Practice makes Perfect.. What type of Practice ?

 How does Ericsson`s 10,000 Hour Rules apply to the expression of "Practice makes perfect" ?, Previous blog looked at the PodCast of "Good Life Project" and how the original research of Anders Ericsson began into the development of expertise.

   Jonathan Field, the founder of GLP in his podcast interview asks Anders Ericsson to explain the two practices " Purposeful practice" and "Deliberate practice".

Field: "Deliberate practice is very difference than just the notion of "practice". "Tell me if I am wrong" Deliberate practice is the type of very precise practice which leads most efficently to ,, growth, to mastery, to expertise" 

Ericsson: "To Clarify, people have been using 

"Deliberate practice" in ways that is a little bit different from what we originally proposed when we looked at musical students". "Musical students were working with individual teachers which actually guided their practice into "Detail Practice" activity which they could go off and do by them self and monitor the outcome". 

       "And we call "purposeful practice" when you have a training task with a goal, and then you have something you can do over with immediate feedback and you have opportunities here to repeat it and  you can reflect and figure out way you can do it differently to reach the goal you set for yourself". 

Field: "So the big difference than.. is one has more external guidance by a teacher"

Ericsson:  "Exactly,  So "Deliberate practice" would be "purposeful practice" which is now supervised or actually guided by a teacher".... "If you actually have a teacher who has worked with a lot of other individuals; they would be able to access"... "Well here is where you`re at and lets first correct your fundamentals first before we start moving into the higher levels". "To adjust what you are doing incorrectly because eventually that is going to be a real limiting factor".

Field: And the big difference between  weather it is purposeful or deliberate ... between those two categories (of practice) and just regular practice" ?

Ericsson: Right, that is a big difference between purposeful practice and .. practice or play" Using playing doubles in tennis as example Ericsson explains that in play you miss a backhand volly but of course play just continues. But if you coach was to define a meaningful list of routines to practice and build your perfection of your back hand volly. After the several different exercises of the coach; you would have a expertise in your back hand volly.

Ericsson: "The idea here is that with that purposeful practice where you are actually help to focus in on a specific aspect; you can probably gain as much in two hours as you would in a couple of years of just playing with friends".

Field: "You get together with friends... but the reason you do it is because it is fun".

Ericsson: If you are working with a teacher, they would be able to set up a

Game play practice

sequence of  different things you should make adjustments and what is important is that the teacher is confidence you are able to make these adjustments with these activities". "And if you run into problems than the teacher is going to diagnose what is needed to fix first before you can achieve the goal".

Professor Ericsson suggest that instead of looking for that gifted ability which may occur magically while you are playing; that  "nobody actually finds the gifted and instead take the view that this is what I would like to do and then figure out what is the path".

Next blog, third of this series; will discuss where one gets that movivation and the value of a mentor and your teacher`s confidence in you and your abilities.

Anders Ericsson on Expertise

 

In a 2016 Good Life Project Podcast, founder, JonathanFields interviews K. AndersEricsson, PhD, about his research into the Psychology of developing one`s abilities as it pertains to becoming an expert in your field.  As Professor of Psychology at Florida State University, Amders Ericsson did research which  is probably the start of what is today the science of "Sport Psychology" and the relationship between an athletic`s mind and personal or physical development.

What started as a research project on a question of "How would one develop an ability to receit a long list of numbers; later advanced to a similar  study of violin and piano music students and resulted in what is now known as " 10,000 Rule of Expertise"  This suggests that. "To become an expertise one must invest at least 10,000 hours of practice" But the question then arrives as to what type of practice.

"If we take the task of reproducing a list of numbers.. at first a person recites to memory the numbers and can reach about 10... then it is found that a method has to be develop to remember more" Ericsson discovered that "humans have an inability to pay attention to a lot of things at the same time" "and we were interested in how could training really change that". The volunteer whom was being studied had reached a point of 10 numbers when he began a strategy of remembering the 1st three numbers and recalling from memory the remaining numbers and "eventually came up with a system which would allow him to do like 20 of these groups"

First important point is that eventually there was a need to develop a system or strategy to achieve the expertise wanted to be developed.  "But if you were sticking to doing more of the same you would never get beyond (a certain point) "but by shifting the strategy of using long term memory he was able to open up the space or possibilities" "and we studied others of his colleagues which also got to about 100 digits" "And now the current record (in 2016) is over 450 digits"

Secondly, "the amount of time it took to develop the skill to be able to do it". "This was over 400 hours during a couple of years" doing one hour a day. But "that intensity of being able to focus while being tested" "is part of the success of his training". "One of the things we saw here, and with many other experts; is the ability to concentrate during short periods".

"We are making a point between "purposeful practice" and "deliberate Practice". Those who have been able to reach the 450 ditits level are being taught the fundamentals and then like a music studiant work to practice these principles, they can achieve a high level of expertise. "By executing that system they are able to do vasely more than that individual that had to figure out for himself".

