computer determine the weight. All I tell myself is whether the jack is short, medium or long while I look carefully at its position. I don't consciously measure my backswing the way I did when I started! 

My Last Secret for Consistently Hitting Your Stare Point

In 2020, I published a blog describing the bowling delivery that I have evolved during my previous 8 years of lawn bowling.

At one point this month just passed, I was teaching a new bowler this delivery and during the instruction, I hit upon a concept that radically improved my own capacity to roll a bowl precisely and consistently over a stare point 3-5 meters out on the green. Further testing and practice have shown that indeed this change can be an improvement.

Over and over again, in my blog articles, I have emphasized the importance of getting one’s advancing foot down on the green before swinging your bowling arm through to deliver a bowl. I have now found that not only is it important that the heel of one’s advancing foot touch the surface of the green but one’s weight needs to have been transferred forward onto the ball of that foot before starting the downward swing of the bowl if one wants to more dependably roll your bowl over your stare point.

So great is the improvement that follows from this change that I am repeating my earlier blog with this change printed in a red typeface below.

I bowl from the Shooters’ stance. My anchor foot is positioned at an angle of 45 degrees to the line of delivery. I have chosen this because it provides less side-to-side tilting during my stepping when I am on one foot only. For the set-up, I use the South African foot positioning which places the stepping foot one-half a stride in front of the anchor foot. This reduces the length of the forward stride and thereby reduces the time that I'm standing on one leg. I expect this increases my stability. In my set position, I have my non-bowling hand resting on the knee of my forward leg. This keeps my center of gravity lower than it would  be in a completely erect posture; again trying to minimize sway. My hand on knee locks in that stability. My weight is essentially completely on my anchor foot in this 'set' position so that my forward stepping will provide a consistent momentum accompanying a consistent forward velocity. 

My wrist is no longer cocked. I abandoned this experiment because it was inconsistent with having a more relaxed arm. The biggest change from previous years is that I now hold my bowl tilted, (the plane of the rolling surface not parallel with the aim line) even in the ready position so that no  Bryant twist is required during the backswing. This follows the observed practice of Stuart Andersen, a world bowls champion. This angle reflects the natural position of my hand when it hangs loosely at my side.  Previously,as I twisted my wrist when I was using a Bryant twist in my backswing I felt that the bowl’s changing center of gravity was throwing off the smooth line of my backswing. Starting with the wrist off-center as Andersen does eliminates this perception. Bringing my wrist back into line, so the bowl’s running surface coincides with the aim line, occurs in my forward swinging and I do not feel it.

My grip for a draw or running (run through) shot is best described as having the “C” formed by my thumb and index finger on the bowl’s grip marks. (Since I use Aero Zig-Zag Grooved bowls, there is an actual channel for my thumb and finger.) My middle fingertip is centered on the running surface of my bowl. In contrast, for a drive, all four of my fingers are on the bowl with my index finger on one grip and my baby finger on the other.  My two middle fingers are near the center of the running surface. Putting all four fingers behind the bowl seems to improve my power while preserving accuracy.

Following David Bryant’s teaching, holding the bowl in a proper grip and standing in my set position, I look back and forth alternating between my stare point, over which I must roll my bowl to get the proper bias swing, and the jack location, whose distance I need to internalize to get the proper weight. At the same time, I make a few abbreviated practice swings along the proposed line, and then when I feel comfortable I begin my backswing.

My backswing is slow and measured; like an archer drawing his bow or a pool player lining up his cue. My mind is focused on keeping my backswing on top of the extension of my aim line out behind me. My eyes stare at the ‘stare point’ on my aim line which I want my bowl to traverse.

I do not start my forward stepping until the completion of my backswing. This backswing along the extension of my aim line is done to the internal count of “a thousand and one.”

On the measured, unhurried count of “a thousand and two” I step forward and bring my stepping foot, heel first, down onto the rink. My bowling arm does not start swinging forward during this step. Doing so would lead to some at least partial loss of balance that would make rolling the bowl over my ‘stare point’ more difficult. Nevertheless, although I do not start my arm swing the bowl moves forward somewhat because my body moves forward during this stepping out.

