Lawn Bowls Ramp

 

For several years now I have been looking for a place to purchase a lawn bowls ramp. Recently I saw one on the lawn bowls Youtube video, “Lawn Bowls for Fun” from Alec Sharman. Apparently, it belongs to the Camberley and District Indoor Bowling Club. I provide a screenshot from Alec's video edition #23.

I have asked Alec about the provenance of this machine and he is making inquiries but it is unfair to put all the burden on him. I am hopeful that one of my own blog readers can help.

I want to use such a device to introduce new bowlers to the concept of bias. Using it, they will immediately recognize that the curving of the bowl is not some sort of ‘English’ twist that is applied by the bowler. Furthermore, I will be able to illustrate that the same angle of delivery can be used from wherever the mat is placed; whether at the T or close to the hog line and the same angle of delivery can be used whether it is a short or long jack.

If you know how one could acquire such a device please provide some information in the comment section.

What Confidence Looks Like Playing Bowls

"You can do what you believe you can do?"

I can’t buy this statement,  if this means something like, “I know I will bowl a resting toucher with my next bowl” I would be kidding myself. I’m trying to send a lie to my subconscious. 

Instead, if the statement means that I know that I might deliver a resting toucher with my next bowl, then it is trivial. Even a tyro bowler has a finite possibility of rolling a perfect bowl. Lawn bowls is not a sport like track and field where no one can deliver a world-class delivery without preparation. The tyro is physically capable of doing it. Sometimes it will happen. In bowls, it is consistency that sets the expert apart— not any single shot. 

The corollary seems more likely to be true: you cannot do what you believe you can’t do. Yes, yes- so true, so true. If you visualize failure, you will enable it. If you visualize success, you enhance that possibility.

So how does the confident bowler think? And how does that thinking get expressed in action? 

When the confident bowler delivers consecutive bad bowls or has a streak of garbage bowls, (s)he doesn’t question the delivery; doesn’t ask secretly, “What am I doing wrong?” (S)he doesn’t call upon him(her)self to bear down or concentrate more.

Instead, for the confident bowler, it is obvious that something external has intervened. Something just ‘happened’ and there is no reason to get upset or disturbed.  To the confident bowler, the misfortune that has happened is most likely due to factors beyond the bowler's control, and most likely these factors can as easily disappear as persist. The last bowl doesn’t affect the present bowl. The deviation could have been the green or the wind or a change in temperature. So of course take these into account, but your delivery can be the same; the same relaxed, smooth, step and swing.

The confident bowler never ‘fixes’ a delivery because ‘fixing’ means making a conscious adjustment from the previous execution. The confident bowler visualizes what is wanted, corrects any deviations from expectations about the environment, and bowls that same groovy delivery with every expectation of a good result. 

Cataract Surgery Will Improve Your Lawn Bowls

 

I am 75 years old and the sharpness of my eyesight has been slowly deteriorating. As with so many people, I was told I needed cataract surgery on both eyes. My ophthalmologist said to tell her when I thought would be a good time. With the pandemic and the consequential reduction in lawn bowls activities, I said I was ready. In this last month, I have had both operations. The second eye was done just over a week ago.

Today I went to James Gardens LBC which has an outdoor carpet that keeps it playable. The temperature was 12℃ and the sun was unobstructed. I wore a jacket, but I perspired. My vision in both eyes is now 15/20 ( that is better than 20/20). Everything is brighter and sharper but the most noticeable effect is on my estimation of distance. I practiced playing a game of ‘jacks wild’ alternately delivering two different colored sets of my bowls. My weight control seems noticeably improved.

Bowlers— if you need a cataract operation get it now— practicing while you can’t see properly is a waste of your time and a personal frustration! 

Lawn Bowling Practice Game: Jacks Wild

 The Covid-19 Inspiration

Covid-19 restrictions have led lawn bowling clubs to organize play only on alternate rinks. This means there is essentially no interference with those on an adjacent rink when playing to off-center jacks. This in turn has made it possible to enjoy a new modified lawn bowls game which I have christened “Jacks Wild.” 

The Game

The game is designed to practice lawn bowling skills that are not given adequate attention during more common practice regimes. At the same time, it provides exciting competition between the participant players.

“Jacks Wild” is played using two jacks and eight bowls from two sets. It can be played as solitary practice in which a single player provides two sets of preferably matched bowls. When two people play together they use their own sets and deliver their bowls alternately. The object of the game, as in regular bowls, is to score points by delivering your bowls close to one of the jacks. Bowls that finish outside the rink are removed. Other rules analogous to regular bowls apply.

Each player delivers the jacks in alternate ends hence each player delivers jacks in only one direction on the rink. The player who starts the game places the mat centered and covering the T and delivers one after the other the two jacks. Each jack must finish within the designated rink space but one must be to the left of the center line and the other to the right. Each jack can finish anywhere on the rink that would be acceptable for a regular bowls game so long as each is on its designated side of the rink. In this game/exercise, however, neither jack gets centered. The jacks are played to at the spots where they finish. This means that jacks may even be close to the boundary lines or closer than two meters to the end ditch. This is why it is a good thing that Covid-19 is forcing us to have an empty rink between those that are being used! Otherwise, playing to jacks close to the boundaries could inconvenience other bowlers on adjacent rinks.

The player who has delivered both the jacks then delivers the first bowl trying to get as close as possible to whichever jack (s)he announces that (s)he will play towards. Then the second player uses a first bowl attempting to get close to the other jack. The two players then each get a second chance to deliver a second bowl towards their same targets. This simulates the normal bowls game in that each player gets a second bowl to correct on a first delivery.