"That is a powerful idea.. if you can draw on what teachers have learned over time... about the best way of doing things... and as you get high and higher .. there are going to be few and few things which will allow you to reach one step further" toward your expertise.

Another interesting point is that although similar task or expertise in individuals, it may not be applied to different aspects of similar tasks. For example: The current Guinness World Record for recitual of the digits of π’s (pi)  is held by Lu Chao of China, who, in 2005 recited 67,890 digits of the value of pi. However,  about the same time, "Ericsson and his colleagues gave Lu as well as a group of people of the same age and education level, a test that measured their "digit span". (how well they could remember a sequence of random digits presented at a rate of one digit per second)". (Life Science) .

How did Lu do ? "Lu`s digit span was 8.83, compared with the average of 9.27 for the rest of the group"(published in 2009 in the Journal of Experimental Psychology.) Why ? Lu was using a method  "called the "memory palace"   which has (been) applied since the time of the ancient Greeks and Romans and which involves using spatial visualization (as a mental method) to remember information such as digits, faces or lists of words. ( read how at Life Science) .

Further in the podcast interview Ericsson states " I know of historial examples of people who had to relearn how they were doing things in order to advance to the next level of mastery" 

  Sometimes an mental ability can be transfer to a similar newly defined ability by translation of that ability but often the individual on reaching his plateau of performance must now find a new mental application to build his future advancements. " 

Next blog will look at the type of practice and the mental development which this podcast suggest is possible.

Making yourself a Champion in Bowls

"When someone is very good at a given thing, what is it that actually makes him good?” was the seemingly primordial

question which  Professor Anders Ericsson attempted to answer in his 1993  paper  published in the "Psychological Review". Remember that research in the  field of Human Behavior is difficult because volunteers for research are not willing to commit to several years of trials. 

Ericsson`s most recognized research was what is today called the "10,000-hour rule". Although misinterpreted by many like Malcolm Gladwell it suggests that 10,000 hours of practice is needed to become an expert in a field or sport. 

In his early research, Ericsson by using "violinists at the Academy of Music in Berlin, divided the selected music students into three groups: those who had the chops to be world-class performers, those who were very good and those who planned to become music teachers." 

Professor Ericsson and two colleagues  discovered that what separated the violinists’ skill levels was not natural-born talent but the hours of practice they had logged since childhood. 

The future teachers registered around 4,000 hours, the very good violinists 8,000 and the elite performers more than 10,000 hours. The same study was conducted with pianists, with similar results, thus creating what became known as the "10,000 hour rule".

Using  the next few blogs I will look first at the  Podcast " titled "Anders Ericsson: Dismantling the 10,000 Hour Rule" by  the "Good Life Project founder Jonathan Fields who interviews K. Anders Ericsson, PhD, and discuss his last published book "Peak" on the "Secrets from the New Science of Expertise". (2016).

The first miss interruption of Ericsson work was by Malcolm Gladwell, author of best-selling "Outliers" (2008)

 actually popularized Professor Ericsson’s research;  but to many in the field of  "Human Behavior" research, it was consider to oversimplified  the findings of Ericsson`s 2009 research paper. 

Angela Duckworth, a professor of psychology at the University of Pennsylvania and the author of

actually popularized Professor Ericsson’s research;  but to many in the field of  "Human Behavior" research, it was consider to oversimplified  the findings of Ericsson`s 2009 research paper. 

Angela Duckworth, a professor of psychology at the University of Pennsylvania and the author of

As far back as 2006, Stephen J. Dubner and Steven D. Levitt, authors of the book “Freakonomics,” attempted to explained Ericsson research in their NY Times profile of Professor Ericsson and stated that his lifetime work was "on defining what makes an expert in their field."  

Their book “Freakonomics, suggests that data analysis and incentives can explain a lot about human behavior. Using their tools of economics; they attempted to explain real-world phenomena that are not conventionally thought of in terms of "economics". (by Shortform) 

Good Capitalistic Sports Information

 In  the year 2020 when the CoVid 19 virus scorched the earth and closed Lawn 

Bowls Clubs the individual`s love of their sport has place "Stay-at-Home" Armchair athletics on the Internet searching for new articles or information on Lawn Bowls.

Yes there are a few countries which have returned to the Greens like Australia and New Zealand and a few social media sites like Australian Lawn Bowls Facebook which streams 2020 Championship games, but the most common Lawn Bowls watching has been the "Friday RePlay" of extremely good past Championships on Club`s Facebook.

I speak of Capitalistic Sports Information because with the Internet in almost everyone`s home the Search for Lawn Bowls instruction other than Learn-to-Bowl videos on Youtube is almost impossible. 

Depending upon your browser and it`s "search structure" you may never find that specific sport information you thought to seek out; without hours of searching or investment into a on-line service.  I use the word  "Capitalistic" to describe the information we are seeking is because websites and social media structures are build and maintained for one big purpose -- "to make money". Yes from obvious things advertising to the less obvious "Cookies" data collection. These things are what drives and give our results in the first choice of your search engine.

