Level 3 - Mental Development
Clean up in March, 2026
"Athletes use visualization to improve confidence, sharpen skills, enhance focus, and prepare for high-pressure situations by programming their minds and bodies for success." Because I write about Lawn Bowls which does not have the level of coaching of Swimming or other Olympic sports; my readers may find this level of Sport Psychology a far reach from our club house or the club coaching. But my blog is always intended to invite discussions between club members and their coaches on such topic of interest in our quest and goal of success.
Interesting enough, I was stunned when a first year bowler in a qualification game to be on the Provincial National team did an amazing draw to within inches of the jack while going around a frontal opponent's bowl . I later talked to this individual and discover that he was an International Swimming Athletic and had simple brought his ability of Visualization to Lawn Bowls, his new interest. (Yes, he had been introduced to the sport less than a few month earlier at my old Club). 
In blogging about "Muscle Memory" and the Instinctive Abilities of the athletics, I discussed how developed physical skills advanced to a mental level which allow the Subconscious mind to take charge of these physical skills, which are then performed instinctively. However, I can always be surprised which happen in the above mention performance.
There appears in literature to be two type of "Muscle Memory".
First " Motor Skill Retention" where practice of a sport's Motor patterns are retained in the brain's nervous system. While they may fade in times of non-participation; they are regained faster than the initially development period. The common reference is "Braking your car" or the "Riding of a Bicycle". One is an instinctive action in time of danger and the other is body actions like balance regained to prevent the bike rider from falling when returning several years later to riding.
Secondly "Muscle Growth Memory" where it has been shown in Body Building that even after periods of absence from training and where muscle size has decreased; the athlete returning to development training finds the return quickly to the original muscle size and strength. It appears the number of Myonuclei in muscle cells which were increased in the original development is maintained for several months and when training is re-applied these cells quickly develop.
Here we talk about the physical development of muscles and the memory which the brain (or the cells) retain for performance. A second side of Sport development is the Mental actions of performance. In training we found ourself instructing our muscle to perform our sport's delivery and the cooperation with other muscles to do a routine of several muscles working together for precision.
(it is certain our sports develop muscle mass and therefore the muscle cell's memory apply but at this point of my blog I leave that topic).
The above incident of the swimmer doing a precise lawn bowl shot without extended practice of course puzzled me as I could not understand how a sport like swimming could offer such an influence to the performance of a Lawn Bowl Delivery. Realizing and questioning the individuals "Muscle Memory" development, I realized that muscle mass (strength and coordination) was carried forward to the new sport although I did not seeing any similar muscle performance between these two sports.
Studing, mentally, the feat which to me seem impossible, I saw two aspect. First, the act of drawing his bowl around a frontal bowl which blocked his path to the jack, (called a guard) was a mental strength. We, coaches, define these bowls as "Path Blocking Bowls" and "Mental Blocking Bowls" since a good athlete will tell you no bowl is really a "Blocking Bowls" In several of my blogs I explain "Walking the mat" which means by legal movement on the Delivery Mat your bowls will take a different path to the jack. Also, I have with years of experience developed a "Off-Bias Delivery" bowl which begins it natural bias curve later and therefore passes such bowls.
In this new player doing such a shot on his first delivery, certainly seem impossible each each new jack placement results in a different playing green with it unique characteristics. Yes, Luck is important and may have been how this happen. However, I realized that
as an international athlete he had worked and developed MI and MPI skills. (Mental Imagery and Mental Practice Imagery).
We all refer to these mental skills as Visualization. Seeing what we want to perform, having confidence, and performing it; is a type of visualization. But in our sports, MI and practice sessions (MPI) require we build our performance with these images of our actions and the mind recall action of the images to performance. (lawn bowls bowl roll, the tennis ball's spin, etc). Another aspect of Visualization is the ability to practice skills while not actually performing the physical sport. Studies show that Visualization of your skill while relax will gain improvements in the actual physical performance. Working on the development of your skills and believe in your abilities can be a off the court (or playing field) type of Practice.
Over the last few weeks, after a couple of short conversation with this new Lawn Bowler, I discovered that he had simply "Visualized" his bowl's action and has used a previous perfected skill of entering his "Muscle Memory Zone". He believed in his ability and allow his small amount of training in delivery of a bowl, to achieve what he visualized as happening. (By the way, later in the month, he and his Skip won first place at the 2025 Canadian National Championship).
This was a great achievement for Quebec, as our province never has had athletes with a level of coaching and athletic development which reached the National Team. Not since the beginning of the 21 century when Mr Larue represented Quebec and whom has for several years brought this sort of Bowls' education to our clubs many years earlier.
Always the better athletics have been developed in our western provinces or in our neighbouring Ontario. Of course, we did have an Blind Lawn Bowler who in 2015 (or so) went to South Africa International Lawn Bowls and brought back gold to Quebec. Maybe this swimmer/bowler was helped by his skip whom had been a member of a United Kingdom National Lawn Bowls' team prior to coming to Canada. It is certain that winning gold at the 2025 Nationals in "Lawn Bowls Pairs is a team effort of which we are all very proud of them.