Then on “a thousand and three” as my body rocks forward and my weight transfers from my heel to the ball of my foot then onward to my toes, my arm swings forward. Thus the bowl is being accelerated both by my arm and body movement at the point when I draw back my fingers and release the bowl just in front of my planted advanced foot.

At this point, my body dips slightly to bring my bowl closer to the ground. I release my bowl just in front of my forward foot. During the forward stepping and forward swinging, my mind is blank—in order to commit complete control to my subconscious. Once the bowl is released, I consciously observe whether I have rolled the bowl over my stare point so that I will know whether I need to correct my line or simply do a better job of hitting it!

It is important, I think, to be sure that one completely transfers one’s body weight forward onto one’s stepping foot. This is achieved by actually walking off the mat or at least raising one's anchor lag above the mat.  I have so far failed to consistently follow this, so it is a work in progress. I am also trying to vigorously draw my fingers and thumb off the bowl as I release it so that there is no last-minute deflection from the line; but, this so far is also just a hoped-for outcome. Since I am trying to leave the forward swing to my subconscious it is difficult to consciously control the bowl’s release.

 

The Ten Top Greenbowler Lawn Bowling Blogs

Ryan Bester at Broadbeach

 

I've been posting The Greenbowler Blog for seven years. Although, as the editor, I can see which of my 228 posts have been more popular this information is not readily available to readers although posts can be selected by keywords using the search tool in the right-hand column of each blog article. So below, I list, each with its own link, my 10 most popular blog articles of all time. If this proves useful and there is a demand for it, I will supply links for numbers 11-20 later.

1. The Secret to Controlled Weight

2. Strategy and Tactics at Bowls

3. Lawn Bowling from the Shooters Stance

4. Measuring at Bowls

5. Jack or Bowl: Reading the Head

6. Strategy of Leads at Pairs

7. Controlled Weight

8. Choosing your Correct Bias for Bowls

9. Delivering Bowls with a Cocked Wrist

10. Henselite Supergrip Championship Bowls

A Smooth Delivery and the Subconscious Control of Weight

I have found that after a lawn bowler has played for something like six seasons or more, his/her subconscious can be unleashed to consistently deliver the correct weight to reach any jack between the minimum and maximum distances so long as it is left to the subconscious instincts— that is- being ‘in the zone.’ This is in fact what is claimed in the teaching literature and that indeed is what I have found to be true.

The undeclared caveat, however, is that one’s delivery must be reproducibly executed and smooth. That means no dumping, no wobbling, and no loss of balance. Your subconscious,  according to its secret algorithm, is assuming that your delivery will be executed exactly according to form.

I have further found that the delivery technique wherein I draw my bowl back carefully along the extension of my aim line while counting “a thousand and one” followed by a smooth reproducible forward step with a slight flexing of my forward stepping knee so that my whole foot grounds itself on the count of “a thousand and two” followed unhurriedly by a smooth forward swing of my delivery arm that settles the bowl onto the green as I count “a thousand and three” gives me the best chance to deliver over and over according to the same form.

Now- in the setup for the delivery, it is important not to get away from visualizing the desired arc of your bowl on its path from mat to jack, because this is the data that your subconscious will mysteriously plug into its algorithm for producing the correct weight.

Notice that I intend you to be fully conscious about taking your bowl slowly and steadily back during the count of  “a thousand and one” but from there you should have a blank mind and just focus with tunnel vision intently on your stare point out on your aim line.

If you are anything like me, until you have played bowls for at least six years, you will consider this subconscious control idea to be some form of voodoo. It can’t possibly work, or so I thought. 

Well, it does work but your delivery action has to be smooth.

David Bryant's Secret connecting Length and Line

David Bryant has made a Youtube video teaching lawn bowling. In a snippet between 33:50 and 34:45 minutes into the presentation, he says that from his set position on the mat before delivery, his eyes switch back and forth between focussing on the stare point on his aim line and looking at the location of the jack target. He continues switching his focus back and forth between them until he feels comfortable and then, concentrating on his stare point, he delivers his bowl.

 I have never heard this advice before but based on my own subsequent imitation on the rink, I can confirm it does improve results! 

The reason it works I can only speculate. Perhaps it better links considerations of line and length into one operation. It doe not burden you to remember the required length while choosing line but rather refreshes that memory just an instant before commencing the delivery action.