An example of such surfing and searching, I started with a good point of depart. The web page of a great Coaching icon.  Lachlan Tighe Bowls and with an interest in his notes on mental development for the athletic. A small reference which Lachlan had written  when in 2012 to 2014 he was Head Coach for Bowls Canada. 

He speaks of reading the works of  Anders Ericsson on "solitary practice" as a method of developing the top athletic perfection of their skills. ( Mr. Ericsson a psychologist who was reconize for his research into the skill development of experts) 

  Searching for"solitary practice" on an Microsoft EDGE browser gave me the introductory description of "A solitary practitioner is an individual who chooses to practice their spiritual faith in the privacy of his or her home or other designated space, without the need to participate in a group such as that of a Wiccan coven". obviously to general so I then modify the request  to "Solitary Sport practice".

This finds 3,040,000 results and mainly based upon two Search criteria,  I am in Canada, Canadian websites and "Sports Practice".  Immediately I am suggested sites like Canadian Research in Sports such as SIRC (Sport Information Research Center) and it forums or topics and secondly  suggestion of-sites on leadership or sport practices. 

Obvious I need a more unique Search  likes "Works of Anders Ericsson"  which catch on the name "Ericsson" and reveals news of his death ( June 17 this year in Tallahassee Fl at the age of 72) and  finally further down I find a few interlinks of his works and  research with published results. 

Stats of Blogger Sept 2019

In a study by Cloudfront.net Cote,Baker and Abernethy published  20 pages on researching  perfection by athletics under detail solitary practice which I will blog and review in the next few days as my future blogs for December tackle this subject.

We can see from the Blog Stats (photo at right) of Sept 2019 that there is a sudden increase in readership and the topic of concern was a 2015 blog  "Being a Leader Bowler".  Also we can see that the search was a Google.com search. This sort of information allow a blogger to choose their topics for future blogs based upon the interest of their reader base.

The photo (right) show my second dissatisfaction of the recent Capitalistic changes of the Internet. Compared to the previous stats (Above) this stat is useless to  a sport blogger, I have been happy to leave my  over 200 writings with Blogger.com which supplied me enough  personal satisfaction to continue to write. But to Google.com, these detail statistics add no revenue to the company, so now the simple new stats show a graft increase from 28th Nov 29th  of over 60 readers but no longer with  reference . It is  obvious that for blog writing, a new format of information is needed puts less value on the " save money" and more on the satisfaction of the contributor and the reader. 

As a blogger, my articles were based upon the statistics  I received from Blogger.com  and clearly identified my readers and the area of the world where the sport of lawn bowls is being developed. to the topic which the search had brought reader to the site and even less information now with no indication of the  location of reader.

Maybe I will do like Mr. Tighe and build my own website. But than again, I am not a professional coach using my knowledge to write books; which are to be sold or using my website to obtain employment in some international bowls organization.   

The need to make money by website owners means the Internet is not longer showing an interest toward the needs of the reader. Maybe we will soon see all these free information blog site began to charge us with an access fee.  I have started backing up my nearly 200 blogs to my private USB and will begin printing a club coaching binder; but at 76 it may be my last project but I will continue to blog..

But for the rest of this CoVid 19 Shut-in period I will tackle Lawn Bowls on the Mental Performance and Subconscious Mind development.  Ty 4 following

Feeling the Distance 3/5

If, to yourself, your judgement of the Jack Distance and your delivery of your bowl to touch and stop at the jack. is like the Baseball player, It is a feeling and

Instinctive Baseball Throw

"I just do it" is your reply to "How do you know the distance ?"; then you understand the mental balance between Physical Performance and Subconscious Performance and probably find yourself  in the Zone. The zone is a period of a absence of mind which during the delivery allows the subconscious to perform the action which for years, you have repeated the same action. (Muscle memory)

A state of mind where you are "Void" of thoughts, and this void allow the body to perform, without though, the actions and even decisions of how much weight is needed to draw to the Jack.

Much has changed in this mental aspect of sport performance and the book "The Inner Athlete" written in 1976 on this subject by Robert M. Nideffer (Phd) with the topic of "Mind Plus Muscle for Winning".   The ideas are the same but over time changes. Saw a book last week of "Zen and your Sport". 

The Inter Athlete (1967)

Always we hear that Physical performance is 10% while performance toward winning is close to 90% mental and long time developed mental abilities..

Pre-visualization was then "Mental Rehearsal" and the basketball player would see in his mind doing his basket shot and after the "Mental Rehearsal"; he came to the line to without effort made the shot. So, why not ? It had already been done 20 times in his mind.  I use the term Pre-visualization because this thinking and seeing your bowl rolling up the green; is done before you actually do the delivery of your shot.
Also Mental Rehearsal was a term use for a method of an athlete studing his  game after it had been completed. Some player can  recalls each point won or lost and analysis what could have been done differently in the game strategy; while others can not remember.  (another topic)

Earlier, I suggested training the mind to measure the distance by counting the jack throw until it stopped. This is an exercise of Visualization and teaching the mind the feeling of the jack distance from seeing it roll. The mind see the action but does not collect information unless it is instructed.  Afterward it will have the feeling and alway compare the information to previous collected information.
Also before delivery of your bowl try a  is mentally seeing your bowl  roll up the green to the jack. It is quick and a couple times before you delivered your bowl will not seem to affect you delivery. Like the Blind Bowler who can not watch his bowl roll to the jack. In his mind and knowing the time it takes for the bolw to roll to that jack distance; he visualize seeing the bowl roll to the head. (especially if he was previously a visual lawn bowler and had this visual experience before he lost his sight).

