Lawn Bowls "Using the Head"

In Lawn Bowls the "Head" has many meanings.The bowls gathered around the jack, the "Skip" as the team's head; and lastly, that thing with which we think. Often as athletics in developin a performance, forget the real basics. Prior to 2023 these blogs were various aspects of "Seeing" the game. Now, looking at ideas for all and even the french Petanque,, as a way not thought about as being "Lawn bowls". I also hope that the blogs will introduce discussion between members at your clubs .

Monday, March 3, 2025

Communication with the Subconscious 3/3

Psychology Today Canada on June 24, 2021 there was a Entry by R.Douglas Field Ph.D which explained "How Muscle Memory Works" and says "A recent study shows that interspersing short breaks between repetitions encodes skill memories better than back-to-back practice sessions".

This publication is interesting because as Coaching teaches us that students have a level of saturation when learning we now see the brain also needs a rest. In the recent article published on June 8 in the "Cell Report" Dr Field suggest that "Mental Saturation" occurs when our brain is over worked.

The "Cell Report" study shows " the presence of prominent, fast waking neural replay during the same rest periods in which rapid consolidation occurs. The observed replay is temporally compressed by approximately 20-fold relative to the acquired skill, is selective for the trained sequence, and predicts the magnitude of skill consolidation".

The article says "Building “muscle memmory,” that is, developing a new skill through practice, does not work the way you probably believe, (according to a new study published in the June 8 issue of Cell Reports.) You’ve no doubt had the frustrating experience in learning a new skill, that you continue to flub up even though you make repeated attempts over and over. Yet, if you put the challenge aside for a bit and come back to it later, you find that you are now much more proficient. In learning a new skill, it turns out that the breaks between repetitions are where the action is. By monitoring how neural activity in the brain changes during learning a new skill, researchers report that mental “instant replay” after each performance is critical to perfecting the skill. Moreover, these mental flashbacks have been missed by scientists previously for a surprising reason" .

And later writes "Why, then, is this essential post-performance mental rehearsal not obvious to us as we struggle to learn a new skill? It turns out that the “mental instant replay” flashes through the brain at warp speed—20 times faster than the original experience."

There are two interesting aspects of this article. First, “mental instant replay” is a part of Feedback after the practice has been done. Later when using these collected “mental instant replay” by the subconscious mind the athletic can switch from the memory of one "instant replay" to another "instant replay" memory, and with the new memory establish the actual distance to the target (Bowl or Petanque ball) of the intended action.

In the recent Subconscious Mind in Petanque blog it was interesting to see how inter-action of minds interfere with performance. In the article I used a 2024 Petanque Tête à Tête Competition to suggested as a game video for viewing in preparation for this subject matter.

A good profile of Dylan Rocher and his many good instructive videos (in French) under the KTM Petanque official name can be found in french. We are lucky for these videos as he knows well his subject of Petanque.

Being one of the Best Petanque players of our era; and as we watch the "Take-out" performance of the 2020 PPF Grand Final "Tête-à-Tête Final we agree that Dylan Rocher's performance against Michel Hatchadourian is as beautiful as expensive art. The Passion Petanque Francaise (PPF) final video was capture and made available on Youtube by B J Petanque which is still available. With Dylan's style of "Step into Shooting Circle" think.. decide.. and Shoot (Tir) we see a single arm swing resulting in a perfect take-out shot. If we watch his performance in the 2024 Shooting competition we see why Dylan is consider the best. Yes result and accuracy are important but an athletic can become tired quickly if these mental conflicts are not addressed by a profession like a Sport Psychologist.

This blog is intended to show why with these type of changes or performance improvement at this high level of development, all sports should offer their athletics a sport psychologist or top of the line coach with experience in these subconscious (mental) interactions and performance.

Let me explain this a bit farther. Above we read of new studies which show that the brain needs time to store the data of a practice. And of course, we later, in this blog and others, explain that the subconscious can use a memory of a previous performance to calculate the distance to the target. Two new terms are introduced with this subconscious action. "tells" and "Tags" where a "Tag" is a small action placed in the Pre-shot routine to remain the subconscious of an extra action of calculation. "Tells" are similar actions which indicate the athletic's communication with the subconscious.

Sometimes the "Tag" become a permanent part of the performance and likewise is also a "Tell" however very often a "Tag" is forgotten eventually when the reason for the "Tag" has been achieved. In the Youtube video of "Mark Wildeboer Petanque Shooting" we see such a ".Tell". Probably when Mark was developing his "Memory image projection" as part of his preparation for the shot; he used his "toe-tap" as a "Tag" to process more than one "Memory image" as he progressed his calculation of the target distance by the subconscious. But also, we discover that the subconscious mind is lazy to wait for the proper time and here Mark probably forced the subconscious mind to wait as he did "Three taps" or process two images and one confirmed before his shot.

