Forget About Adding or Subtracting a Yard for Now

Fairly often I see lawn bowlers practicing adding or subtracting a yard to their deliveries on a rink with cut up yellow tennis balls marking the intervals.  I’ve done it myself. My judgment: it’s a waste of time until you can consistently deliver four bowls the same length (within a yard).  This was so obvious once I thought about it. Delivering with exactly the same weight can be expected to be much, much easier than adding or subtracting weight, but who can consistently do it?  Certainly not me- yet. 

The Shooter’s Stance in Bowls can End Crouching to get a Stare Point

In videos of the legendary David Bryant, we see him squatting on the mat, unlit pipe between his teeth, picking out his line.

I also had a tendency to bend over from the waist to bring my eyes closer to the ground when taking my line and stare point. Then I would stand up straight and begin my bowl delivery. After being defeated 24-3 in an open singles encounter at the Willowdale Lawn Bowling Club, my talented and experienced opponent volunteered (after I agreed that I wanted advice) that I should stop this wasteful and time-consuming practice. With a bit of experience, I was advised, just as good a stare point can be achieved from a fully erect posture.

This is not the first time, I have been thus advised. My Canadian coach has been after me about it and a helpful opposing skip at the Turramurra LBC also suggested that I bowl within seven seconds of taking my line, because he said that the longer one tries to hold a stare point the more it will be distorted.

My resistance to this advice came because I was convinced that at least I must focus on something that I can see very distinctly and so that object cannot be more than 5 meters in front of the mat. Following this, selecting that point and making sure it was on my aim line could not be an instantaneous reflex judgment.

Since adopting the shooters’ stance no special aids are needed to pick out the correct line because having your eye directly over the aim line makes it easier. This is just another benefit of the amazing shooters’ stance.

Lawn Bowls is a Target Sport like Archery; so try a Slow, Controlled, Back Swing in the Delivery

There is no correlation between how rapidly you take your bowl back in the backswing and how much forward-directed force is provided to your delivery. No matter how rapidly you draw it back, the bowl becomes motionless at the top of the pendulum swing. Therefore, whatever velocity the bowl is intended to have must arise from the acceleration from both the forward swing and forward body motion. Rapidly drawing your bowl back has no advantage.

Nonetheless, drawing your bowl back quickly has disadvantages.  First, your bowl is less likely to remain directly above the backward extension of your aim line and as a consequence your bowl will not pass through your stare point on the aim line when you swing your arm forward.  Second, if proper elevation is part of the means by which you control length, the accuracy of your delivery weight will be reduced.

So your lawn bowling backswing should be performed with the same care as an archer draws his bow.

Lawn Bowls Tactics: When Not to Bowl to Get Shot

There are four tactical situations in lawn bowls. The opponents will

(a) hold one or more shots or

(b) they will not

and your skipper can respond by trying to

(i) get a bowl in the count or

(ii) not get a bowl in the count.

Trying to get shot or add another shot is the standard tactical action. Some skips almost always try to get or add a shot with every bowl whether they direct it or play it themselves; so (a)(i) and (b)(i) can be regarded as really the default choices. This article treats situations where the best tactic may well be not to try to get or add a shot.

First I will address the situation where the team does hold shot and the skipper should not try to get another shot.

Situation One- If the team does not have a bowl at the back and the opposition could change from shots down to shots up if they moved the jack back, drawing another bowl on the head may not be the best strategy.

Situation Two- Sometimes when the score for the team or the side is such that a second shot will give the team no advantage whatsoever, the skip should look for and protect against any tactic that would give the opposition a useful number of bowls.

 Situation Three- Play a block. Without moving the jack back, decrease the probability that the opposition can reduce the number of shots held byyour team by seeking to obtain one or more shots blocking the path of the likely opposition bowl that will have that undesirable result.

My second section considers situations where the team does not hold shot and the skipper should not try to get shot.

 Situation Four –Sometimes the opposition holds a shot very close to, or touching, the jack. To move off this shot bowl, the played bowl will need weight that could carry it past the shot bowl. Such bowls - if they miss –commonly leave a head that will make it easier for the opposition to score several shots. Your team will risk less if it tries for second shot and delays trying for shot bowl - until later.

Situation Five - The opposition holds one shot, your team holds several second shots and it is a high percentage shot to obtain shot by pushing out the present shot bowl; however, once this happens the opposition will try to obtain the shot again. If your skip “allows” the opposition to continue to hold shot, the opposition may choose to try for a position bowl or accidentally remove its own shot bowl or fail to add additional counters. That is to say, sometimes it will be better tactically to add close bowls and delay pushing out the shot bowl until the opposition has only one or no bowls left to play. This assumes that skip is quite confident that (s)he will only require one bowl to remove the present shot and this task won’t be made too much more difficult by upcoming opposing bowls.