Earlier I suggested that the bowler after rolling the jack and his bowl within 30 seconds. Here we are replacing the mental Pre-visualization with an actual roll of the jack.  Try this exercise. Go out to the green and roll the jack, while counting its distance  during the roll and announce from the roll; the jack's final distance in number of meters. After several times rolling and counting the jack; ask a fellow bowler to assist you and like the blind bowler, after releasing the jack close your eyes as counting the jack roll. You helper will tell you "now" when the jack has stopped and before opening your eyes you tell them the jack distance in number of meters. This exercise is training the mind and memory.

 How precise are you ?. Over a short time you only need to count a few numbers and the mind will compare the jack speed and you can actually tell where the jack will stopped.  In the beginning of developing this mental skill or ability it will requires you count always count but eventually you can close your eyes and feel the distance of the jack.

Rebecca Van Asch
in the zone

One of the good things of streaming is the close-up view of bowlers. In the photo on the left Rebecca Van Asch for a moment is in the zone during a jack delivery. Becky has the habit of always keeping her eye on the bowl or jack but in the photo she is in her "Zone". Watch her bowl delivery and you will frequently see this microsecond moment and empty expression.

At this point in the jack roll, the instruction of how far the jack is to be send has already been decided and given to the subconscious mind. Now, being in the Zone it is just to let the mind to do what it know how to do. Using muscle memory and a the mental pre-delivery instruction, the subconscious mind now combines everything to perform and give the expected result. But also immediately after the release of the jack or bowl the player can feel  the "Subconscious feeling" of satification on what has been done and even before we see  the result.

This feeling of distance, can be said to be just that awareness of jack distance from seeing over the years several thousand incidents of the bowl rolling to the jack and feeling the duration of  time that the rolls needs for that distance of the jack.

To be in the zone and your mind in a void of emptiness is hard to do. But in the delivery of Chloe Stewart we see a trick which allow the player to find or be in the Zone.

A Zone getting Trick
Chloe Stewart of Australia

 In the photo on the left, we see in her delivery that she starts with her hand on her leg above the knee and as she lower her body to delivery the bowl she slides her hand down her leg to the knee. This action is a "Zone getter" in that to empty the mind  we need to be occupied our thoughts  with something else.  In the early stays of development of her style someone suggested that if she thinks of feeling her hand on her leg and knee the subconscious mind will take total control. Probably now she only thinks of the felling of her hand when she find herself losing her Zone delivery period.   Just muscle memory and subconscious mind doing what it knows how to do. Letting it happen by being involved in another thought.

This visualization also help in times of mental instability. Being upset for something is not an international athletics regular problem but some people get upset regularly during a game.  Mathew, a young club member, mention in a earlier 2015 blog used visualization to relax himself and return to concentration on his game by visualizing the image of the tree at the end of the home club green and the sunset behind it which was a regular early evening beauty that most of us club member knew. Use your mind more and more to help you perform that perfect Delivery to the jack or a spot you want to leave the bowl.

The next step is being able to feel your  delivery as being well done. When doing a relax delivery and reaching your "In the Zone period" you also have a positive feeling of success which only gets better and better.  While practicing without a jack, try to have that feeling which occurs when you have done a good delivery ?

Tighe Bowls Video Nominate
your bowl ressults.

In the Lachlan Tighe Coaching Video series (2018) found on Youtube Coach Tighe defines the exercise  by saying "By the time the bowl has gone 7 meters, they (the bowler) must Nominate where the bowl will finish", He then explains  the reason for this exercise is to help the participants "to be in touch with their body".  As I explain in this blog, to have a feeling of your delivery and maybe your mistakes and success.

In this same principle of practice, bowl your bowl up the green but without a jack, Repeat it several times to get a nice grouping of your four bowls but the exercise is to search for that feeling which indicates you did a good delivery. Like with the above exercise of  Lachlan Tighe video; announce your bowl placement immediately based upon your feeling of how good your bowl was. Remember, unless you seek to feel that feeling it is not easily to find or feel. This is the purpose of this exercise, Feel the feeling of a good delivery or what was done wrong. (feel the lost of balance or the little grip slip.