The player who started the end delivering the jacks then delivers a bowl towards the other target not previously bowled at and the second bowler follows playing towards his/her new target. Each player then gets a chance to correct their deliveries towards each one’s second target. 

Bowls that finish closer to the jack that was not the intended target of that bowl are removed from play immediately; otherwise, confusion may arise in the scoring.

If, during play, one of the jacks is displaced bringing one or more of the bowls intended for the other jack closer to it, the bowls so changed, become part of this different head. 

To further avoid confusion, if a jack upon delivery finishes less than 2 meters distance from the other, the player who did not deliver these jacks can separate them by two meters by moving either one away from the other along the straight line that would run through the two of them.

 A tally is determined for each head and the net result is scored as the result of the end.

This is all repeated coming back on the green but this time the player who delivered the jacks and played the first bowl plays second.

The game is played to a predetermined number of ends.

Benefits of the Game

This game is much more difficult than the regular lawn bowls game.  Because the jacks are not placed on the center line, the aim lines change in every end. Furthermore, there is a forehand line and a backhand line that needs to be discovered for each of the two jacks. Because each participant only gets two bowls to deliver towards any one jack position, the pressure to get the proper correction for that second bowl is intense. In this respect, this is good practice for what is demanded in a regular game of fours.

Because the conditions change so quickly, the importance of having a rigid pre-delivery routine is multiplied. There are no extra chances. Full concentration is required for every delivery.

Because the game is so demanding the mat positions are fixed over the Ts. To make the game, even more, demanding the person delivering the jacks can be allowed to move the mat as in a regular game!

Bowling on Heavy Greens can Test your Delivery Mechanics

 

Two of the lawn bowling clubs to which I belong have extremely heavy greens this season. One needs to be an athletic bowler indeed to deliver a bowl from T to T. Whereas under a more normal condition one might have an aim line that runs from the center of the mat to the forward boundary marker, the present heavier conditions reduce bias so much that the line more typically runs to a spot on the forward bank about midway between the rink number and the same boundary marker— only half as wide.

Although this heaviness decreases the enjoyment of social competition, it is rather useful for practice.  The reason—when you need to deliver a bowl with more weight, it dramatically exaggerates deficiencies in the mechanics of your delivery.

Let us say, for example, your delivery throws your body out of balance, this will be even more pronounced when you are forced to roll with more weight. Similarly, if either your backswing or your follow-through is poorly grooved, this will show up as increased wildness when you are forced to throw harder.

At the same time, you need to be aware of two caveats that pertain to practicing on a heavy green. First, be more critical of your results because with the reduced bias being exhibited by bowls under these heavier conditions even when you miss your line by quite a bit the deviation in terms of distance from the jack will be much less. The track of your bowl will be straighter than usual. Second, don’t get excited by what seems to be an improved weight control; the heavy green will be stopping your bowls faster and make weight control unnaturally easy.

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!

Gaining an Advantage by Noting the Margins of your Lawn Bowling Rink

 

A skip can get some helpful hints to guide match strategy by examining the two meters of green closest to the front and rear ditches on the rink assigned for play. This applies particularly to club play where the tending of the green is less scrupulous than for greens that host open, bigger-money tournaments.

At some clubs, the rink margins slope so severely towards the ditches that it is difficult to stop a bowl from ditching once it approaches these edges. When this is the case, you can only play a normal game using short or medium jack lengths. If you do secure a long jack, short bowls are no longer so disadvantageous because the number of bowls behind is going to be lower.

At my Etobicoke club in Toronto, in an effort to regrow the strip at the edge of the green, the greenskeeper has left it longer than the main central portion. Consequently, there is a distinct slowing down of both jacks and bowls as they enter this fringe and many fewer jacks or bowls run over into the ditch. Skips could use this to improve the chances for many shots by moving the mat up the green for their medium and short jack lengths so that the jack is spotted for these lengths two meters from the front ditch. Thereafter the whole team can confidently deliver bowls behind the jack with reduced risk of losing them in the ditch. If the opposition does not recognize the situation they will likely end up with more short bowls!

An even more common situation is to find greens where the edging material (either metal or wood strip) that supports the grass at the edge of the ditch has become elevated above the grass surface creating a lip that inhibits and frequently stops bowls from falling into the ditch. Such a condition is particularly good at preventing jacks delivered long from dropping off the green. 

The Magic of Finding a Distinct Stare Point to Control Bias at Bowls

 

Writing a blog about lawn bowling brings one back over and over to the same subjects- things I have talked about before. But these are so important and yet in my own practicing I find I lose sight of their importance and fall into those same bad habits and then wonder why I have a streak of bad bowling.

So when I let something important slip I assume that the same can happen for my readers and perhaps it is worth a reminder.

Here in Toronto Canada, the lockdown is ending and bowling clubs are opening their greens for practice alone and for singles. There are still lots of precautions even though most of the bowlers who are going to show up have been fully vaccinated.

I was out on the outside carpet at James Gardens LBC today. It was lovely sunshine and I was safely alone, locked inside the fence-enclosed green. I had just received my second dose of the Pfizer vaccine that very morning.

My weight control was good but my line control was appalling. What was going wrong? As it turned out I was having trouble holding my stare point. Earlier in the season, the green had been dotted with maple seeds so it was easy to pick a visible stare point. Now, they had all been blown away into the ditches, and because the carpet is so consistently uniform I was having trouble picking out some physical discontinuity to use as a stare point.

This reminded me that I had already written a blog teaching how, if one had control of the mat, one could place it at a distance up the green so that some remaining distinctive spotting could become a visible stare point. When I did this and combined it with a complete pre-delivery routine good bowling magically returned!