So today, Mark Wildeboer can be seen (with a Tell) of lifting his left toe a couple of times before doing his take-out shot action. The viewer sees the "Tell" now after it has become a permanent part of "Pre-shot routine"; and concluse that Mark is probably using a sort of "Memory image" (of a previous take-out shot) as he watchs his memory of those ball fly to the target ball. Because the first "chosen memory" is not of the correct distance (your viewing is cut short because that memory was a shorter distance to the target): Mark has changed his viewed "memory image". This sort of subconscious distance calculation also occur in Lawn Bowls with athletics "Pre-delivery" Routine have a three or four arm-swing in their delivery as they are establishing the "Jack" distance before the delivery action.

A second possibility is that Mark has left this "Tag" as part of his "Pre-shot routine" because very often we skip over "Pre-shot Routine" actions as we become over confident. If in his efforts to see the image of his ball flying to the target and making contact, he discovered during his development of this subconscious "Switch Memories" action; he could not accept that memory image as the correct distance and therefore could not initialize his shot. In the above Petanque video of Dlyan Rocher 2020 "Tete a Tete"; we can see his opponent Michel Hatchadourian not able to accept his readiness for his "take-out" performance. Instead, we see him going back and doing his "Tag" over and over instead of having decided that after three times the "Tags" he has completed the preparation and can now do the take-out shot.

. When you work on this type of subconscious calculation you are always waiting for a feeling of confirmation that your distance is correct. As mention above, Michel, is not able to accept his readiness. This is the conflict of Conscious and Subconscious mind. If your viewing of the memory does not reach the distance of the target, you attempt it again and as push the distance a bit farther you arrive at the ball (or Jack if Lawn Bowls). Remember after years of the sport your mind has seen you do this distance and action hundreds of times. In this case of subconscious action development, the toe-tap was kept as part of the Pre-shot Routine" to force Mark"s subconscious mind to view the take-out shot a few times prior to actual take-out being performance. The different is, that in the first explanation it is a "tag" inserted into the "Muscle Memory" to instruct the subconscious; while in the second application where Mark decided to leave it in the Pre-Shot Routine; it is a "Tell" of what Mark is think as he communicates with the subconscious. The difference is one ("Tag") was used as he practice forcing the subconscious to exchange "memory images" until Mark felt his distance to target was precise; while in the other ("Tell") Mark's decision to leave the toe-tapping in his routine was a subconscious mental remainder. It is now a part of his Routine. The "Pre-shot Routine" are all actions physical and/or mental performed before the final performance action.

Because of the several regular blog visitors and that I should respect their viewing of videos given as example of the blog; it is best that I use only one or two videos to make the point even if the action is repeated in several videos. In such a way, the blog reader having already viewed the videos, now can clearly recall what they had seen and understand the explained subject of the blog without going to view another video. On the other hand, if the reader wishes to search Youtube for Petanque or Lawn Bowls video they can certainly find several changes in different athletic performances. And certainly the performance of an athletic from year to year will show their training and mental development as they perfect their subconscious communication.

Secondly, as per the mention article (above) a "20-fold" increase is quite dramatic increase due to the mind's rest; and would suggest that the "athletic in working on their performance improvement" needs this extra time to establish a mental storage by the subconscious of the memories data acquired during their changement of the performance skill.

Because in Coaching Seminars it is suggests that a 15 minutes to 20 minutes practice session is sufficient with new students, this approach with created discussions can increase the speed a new player uses toward the learned skills. Of course the practice should be followed by a mental evaluation and discussion of the Performance and teach the student's Feedback as a continual post performance routine. The Cell Report also suggests that better acceptance of the training is possible with a rest period which allows for mental "re-organization" of the data collected and developed by the brain.

As a "Subconscious" mentor and a coach developer of "mental interruptions" within the "Subconscious action"; I often allow the student to "play" with their practice. If a coach is busy doing continual correction and endless suggestive advice during an athletic training session; the coach's action only increases the mental and personal saturation and results in the athletic reaching "Full Saturation" faster. By letting the student "play" as part of their practice, it allows for the athletic's mental evaluation of the coach's suggestion to become a part of their training. Better understand of the coach's instructions or suggestion then occur with these "play" sessions being a part of the practice session.

In Coaching you suggest a corrective action and explain the raison or the change it will cause in the final performance; but only with the "play" period of the practice will the student fully understand that change. The coach's suggestion is his projection of what that change should do as a physical and mental correction to the athletic's performance. But the athletic's "play" allows him to see various "what if" siturations and understand the intended resulting change of the coach's suggestion. The athletic not only see the change as it is produced but now understand the expectation of their coach. Good communication (listening skills) are very important as the student attempts to explain their view of the changes and the results they feeel it creates to the coach.