I have seen and explained in an earlier blog how the subconscious mind was able to detect a shot error of  2 mm off target at a distance of 8 meters. In "Muscle Memory Managing" May 2019 I was recalling a coaching I was doing in 2010 0r 2011 with an International Petanque player who was practicing. He thought he has seen the jack (in petanque it is about 1 inch large) being hit and fly off to the left and we went there to find the hit jack. However I had the jack in my hand because I had removed it from its hiding place behind the bowl. The exercise was for Alex to pass the ball in front and hit the jack but while Alex was returning to the shooting circle, I had removed it. But he did not know this  and continued his exercise. His subconscious mind knowing his shot was good but that he had missed by a small 2 mm off center  in his shot;  actually created an image in Alex's visual feedback  of the jack flying to the left as would have normally happen with that missing the center of the jack.

Some questions to think about and the feeling of Jack distance.

 Does the players in the head influence how we see or feel the Jack distance?. (I sometimes stay on the bank with a long jack because the player thinks the jack is closer and less chance to be too heavy and in the ditch).  A tall person in the head make the jack seem closer as distance is calculate by size of objects.

Looking up the green towards the Jack we have an open field behind the fence at that end of the green. How does this change your evaluation of the jack distance ? With the big clubhouse behind the jack we find we are often to heavy think the jack is closer..

These deceptions on how we  feel about the Jack distance should be part of our first  three or four ends as we are always remind ourselves that the objects we see behind the Jack changes our  judgement the distance to the Jack. Eventually in time  the subconscious will include this variable in its calculation of where the jack is located.. but the subconscious need to be told or trained to look for these things.

As a conditions of play changes, speak to the subconscious mind telling it "the rain will slow the jack" or "the lifting of the dew has increased speed as the green warms up". Remind the subconscious during the delivery those adjustments that must be made for the changing conditions. Having done this we do a delivery from within the void or Zone.

ReplyForward

Judging Jack Distance Coaching

Planning a series of Blogs on a basic topic like Judging Jack Distance requires an approach to the presentation of the topic with what most of the blog readers actually know. I believe that most of my readers are great bowlers with a prefected method of delivery. Using "Muscle Memory" and even a "Mind's eye" view of their bowl to the Jack; they are fighting to "Being in the Zone" and identify when  "Not in the Zone". This "Zen" Zone is an absence of thought period during Delivery when the subconscious is free to perform without us attempting to consciously control our movements.

A good Club Coach, teaching new members would be wise to begin with these members first practicing with the jack at alway the same distance. As their delivery become a smooth movement and their ability to roll the ball to always the same distance without changes or effort we define this as their "Natural Delivery Distance".  If on each Coaching session the Jack is always at their "Natural Delivery Distance" there is no judgement but simply prefection of the Delivery and the corrections suggested by the coach. Any Coach who places the jack at always a different distance and tell the new member that they will develop a feeling of  the Jack distance is lacking in understanding. The student should be told that the jack distance is now fixed (like the house in Curling) and they will later develop the ability to roll to various jack distance based upon their "Natural Delivery Distance".  Of course, as the student makes correction to their style of delivery they find the correction causes their natural distance to change to a new distance.

All new members, are first taught the proper style and techniques of delivery and if the club offers the following year a follow-up "Second Year Coaching";  you then teach them how to add on distance and take off distance from their "Natural Distance" which they had seen their development the previous year. As from year to year, we develop our personal style of delivery and have now a constant movement and result; our subconscious mind was collecting and developing a storage of these memories as performance information.

Through these blogs you will read about  "Being in the Zone" and now when you stand at the mat and looking up the green toward the jack and prepare for the Delivery we think  "Jack is about 26 meters", This thinking is a calculation of distance and allow the mind to search out the memory needed for Muscle Memory. Above I said "You stand at the mat" because all this thinking is Conscious mind working to know the distance. (example of thinking ... the mat is out 3 meters from the "Mat Line" and jack is just a few feet over half way. (half way between  the minimum distance (23 Meters) and the back ditch which is probably 33 meters. Half-ways is 23 + 5 or 28 meters and now substract the mat distance which is now out 3 meters.

 With this 25 meter plus a few feet calculation, your subconscious mind is now ready to use a trick of Delivery to add on or remove some delivery distance from your Natural distance. This Distance evaluation must be a part of your Pre-mat routine unless you feel you can judge the jack distance and you just roll the bowl and the subconscious does it.  (Yes maybe after many years this will began to  happen).  For the beginning member (2nd or 3rd year) the subconscious will know that for that distance "YOU" must take off 2 or 3 meters from your "Natural Distance" of  28 meters.

When we are teaching a new student, we want to develop consistency in their delivery; so we explain how  the pendulum swing, the body movement and even balance; all contribute to the "Natural Distance", During that first year they saw (and told by their coach) how perfection of their delivery had change their jack distance. (I did not say "Natural Distance" because in the first years few new members have a natural distance) We then instructed  the students on  how they can put on distance with increase body movement or roll to a shorter jack distance by shortening the pendulum swing or our forward step. (I use a clock method as if the arm and pendulum swing is going back to 7 o`clock)  Over time the subconscious mind will combines all these modification to your delivery and depending upon it's evaluated distance to the jack; will always give a  delivery which is in the Zone. (Zen Zone)

If Lawn Bowls was like the Canadian Ice Sport of Curling we would find the jack always place at the same distance, 23 Meters, and all Novice bowler  need only to develop is a style and weight of delivery for that one Jack Distance. But with Lawn Bowls we Learn our Delivery movement then we "Learn to Deliver to a Distance".

