Learning from David Gourlay’s Delivery

The author’s delivery is more like that of David Gourlay than any other professional indoor lawn bowler. It is interesting that although David is perhaps the best overall athlete among the top bowlers, his delivery is physically undemanding.

Grip 

David uses something between the claw grip and what is called the gyrostatic grip. The gyrostatic grip was designed to allow the hand and forearm to remain in its normal position, without needing to turn the hand palm up, as is the case with other grips. The palm and fingers are located on the side of the bowl with the thumb on top. Put simply it looks like the bowler is palming the bowl from the side.

According to Len Hyde, a coach from New South Wales Australia, it is no longer taught, at least in Zone 9 of Australia. Neither can I can find any online references to the grip.

In David’s adaption, his thumb rests on the grip but is more forward than most people’s. His thumb is almost above the rotational axis of the bowl. His index finger runs down the side of the bowl with the fingertip in the grip ring. His remaining three fingers seem to be together, all on the running surface, but with the long middle finger on the center of the running surface.

Ready Position

Gourlay adopts the Shooters’ stance to the extent that the toes of his anchor footare slightly turned in towards his aim line. His stepping foot is a shoe length forward of it. Most characteristically- his non-bowling hand is already on his knee before his action begins. His arm when ready is about 30 degrees from vertical and the bowl is at a height just below his knee.

Delivery

Because his grip already turns his palm in towards his side, no Bryant twist is needed in David’s backswing. The backswing is short and tight enough to his body that he wouldn't actually need to bend his anchor leg in behind his advancing leg, although he does. 

When he releases his bowl his index finger remains outstretched but his other fingers curl up behind the bowl as if to give it a flick. This is made clear in the close-up picture of his hand just after letting go of the bowl. This seems a consistent attribute of his delivery.

Because of his grip, the bowl leaves his hand with some wobble. Gourlay seems to adjust for length by varying the length of his forward stepping. He follows through low and does not walk off the mat.

For some reason that I cannot even hypothesize about, he, more than other players, asks the marker to move because the rink boundary stripe is being obscured.

Follow-through

Walking off the mat is not part of David's delivery. His weight goes fully forward but his anchor foot remains on the mat until the bowl is well down the rink.

After Watching Paul Foster’s Bowls Delivery

Paul Foster MBE has won the World Indoor Lawn Bowls Championship five times.

I think I saw something useful by stopped-frame examination of Paul Foster’s delivery in a match against Michael Dawes in the 2015 World Championships on Youtube.

 I noticed that as Foster starts his backswing he advances his non-anchor foot with the toe decidedly up in the air so that he necessarily plants it heel first. When it is in the air his sole is at an angle of 45 degrees above the horizontal.  In this way, he can smoothly rock his weight forward; his weight transferring from heel to full sole contact, then to toes. Then following smoothly his anchor foot comes up off the ground as he walks off the mat with his body moving forward like a sprinter coming out of the blocks.

 
This form combines with the idea that the delivery should start with your weight almost entirely on your anchor foot so that the step forward is not restricted and does not bear any significant weight.

This will make weight transfer always the same. It compels the bowler to make contact with the heel of the advancing foot to provide smooth, rocking, weight transfer.

A Mathematical Rule Defining the Curved Path of a Lawn Bowl

Ever since I started playing lawn bowls seven years ago I have tried to figure out a mathematical rule or formula that defines the path of the bowl from mat to jack when the bowl is running on a completely flat (henceforth theoretical) surface. I could find nothing online except one complex treatment that was too difficult for me to follow. I do not think answering this question will help me or anyone else bowl better but as a retired scientist, the question nagged me.  I believe that I have finally succeeded.

Everyone who bowls knows the approximate curve of a lawn bowl perfectly delivered onto the jack. It starts out almost on a straight path and then curves progressively as it slows down and eventually comes to a stop.  We are also taught, and discover to be true, that no matter what length the jack is, the correct angle of delivery is constant. The mathematical rule I have discovered can be stated as follows:

For each particular point on a bowl’s path, the angle subtended by (i) the line connecting the jack (target) and that particular point and (ii) the tangent to the curve at that particular point is equal to the angle subtended by (iii) the proper line of initial delivery for the particular bowl/surface and (iv) the centerline of the rink.

