Another Minor Change in My Own Delivery after Scrutinizing the Pros

In recent blog articles, I have examined the delivery styles of some of the top-ranked indoor lawn bowlers using slow-speed and stop-action footage. This instructed me more clearly whose delivery I most resembled and from whose I most diverged. My overall body movement most resembled David Gourlay’s. My grip and hand position most resembled Stuart Anderson’s. 

The Small Change

This analysis motivated me to make one small change in my own delivery. Stuart Anderson, alone among all the bowlers whom I looked at closely, was the only one who instead of using a Bryant twist in his backswing, instead, tilted his bowl while in the ready position, took it back tilted, and only straightened his wrist during his forward swing before releasing his bowl.

I have found that if I use a Bryant twist as I draw the bowl back by changing the center of mass of the bowl it causes a 'jiggle' in the otherwise smooth draw-back. This is avoided with Anderson's technique.   

The Mysterious Lawn Bowls Delivery of Andy Thomson MBE

Andy Thomson MBE is not among the top 14 bowlers as ranked in 2019-2020; nevertheless, he is among the top bowlers of all time and his delivery is the most distinctive of all. As such, it is worthy of analysis. Andy’s bowl delivery is not being presented as a model for imitators but as a mystery. 

What sets Thomson apart, first and foremost, is that after sighting along his aim line he does not hold his stare point. Prior to starting his delivery action, he is looking at his feet! 

Second, unlike other top bowlers he releases his bowl with a flick of his fingers to provide some spin to the bowl. Other bowlers either let the bowl roll off their fingers, or draw their fingers away from the bowl in a characteristic fashion. 

Finally, like the delivery of David Bryant, Andy Thomson rises up to delivery his bowl rather than bending down. He rises, lifting his bowl from a position touching the rink in order to make a short backswing before starting it forward. Unlike Bryant who initially squats to sight his delivery, Thomson is completely upright, bending forward with legs straight as if to touch his toes.

But let us analyze step by step.

Grip

Before gripping the bowl, Andy licks his baby finger. I do not know why he does this. The only hypothesis I can imagine is that it reminds him that he needs to keep his baby finger off the bowl. His grip is the three-finger claw grip with the three fingers under the bowl placed with the index finger in the groove, his middle finger on the running surface and his third finger in the groove opposite. His thumb is either in the grip groove or slightly towards the running surface.  I have difficulty identifying the exact position of Andy’s thumb. His three fingers are not parallel with the running surface of the bowl but their tips lie on an imaginary line at an angle of about 45 degrees to the line of the running surface.

Stance

Thomson stands with his feet parallel and side by side. He bends at the waist and not at all at the knees; in the pose of someone exercising by touching their toes. He slowly lowers the bowl until it just touches the ground. His non-bowling hand rests at the side of the bowl with fingers extended steadying the bowl.

Before taking this pose, he has looked carefully at the length and line but when his head is bowed in this pre-delivery pose, he cannot possibly see any stare point that is not within a few feet of his feet.

The Wobble-Stagger??

Delivery

Andy uses very little backswing. His free hand hangs loose and is not used to steadyhimself. Furthermore, his entire body seems to wobble as he sends forward his arm and releases his bowl.

I cannot understand why Andy Thomson would choose this delivery style unless he has a back problem that he is trying to avoid aggravating. There is a faint suggestion that this might be true. He regularly moves his non-bowling hand to his back at waist height as he rises after each delivery as if to ease a twinge of pain.

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.

David Bryant’s Grip

Although it is widely acknowledged that David Bryant was the greatest lawn bowler of all-time, his delivery style is no longer followed by any of the top world lawn bowlers.

In particular, nothing is said about his grip which by today's standards is unconventional.

I have studied this grip by careful slow-motion and stop-action examination of videos of his matches, but most particularly his Youtube video sponsored by Toro.

Grip

Bryant places his thumb on top of the bowl on the mid-point of the running surface. His index fingertip rests on the side of the bowl close to the centre of the rotational axis. His middle finger seems to be about where the grip of the bowl would be. His actual bowls are without grips. It also appears that his third and pinky fingers are near the centre of the running surface opposite his thumb.

That this is approximately correct follows from seeing quite clearly that when he releases his bowl his hand is not an open up-facing palm but more like a hand extended for a hand-shake. What is problematic is that when I try to imitate this release my bowl leaves with a wobble while his is decidedly smooth!

An advantage is that this grip is easily modified by moving the thumb to one side or the other to tilt the bowl as many experts recommend for driving.

Backswing

When Bryant does the Bryant twist in taking his very substantial backswing, because the index finger is on the side of the bowl, that index finger completely supports the bowl from underneath at the top of this backswing.Because his grip so substantially supports the bowl during his backswing David can have a very long, high backswing. This can be very helpful on heavy greens.

Delivery

Two famous bowlers come up from a crouch and deliver their bowl from a higher position than their ready position: Andy Thomson and David Bryant.

Follow Through

Bryant releases his bowl from a standing position without any knee flexing. He bends entirely from the waist to bring his delivery arm to the ground. Unlike all twentieth-century world-class bowlers, he transfers all his weight to his stepping foot and raises his anchor foot off the mat often as high as his hips to avoid falling forward. Only after regaining his balance does he sometimes walk forward after his bowl.

Post Script: Excuse the fuzzy images; stopping the motion is imperfect.

 

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.