Curling Rink

 In Curling the center of the "House" (which is like the jack in Bowls with several rings) is always at the same distance; 21 Meters from  the "Release Hog Line" (today our Short Jack in a Lawn Bowls game is still at 21 meters); Probably when Curling was being firstr developed it was easlier on a frozen lake to create the "Center Ring of the House" and thus thee removal of the need to always evaluation  the Distance to the jack before delivery. Lawn would be so much easlier with a fixed jack distance. 

Back to the topic...In "Golf", The golfer arrives at the tee (or his ball in the fairway) and  looks up the fairway and decide the distance to the green (or his layup location) and decides how he will arrive at that distance. Like the Lawn bowler, the golfer knows that he has a consistent swing giving distance for each club, and with  always

Golf Clubs for
difference Distances

 the same amount of energy to his swing. ( same delivery. In Lawn Bowls). In Lawn Bowls, this delivery energy which the bowlers has developed give him a "Natural Distance" when performed correctly.

 However,  the Golfer has several Clubs and know each club distance that his constant swing will give  as a "Final Drive Distance". The novice Lawn Bowler, however when stepping up to the mat, after evaluating how far the Jack is from the front of the mat; and must also modify his delivery for that distance. His "Longer Forward Step" or "Faster body movement" are like clubs in the golfers bag. We often call these tricks of delivery modifications in our "Toolbox" as tricks of How To modify our delivery to get that distance.

With most Lawn Bowling Greens about 33 meters ( a normal square green) and the minumim distance of a "23 meters Jack" (25 from the front ditch) is12 meters from the "Back Ditch" which is 33 meters. Even when the mat is not brought forward and the jack is placed at it's farthest distance on the "Respot Mark" (31 meters);  the Lawn Bowlers may has to adjust their delivery weight by 10 meters, (impossible for some).

Have you ever watched a Blind Lawn Bowling competition.  In our club we have a "Blind Lawn Bowler" who is winning gold at  international Competitions. Before losing his sight he was a Australian Lawn Bowler and for many years did international competitions. So, having bowled as a sighted lawn Bowler he had his "Muscle Memory" an evev a feel of the jack distance.

Having experence the actual distance of the jack as a visual lawn bowler, the front of the mat to the jack being given by the Jack Placement Assistance; his bowl were frequently  on the jack. the Jack placement  assistance would announce the distance of the Jack was from a the "Mat Line, If the mat was not on the "Mat Line" the Blind Bowler's assistance or "Coach" (Assistance) would tell him about the placement of the mat ahead of the Mat line and maybe even do the calculation. The individual  "Born Blind" Lawn Bowler had with their introduction to Lawn Bowls been taught and developed his Delivery without the need for an evaluation of the  Jack Distance? It is simplethe subconscious has mixed the Learning of the Delivery  and Corrective Delivery instruction with where the bowl will actually roll. Their thinking was only to do a good delivery and accept what their coach was telling them about the jack distance. 

In an earlier Blog about evaluating the jack distance it was said that the Baseball player in left field when throwing the baseball to home plate for a runner; knows that his subconscious evaluate the distance while he is expected to throwing the ball.  This evaluation is experience, or "Muscle Memory" over years of rolling bowls which the blind and  experienced Blind has developed.

 However, as all baseball fields are about the same distance to home plate from left field, and all lawn bowls greens are the same size; we can began our Novice bowler by explaining each new jack position must be followed by a evaluation of the distance.   As a coach, when I start my new bowlers, I place the jack at their Natural distance and discuss different jack distance in the 3rd or 4th lesson of coaching. But to tell the new "Novice"  bowler (new club member being coached) that he will eventually gets to a feeling  of distance after years of experience can be rather discouraging. Remember, every new bowler has a different "Natural Distance" so the first 3 lessons are a "one on one" coaching.Later in the 4th lesson where the coach is with 2 or 3 new bowlers the instructions will  now began explaining how to bowl to different jack distances. Certainly, not expect the new member to know how to do it.

Sometime, a "Short Jack" Delivery might have a different "style" of delivery; and  also one would say that the "style"  has change for a long (maximum) distance Jack. One "short jack "style might remove the  body movement part of the delivery while the Longer Jack style might do a larger step which creates a faster body movement.  Looking like two different style of delivery they are just modification to the Natural Distance Delivery. 

As we become more consistance and on the jack; we may think we have advance beyond this method of Evaluation of  Jack Distance and Delivery of our Bowl; but if we feel we can drop this modified style method:  we get the feeling of the jack distance. Do we still need all our  tools or tricks in our Tool Box?  No !! we must remember that the trick that helps us also require we learn to quickly fix our errors, One such error is putting more confidence in our feeling the distance.  The sister (Blog 5) of this method will show tricks to understand our evaluation of  the Jack Distance. 