Try it. I feel this is a significant insight that advances my bowling.

Shoulder Season: Time to Practice Running and Drive Shots

At the James Garden Lawn Bowling Club in Toronto Canada http://www.jamesgardenslbc.ca/ , October is the end of the bowling season. By the end of the month the last day to clean out lockers has come and gone. If you know the combination for the lock on the bowling shed you can still get mats, jacks etc. Most bowlers are gone. It can be rainy and cold. Alley bowling, curling, hockey and figure skating beckon for a large part of the membership. This is a good time for me to get out, on the better days, to practice running shots and drive shots. Now there are no people playing on adjacent greens to find you a nuisance and to grumble or to disparage your first novice attempts. Even when you could confine all the bowls to your own rink during the popular bowling months, there was a vocal contingent who thought giving anything more than a nudge to opposition bowls was not sporting. Now I can practice in secret! From the end of December until the middle of March I will be in Sydney Australia where my wife and I have been invited to play and take advantage of the coaching at the Turramurra Lawn Bowling Club.  

Delivery at Lawn Bowls: A Secret for Improving your Line

 

Bowling at Balaia (the whale)

I have repeated one piece of advice more than any other in my blogs: get your advancing foot planted before beginning your forward swing during a delivery. If you consistently miss rolling your bowl over your stare point this, I have said, is the first thing to check. I still stand behind that.

Nevertheless this winter, here in Almancil Portugal, I had been bowling poorly. The symptoms were the same but I was getting my foot down, so it was not the same ailment. Something different was the problem. As it turned out, I was choosing stare points too far up the green. (Your mark or stare point is the spot on the rink over which you try to roll your bowl.) When I changed to a stare point just 3 to 5 meters beyond the front edge of the mat my fortunes immediately dramatically improved. So great was the change that when the match, during which I discovered this, concluded my skip asked me what had happened halfway through the game.

Since then I have continued making sure that I picked a clearly visible mark 3-5 meters out and  I have consistently bowled with outstanding line.

So the first thing to check if you lose consistent line is still whether you are getting your advancing foot down before your swing but the second thing to check is whether your stare point is properly chosen.

 Good bowling!

Reaffirming David Bryant’s Secret for Line & Length at Bowls

 

Some ideas are useful. A few ideas are extremely useful. The “few” can get tangled up and hidden in the “some”! The Greenbowler blog’s objective is to bring forward suggestions for how regular bowlers with ambitions to excel can speed up the process and avoid wrong thinking.

Some time ago I drew my viewers' attention to a lawn bowls instructional video presented by David Bryant and pointed readers toward a small section where Bryant explains precisely what he is doing when he sets himself on the mat and gets ready to deliver his bowl. You can call up that blog article here and that blog provides a link to the actual Bryant video.

I said then and I repeat with more emphasis and more evidence now that I have found that the procedure Bryant teaches enabled me, today, at the Willowdale Lawn Bowling Club, to improve both my line and my length control in a practice session to an astonishing degree.

I thus elevate his teachings to one of the few extremely useful ideas!

Proper Visualization of the Course of Your Lawn Bowl: the Final Secret to Controlling Weight

Barry Pickup says, “Study the track your bowl takes en route to the head. Learn that track, memorize it. Learn to visualize that track before you deliver a bowl. A properly delivered bowl will always follow the same track unless deflected by a foreign object or uneven green. Learn that track well and you are a long way towards bringing a bowl to rest exactly where you want it.”

Before a high-performance lawn bowler delivers a difficult shot, you will often see him or her standing about halfway down the rink looking at the head or walking backwards towards the mat. What is going on in that person’s mind?

I think after examining the head from near the forward ditch, the expert bowler has already made up his/her mind what shot to try. This close up looking from the direction of the mat most probably relates to the visualization of the shot. From the mat, the crucial details of the last few meters traveling of the bowl cannot be visualized. Often the bowl has already disappeared from view among the other bowls.

Before starting to roll your actual bowl, you should have rolled an imaginary bowl and followed it on its path all the way to its final resting place. It may seem like a waste of time. You may be put off because it seems no-one else is doing this. I resisted for five years! There is no obvious logic in it; but, it will improve your weight like nothing else will.