In the diagram above, B and B’ are any bowl positions on the perfect path between mat and jack. BT  and B’T’ are the tangents to the points B and B’ respectively.  JB and JB’ are the respective lines between points B and B’ and the jack J. ⍺ is the angles JBT and JB’T’ and these are equal to the original angle, JMX, the bias angle taken on the mat, which is dependent on the particular bowl’s bias and the friction of the green. 

What this rule guarantees is that a bowl released from any point along this path that has the same initial speed as a perfectly weighted bowl delivered from the full-length mat would have at that particular point, so long as it is directed at the same angle to the line to the jack as the full-length jack would have been given, will continue to follow the same path and arrive exactly at the jack. 

How can I convince you that this is true?

Rotate the line JB around the point so that JB lies on top of JM. Line BT will take up the position of T’V. This indicates that in practice if we move the mat up the green the delivery angle should be unaltered. This is what our mathematical rule would predict. Our mathematical rule, therefore, has correctly predicted something we know to be true from experience!

Head Reading at Lawn Bowls: Greg Harlow Drives

In the picture above you see Greg Harlow inspecting the head before delivering his last (green) bowl. It is not clear what the score will be when the end is completed. He is down one in the head but could be down as many as three. On the indoor carpet with his wide-bias bowls, Greg’s last bowl will enter the head at an angle of perhaps 60 degrees from the vertical. Drawing on his backhand can reduce the loss to one if he draws close enough or if he wicks off his closest short bowl; however, the unusual disposition of three bowls out in front of the jack presents a third option. He could drive hard at the shortest of his green bowls. Four different bowls can be anticipated being pushed through the head. Three of these bowls are green. Greg has the ‘backest’ bowl and it looks like it will stay protected. There is a very good chance that the jack will move back and even go out of bounds for re-spotting.

In fact, Harlow, who has a very accurate forehand drive, does move the jack.

Jason Greenslade’s Delivery

 

Jason Greenslade has been among the top 14 indoor lawn bowlers for many years. His style is not imitated by anyone nor do I recommend that anyone try to imitate it. Particularly for a tallish man maintaining balance must be challenging.

 

Grip

Jason’s grip is a palm grip. His thumb is at the side of the bowl. The thumb is what prevents his bowl from falling throughout his unconventional backswing. In the ready position, Jason has his thumb on the grip but just before starting his delivery, he moves it to a position just past the grip onto the side of the bowl where it can support the bowl as he takes it behind his back. This thumb movement is captured in the close-up above where he is playing with the green bowls.

Stance

Jason stands on the mat with both feet close together pointing in the direction he plans to bowl. What is surprising is that he is slightly pigeon-toed in his stance with the stepping foot angled slightly inward. The reason for this becomes apparent when the delivery is executed. His forward step is actually across his body so that his legs are crossed as he releases the bowl. In his ready position, the bowl is at waist height.

 

Delivery

Greenslade’s draw-back is an exaggerated twist that takes his bowl behind his back. Although he starts lowering his body by bending his knees, he takes the bowl behind his back without raising or lowering it with respect to the ground. He steps forward during this backswing, stepping across his anchor leg. His anchor leg needs to bend in behind his stepping leg more than for any other bowler because otherwise, his forward swinging arm would hit this leg! As his arm comes through he straightens his wrist to set the bowl onto its running surface close to the ground.

Non-bowling Arm

As Jason begins his backswing his shoulders rotate and his non-bowling arm comes forward to maintain his balance (see topmost left picture). When he actually releases his bowl onto the carpet this arm is on his knee for stability. Even though Jason’s shoulders rotate his head is kept steady- eyes on the line.

Follow Through

Jason walks off the mat. If he didn’t I don’t think he could maintain his balance. His bowling arm follows his bowl in a sweeping motion so that his hand rises sometimes almost to his chest.