.Blogger.com helps the blogger to know and evaluate his audiance with stats like the one on the right. the following two charts show the participation after I posted the new blog on twitter.

May 19th Blog Stats only a day after publishing
of the 2nd Blog on Jack Distance.

The 2nd part of this blog of 5 parts was published only a day earlier than writing this. The stats on the right show the volume of readers who follow me on twitter and received the  announcement of the blog. 

Each line on the graft show one reader and how many blogs they viewed.  Like advertising, one blog brings a reader and they stay to look at other blogs. The Map (Lower right) show the area of the world  where the blog viewer accessed my blog.  Because I am in North Americia and posted midday here, the mat shows a lot more Canadian and Americian bowlers visiting the blog. 

Blog Stats taken 6:29 am 21 May
showing the australian blog readers

The Stats on the right shows 2 days later when I did this blog. Of course the readers seem from the same area although the blogs they read differ.  Two days allow for local club discussion and suggestion to other club members to go look at the blog.  Stats are not always go as sometime they give false information.  I saw a lot of participation from Russia and thought that they were interest in Lawn bowls.. Actually now Russia is always showing as a small participation because once I wrote "Would you invite Donald Trump to your Club ? " and since then, their BOTS are  always checking my blog for TRUMP news. No I don't think Lawn Bowls is being developed in Russia or similar areas.

Update, Today June 15, 2022, I have cleaned up this blog and published it under a new title..How to Judging Jack Distance. The Old blog "Golf Like look at Jack Distance" which was  deleted.  Enjoy actual date should be June 2022..

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Judging Jack Distance 2/5

By calling this "The Baseball Method" of evaluating the "Jack Distance", I believe, the reader will remember that the baseball player has an instinctive feeling of his needed distance. (which is what this method of distance evaluation is really)

The baseball player has developed this feeling, over years of training and game play; where he has always tried to accurately throw the baseball to that precise distance needed for a great play. In a similar manner lawn bowlers have developed an instinctive ability to roll the Bowl to the Jack distance they feel.

How the brain might judge an object's distance, whether by using Vision Preception, Times Elapes  (of moving objects) , Revision of Action/Results would be a long blog. It is best to suggest the reader google these actions.

However, the brain is a lazy organ which does not want to repeat the same thing several times; and therefore our subconscious makes judgments from what it  has previous seen and done. This blog and its sister (blog 3) will attempt to define the errors this laziness has caused and how the developing bowler should work to re-educate or program the subconscious so instinctive actions are based on information that has been changed and now is accurate.

In the "Baseball player" example we only looked at the physical action and the minds' instinctive ability to throw the ball. What made the profession outfielder is a lot of other things and other decisions. He would not have caught the coming ball without evaluating the speed and his expectations of the bounces. His decision to throw to second base involves a "Open Sport" analysis (Bowls is a "Closed Sport") as he remained open to everything happening around him. His judgement on how far, and how much energy he needed may also have meant learning about the stadium in which he was playing. Left field may be an extra 30 feet as to his own Stadium.

 All of these things he has calculated in a  fraction of a second and the muscles and instinct have made the required delivery. His feedback as he watches his ball go to where it was intended; thrown with all the experience of years, now  provides new information to the subconscious mind for the next time this instinctive throw is needed.

You win the coin toss and you have a choice to take the mat  or give the mat away.  It would be nice to have the last bowl. What do you do? You make the decision based upon your knowledge of your "Lead". Your team must have been build on the ability of your lead to throw the "Jack" and draw a "Bowl" to its location. How does the lead do this ? Distance Evaluation ? or Performance ?

Rebecca Van Asch

Why mention the "Lead" on a "Judgement of Distance" blog ? Because any skills of "Instinctive Draw" and a delivery has to be based upon a proper evaluation of the jack Distance. When you started lawn bowls, and probably as a "lead"; your mind began, on the first day; collecting information on evaluating the "Jack Distance". With each "Jack" delivery or "Bowl" delivery the mind has added more information.  Photo (left) from 2018 Australian Indoor Championship Woman Singles. Both players, Rebecca Van Asch and Chloe Stewart (behind) watch the jack as it is rolled up the green.
 As a beginner and you watch the jack go up the green, but did you tell your subconscious  mind: What to watch? how to measure?, and what information is available and how to use it ? What you think, will become instructions to the subconscious, so be thinking while you watch the jack roll.
If nothing, what did the mind see and analysis?

In your first year of bowls, did you always count the jack speed like you later learn to count the bowl's;  to know the green speed? The mind is collecting information on distance and a good count helps evaluate distance; otherwise the mind will only get a feeling.."It feels short" "It feels Long" or a lazy mind "I don t feel anything".
 The count does not matter (don t remember the number); it is just teaching a lazy mind to watch and calculate as the jack rolls. Better than the new player who turns to go get their bowl as the jack is rolling; because later as the bowler develops, more refined an "Instinctive Draw", the subconscious will  still needs a habit of collecting precise information.