Situation Six- The opposition holds one shot and your team has only one or two bowls in the head. The team could try a run-through shot to push out the shot bowl; sometimes that heavier shot will result in shot bowl but sometimes it changes the head unfavourably by knocking out your own best bowls. Even though a draw shot has less chance of pushing out the shot bowl, it has a still lower probability of producing a less-favourable position. Thus, it may prove better to try to draw another bowl on the head rather than try the run-through. Because the opposition still holds shot it may become complacent. You can build the head and wait for a later opportunity to remove their shot for a good count.

Situation Seven- Sometimes it will prove better for a player to play a second or later bowl on the same hand and obtain a close bowl rather than changing the player’s hand just because the position of bowls allows the player a better chance to get shot after the change. This is particularly true with lead bowlers.

Situation Eight- Sometimes it will prove better to go one down rather than risk going for shot because an error with an overweight bowl will mean more than one down. The loss of an end by one rarely losses a match! 

Scoring Method Can Determine Tactics in Lawn Bowls

Playing In-house tournaments at the Etobicoke Lawn Bowling Club a different scoring method is used and this requires different game tactics. The scoring is 5 points for a win and one point for each end won. Consequently if the game is close, your side is sitting shot, and the opposition has a close second, it is unwise to deliver the last bowl, if you have it. If you were to remove your shot, you would not just go from one up to one down- a loss of two points; you would also go from one end won to one end lost for a loss of another two points!

Only towards the end of a very close game, where getting the ‘spare’ could realistically save you the match, should you risk delivering your last bowl when holding one shot. Of course, if the opposition ‘s best bowl is not really very close and there is plenty of room to  draw safely without coming near your own shot, you should go ahead with it. Just know what you are risking.

If You are a Palm Bowler Watch Nicky Brett

Nikky Brett

Most bowling coaches teach beginners to play bowls using the grip that they themselves use and the vast preponderance of them use a claw or finger grip in which the thumb on top of the bowl secures it from falling out of their hand on the back-swing. Many palm bowlers as a consequence of their less firm grip use little or no back-swing and push their bowls down the rink. There is an alternative. You can see the delivery by watching any of the Youtube videos of Nicky Brett. Stop the action by freezing frames during his delivery. Push start then stop as quickly as possible to get a clear picture of his technique.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I3QECKvG540

You will see that his thumb is not on top of the bowl but rests on the side in the palm grip. In his back-swing he employs the Bryant twist (his palm turns inward and the bowl is prevented from dropping by resting on top of the thumb. The ‘Bryant twist’ also enables the back-swing to go straight back.

Nicky Brett is one of, if not the best lawn bowler in the world. You couldn’t have a better  example! 

Tournament Play and Improvement

Everywhere you look the advice is the same: play with and against the best players you can find to improve quickly. In Canada, team play is not divided by pennants or skill divisions as in Australia. When you play in a tournament you play against the top people, over and over and so you lose over and over.  The more you practice the more pressure you apply to yourself. And of course you expect some improved performance to match the extent of the practice time committed. The more failure, the more practice, the more heightened the expectations, the more serious the disappointment. 

After four years I have to admit this doesn’t work for me.  I have started to play club events almost exclusively. I was appreciated. I got good results playing club bowlers. I relaxed. My draw accuracy and consistency improved in absolute terms.

So, my conclusion is this: if you are not competing in a ‘streamed’ environment where you play against opponents close to your own skill level and where you can advance gradually as you succeed, you should not compete where you will be always defeated . This is not the professional wisdom but it is what I personally find.

That Foot on or over the Mat: Crystal Mark Three

Foot-faulting is Still Possible

I played mixed pairs against a more experienced skip yesterday. After the match, he said, “Stand on the mat as you do when you are ready to deliver a bowl.” When I did, he pointed out that my anchor foot was only partially on the mat. My heel was off the mat. The ball of my foot was on.

“In a playdown  ( Ontario Regional Competition) you would be called for foot faulting,” he said.

“Not according to the new Crystal Mark Third Edition of The World Laws of Bowls,” I told him. “It only requires part of a foot to be on or over the mat at delivery.”

This is an important point. Many more experienced bowlers were brought up with the old foot fault rule: one foot must be entirely on or over the mat.  Bowlers, like myself, who have adopted the ‘shooters’ stance’ will have a greater tendency to have the anchor foot partially off the mat, because that foot is not lined up parallel to their aim line. In any case, calling foot faults was always a tedious business. Whether a player has a full foot or a partial foot on the mat is not going to make a difference to any game’s outcome. The rule exists to confine bowlers to essentially the same starting place for deliveries and this is preserved by the new rule.

Furthermore, the new rule presents more opportunities to ‘use the mat.’ This is the practice of changing the position you are standing on the mat to make small adjustments to your final bowl position, so long as you can repeat the previous delivery exactly.