The Flip-Side of Using a Cocked Wrist

Back in 2015, I wrote a blog praising the benefits to cocking your wrist in a bowling delivery.

Well, folks, none of the top players do it! During the past few weeks of Covid-19 lockdown, I have examined the deliveries of the top professional bowlers and I have read what bowling manuals have to say. I am ready to admit defeat.

For example,  John Snell, the author of Winning Bowls, a book that is available free on-line says, “The wrist must not be cocked; for one thing, it is not natural. The hand is not a straight extension of the arm but normally points away at a slight angle. If you try to keep the hand straight, I promise you nothing more than bad deliveries, a tired wrist, and a case of tension at the end of the day. A cocked wrist is against all the principles of relaxation, which is one of the secrets of winning bowls.” [my italics]

I haven’t encountered the tired wrist or the tension. I have my share of bad deliveries but what convinced me is the sentence in italics about the fundamental requirement for a relaxed arm. If you have grooved your swing you must allow your body to become the servant of your subconscious mind and I think that demands relaxed spontaneous movements.

This is inconsistent with cocking your wrist.

The Bowls Delivery of Darren Burnett

Darren Burnett is most infamous to Canadians, like myself, because at the 2014 Commonwealth Games, he won the gold medal in men's singles defeating Ryan Bester of Canada. Darren Burnett is one of the professional bowlers who most clearly illustrates the Shooters’ Stance. Because his anchor foot is distinctly angled with respect to his aim line, he does not need to twist his wrist in his backswing. His grip is classical- four-finger claw grip.

Burnett delivers from an athletic stance. He stands tall and looks down the rink from a fully erect posture and sights down the rink. Then as his arm pushes forward in the delivery motion he looks down towards his bowl. It is unclear whether he keeps his eye on a stare point. Perhaps his stare point is very close to the mat. This is a bit mysterious.

Different from all other bowlers in his ready position he raises his bowl up as high as his chin by bending his elbow. He also raises his other hand which remains close by the bowl as if to steady it. This is evident in my first picture.

When he begins his bowling action he rapidly lowers the 
bowl as he draws it

back towards his anchor foot. He steps forward but not as with others close to his aim line but rather partially away from it. When his foot is firmly down he sweeps forward and drops the bowl onto the rink.

Burnett lets go of his bowl further above the rink than other top bowlers and the bowl gets away with a considerable wobble.

 Burnett’s non-bowling arm ends up resting on his forward thigh. Unlike other bowlers, his forward stepping leg, from knee to foot, angles away from his strictly vertically bowling arm.

How do Professional Indoor Lawn Bowlers on Youtube take their Stare Point?

About five years ago, when I was spending January-March in Australia, I visited one of those bowl stores that had an indoor rink for trying out new bowls. When I went to deliver a test bowl, I discovered that the carpet was so perfect that I couldn’t pick out a physical spot 3-5 metres in front of the mat that I could use as a stare point. I had to stretch my neck up from my crouch and try to take a line from objects near the front ditch.

I have since been asking myself the question, “How do professional bowlers playing on the portable rink pick a stare point?” They are playing on a perfect carpet so they must face the same problem that I did at the sporting goods store.

The video camera positions for major bowls competitions do not help answer that question. There is rarely a camera shot from behind a bowler while he is executing a delivery. Finally, I saw such an angle. I show a screen capture below.

The bowler is Alex Marshall MBE. I don’t know how the picture was taken. It is not one of the usual camera angles.  It looks like the Scottish Championship, perhaps, since I can see tables near the side ditch. 

The angle reveals two interesting things. First, because the top bowlers use wide-swinging bowls, their stare points are on the billboards along the sides of the rink. Second, it looks like the fact that the advertisements have alternate light-coloured and dark-coloured backgrounds is important for providing highly visible stare points.

For example, in this image, it looks as if Alex is setting his aim line on to the Dales advertisement far down the rink that appears in the upper right corner of this picture.

How appropriate those semi-circular, multicoloured target shapes that appear to be the perennial decoration on the side barriers at these bowling venues turn out to be!