Under the Association for Applied Sport Psychology we find a detail explanation of research into Visualization. Jennifer Cumming has been working for more than 20 years, and with 181 publications on her research; she is a leader in this field, For the reader who has a further interest in this area; I leave her work as another source of reading. I will attempt in the next three blogs, to join the dot in this area of Sport Psychology and how it applies to Lawn Bowls and "Muscle Memory". ( Now back to the blog)
How he achieved such a quick and unique switch to Lawn Bowls involved his Visualization Mental Development from his years of International competition and training.
The above PeakSports.com article reads " Elite athletes utilize the power of guided imagery or visualization. Imagery has long been a part of elite sports and many Olympic athletes have mastered the skill with the help of Sport Psychologists and Mental Game Coaches.
Guided visualization or imagery for athletes is consciously controlling the images or directing an athletic script in your head. One example of guided imagery that you having unknowingly used is when your coach was teaching you a new skill. You created an image in your mind of how the skill should look or the successful execution of the skill."
So the athletic "Creating an image of their expectation and with this mental training, creates the proper instructions and direction toward their performance. a "Mental Development" and an aspect of training which international athletics work to develop.
In a previous blog I explained how in my Archery perfection I had developed such a strong mental image of guiding my competition "arrow shot" to the 10 spot (target center); that I had actually experienced a "Mental image" of seeing myself at the shooting line from above. My memory of this event and visualization was so detailed that as an experience of a "out-of-body" image that to this day, I can even recall that memory of that shot being seen from above. I am sure many athletics see them self doing their performance as if watching from a distance.
Visualization is not unique to Sports. Another similar visualization is probably best called "Perfection Visualization" because the individual know what the result will be and works toward creating it. An artist in wood, stone or even furniture has an idea (view) of what the finish product will be and progress slowly toward that point of perfection. However, unlike in sports, where the delivery or performance of the athletic is completed and they (the athletic) then waits for the result; the artist continues their action until they are completely satified with the result.
A photographer wanting to get that "Perfect Sunset" or the Painter wanting to get that "Perfect expression" or "feeling", must visualize the image they are to create. The photographer waits and waits as the sunset become more and more beautiful. However, his visualize image is his patience as he compares what he see with what he has just seen. If he was to wait too long as the sun sets, the maximum beauty of the moment will have passed. It is lost.
Of course, I did news photography in the 1960s when the camera was the 4x5 Graphic with a 4x5 inch sheet of film in a removeable film holder. So when I took a picture it took minutes to change the film cassettes and be ready for the next picture with a new film cassette. Yes many years ago. In the sunset image example, if you were to miss that exact moment of perfection; you knew it was quits for the day as you knew that now you would wait for another day and the next sunset if it came. Or standing all night in the rain to get a perfect Lightning shot or two or three flashes was where expectation and patience is developed. Athletes also in visualizing their development and performance need patience as sometimes muscle performance or mental skills don't happen over night.
As a News Photographer in my youth I had some of those perfect shots. My wife, who is a professional painter often produce very unique painted images which create emotions in the viewer, but also she often scraps her work because as she added more and more paint to the image, she has also passes that "Point of Prefection" and missed her perfect emotion feeling (sunset).
In Lawn Bowls this "Result Visualization" can be simply seeing the image of your bowl in the head and believing in your ability to allow the "Muscle Memory" to create that performance. But what athletics develop through Visualization is more complete than a "Result Image" or vision. To maintain Focus which involves concentration and a discipline of thought is more about pushing distractions aside and only having the actual performance occuring as expected.
In "Result Visualization", I can imagine the Lawn Bowl skip or singles player projecting his strategy or expectation as he decides his path to catching up in the score and winning. (two points here, a long jack and two ends of 2 points). These thoughts in Mental Psychology is Positve Self-talk and discussed later in another blog.
Much like a Soccer player seeing his path of running up the field as he goes toward his goal making shot. I would assume a swimmer wanting to close a lead that the opponent beside him has gained, would see his advance location at each turn of his swim with the object or "Result Vision or Image" being that of the opponent being behind him. Even if just a few strokes but still an image of winning.
With 3256 readers this month, which is half of July; it is because the bowl season is ending in Australia and in the North I get readers who are starting their season of Bowls and search out blogs.
In the second part of this blog I will move into "Projection Visualization" where having a memory of the actual bowl rolling to the jack in another previous time will allow you use that visualize bowl roll from your memory. This skill of Projection Visualization is hard for new athlete and even the experience lawn bowl athletics, but the distances to the Jack is more than trying to simply feel that distance. By the use of an image of memories of previous jack distances and to visualize the bowl rolling to that jack distance is a mental skill able to be developed. To be able to project it as been a memory you view, and changing that image if not the correct distance to the jack did requires a lot of mental teaching.
These Mental practice for "Projection Visualization" is like physical practice for "Muscle Memory" and if you remember your physical practice you can understand it will be hard. Where the memory you view is changed until you have chosen the memory image of the correct distance of the jack is done before your "Muscle Memory" Routine is engage it is more Preparation as you are preparing to roll.
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