 The problem is. Like any computer machine without instruction, and the mind is an organic computer;  the subconscious mind will made decision based on  bad or missing information. Today, regardless of your type of Distance Judgement, the subconscious is still developing its method of an evaluation of distance and how to perform a perfect delivery roll to that distance. 

In https://www.verywellhealth.com/ while talking about "Motion Parallax" Dr Tony Bedinghaus  OD  writes. "your brain uses the information to help determine distances."  One of the most valuable tools of distance determination for the lawn bowler, is the speed and roll of the jack. Unlike a baseball which is stopped by a catch, the Jack is stopped by the friction of the green and the harder it is thrown the farther it goes.. (by the way, Motion Parallax does not apply in Bowls because it refers to left/right movement of the head as vision information is collected about several distance objects and analysis by the brain for distance. But, the "Motion Analysis" of the jack as it rolls up the green does offer a lot of 

Arron Wilson ready
with bowl as Jack
is placed

information ) 

Have you ever heard said " Jack and Bowl makes 30" ?  If I was coaching on the side of the green, I would wait while you think and analysis what it might mean. You will notice with both Australian players that they are waiting at the mat with their bowls as the jack is rolling up the green and placed. (In the photos Van Asch has her bowl beside her, Arron Wilson (above) has picked up his bowl and is ready when the jack is placed)

Instinctive Bowlers know that if the Bowl is delivered within the 30 seconds after the jack delivery; the mind and body Subconsciously remembers (Muscle Memory) the energy used to throw the jack; and then repeats this energy with the Bowl delivery. All works together and allows the player to draw to the jack with their first Bowl.  Below, we see Canadian bowler, Ryan Bester during the 2018 Commonwealth Games Singles Final against Arron Wilson from Australia; with bowl in hand as throwing the jack. This video now (May 2020) available on Bowls Australia Facebook as their FlashBack Friday video of the GC2018 Rewind Video Series.  Another good habit to develop.

If I was to go out to the green with a golf ball, a jack and your bowl and told you to throw each one with your Natural Delivery force or weight what would you say?  What would you think would be the result ? Have you tried it ? Why not ?

Ryan Bester
Bowl in hand as roll Jack

The principle of the Natural Delivery is that you make all the same movements every time and it results in the same energy being developed and put behind your bowl. This is a collection of energy from the Pendulum swing, body movement, balance, green speed; all combined to create an instinctive delivery.  Call this energy Send Force and Green speed or lack of it as Green Friction. When you attempt to put the same energy to three objects of different size they take only what energy they can collect and the rest of the delivery "Send Force" remains in your arm. (sore arm from throwing the golf ball) The Send Force is now divided between delivery force to the ball and rejected force felt as a sore arm from throwing the smaller golf ball.  Try other balls of different weights.  (The lighter the object the more rejected force and muscle backlash) 

Yes, all three balls will go the same distance if you don t allow the subconscious mind to think that the smaller and lighter therefore must need less to go that same distance. Remember your subconscious is trying to use it knowledge of distance and give you an analysis of what you need.  You, on the other hand is  just trying to do a Natural Delivery with different objects. Don't think Bowls and that you are on the green; instead  think.. "This is an experiment" telling the mind.. Out of here

 Why?  I believe that the  the  grass friction applies differently  to the weight of the object  ball and this Green Friction change by the object size needs less energy of the Delivery. But with the same Natural Delivery  energy it will be harder with the smaller object to do that energy.. Each ball will not take the same energy storage to the ball and it will result in the same distance. 

The reason your arm hurts with the golf ball is your natural energy tries to do the same but finds because of the ball size it can not. Try it. But remember use the same delivery weight and don t think of anything but doing a perfect delivery. Your mind will want to attempt to make an adjustment and this is you taking charge of the lazy computer of a mind (subconscious).

So this Baseball Method of knowing what is the jack distance is not a measure of say "27 meters" but an instinctive feeling or ability of the subconscious to gather a feeling for the distance and than  do a  delivery with a sufficient energy, The mind will even adjust as new information is being gathered. (you now watch the jack roll, and use clues of how far the jack is  away, as learned in the next blog). Or maybe even now, you have started to do your delivery  within that 30 seconds between jack delivery and your perfectly delivered bowl and your subconscious is learning something new.  

A good exercise here is to go to the green with 4 jacks and do 4 Jack/Bowl in 30 to develop this ability of quickly following the jack. and now your subconscious with its Muscle memory results in a better delivery. When you see the difference in results you have made the  first step. Now  the next step is to feel the muscle memory feeling and know of your bowl's success.

Now for the problem.  You have finished your first bowl and leave the mat.. A minute later you come back to the mat to roll a 2nd bowl... How does that Instinctive Bowl find the jack distance?  How do you gather the subconscious into a state of readiness which will give the same result as the first bowl.

The biggest problem is that the mind is lazy and subconscious delivery does always what it want to do.. You must make the mind work to gather and hold the information and must teach the Instinctive Bowl that is delivered  by the subconscious mind, to change and do what you want it to do.  Not what it wants to do.  How?  I will attempt to explain some tricks in the next blog.