Sometimes these "play" sessions develop "Perfomance tools" which are useful later when the athletic's encounters the need for an adjustment to the performance. As in a "Lawn Bowls example where a smooth laydown roll of the bowl creates a constance result. The Lawn bowls coach has suggested "Do not allow a " bounce delivery" during the bowl's delivery because the energy of the delivery which would normally allow for the roll of the Bowl completely to the jack; will now be lost as the energy is now thrown into the playing surface and your bowl will finally stop short of the jack". Now knowing that the bowl loses about two to three feet delivery energy with this bad delivery, the student learns and begins working on improving the delivery by a better "laydown" type of delivery. The student also sees what level of change a bad delivery creates and understand their coach's attempt to correct it.

If student sees that the bowl is now stopping in front of the jack, he may attempt to correct the action but also the subconscious mind gather the idea of "with practice I can use this error as a "takeoff Tool". The student will probably during a practice use the "play information" to create a partial bounce (without damage or dent) and know what precise distance it will produce as the bowls now is stopping a precice distance in front of the jack.

This "Tool for Delivery take-off" was the coach's fine tuning of performance but also it is important the athletic understand the change in delivery (create a small bounce) during the conscious mind's instruction to the muscles. During this correction practice we remove the subconscious from the delivery routine and there is the danger of not allowing the subconscious to have that extra control and change which is a major part of the Subconscious performance.

As the "Muscle Memory" and "Memory retrevial" data has allows for a proper calculation of the jack distance in Lawn bowls or "cochon" in petanque, now you are doing a conscious action to create a different result. The athletic must understand how to allocate control to either mind during practice and know the interference.

Another aspect of an athletic's improvement is because there is a the pride of a good performance (delivery or take-out) the athletic has changed the objective of the Delivery performance With "Muscle Memory" we should always attempt this sort modifiction to the subconscious (instinctive) performance with a "Tag" (a small action in the delivery) rather then the athletic's conscious instruction of how to doing the change. We must always allow the subconscious to use its feeling of "Jack Distance" or "Take-out target" rather than use a "Tag" to modify or calculate that distance.

However, often the thought of the change is the "Tag" for auditive players or the view of the result is the "Tag" for the visual player; as the subconscious has now created a "Muscle Memory" instruction that does a "small bounce" (in Lawn bowls) to adjust it's calculation of distance and expected result of performance.

This example in Lawn Bowls show how the student changes his "tag" as to what is the objective of the "Muscle Memory" modification. When the student rolls up the green with an exact practice distance of the jack and then roll back down the green with again (measured) the same jack distance; they find that during the delivery going back toward the club house his bowl always stops two feet short of the jack. WHY ?? The coach should be ready to explain that maybe the raison may be that the large clubhouse behind the green causes the subconscious to miscalculate the distance; as the clubhouse makes the jack seem closer. This same happens with Petanque and a large building behind the court. Even with indoor Petanque where the opposite end of the court are windows to the outdoors the athletic will have a need to recalculate the target ball distance.

But also if the previous practice the coach was correcting the "bounce Bowl" and now the student sees this "short result" he will question his performance; especially if it was a "Muscle Memory" and he is now exiting the "Void of thought". To correct this miscalculation of distance the coach in a "subconscious" teaching "Tag" might suggest the athletic do a quick look at the clubhouse in their "Pre-Delivery" routine. This micro-second thought (vocal) or quick view (visual) of the clubhouse has remained the subconscious that the large clubhouse causes it to miscalculate the distance. In the similar Petanque miscalculation of distance the athletic may decide that looking at the top or bottom of the target ball is enough of an thought (vocal) or image (visual) (as a "tag") and lead to the subconscious doing a recalculation of of the distance.

A "Tag" is a "subconscious interruption" or action which was taking a micro second in the start of "muscle memory" performance and does a quick subconscious re-calculation. In the above example the quick look toward the clubhouse was used to make an adjustment of the subconscious feeling of the jack distance. The athletic may have found that such a "Tag" of looking pass the jack to the club house and back to the jack immediately prior to the "Muscle Memory" action is a confirmation which the subconsious then makes the adjustment wanted. I use the word "confirmation" because during a delivery there is a moment in the athletic's decision to transfer mental control to the subconscious to activate the "Muscle Memory". During the athletic's "Delivery routine" they have moved into the Subconscious with a "ok do the delivery" and "Muscle memory" then did the delivery. The "Tag" is always an mental action just prior to this confirmation and is sort of the last image (if visual) or thought (if verbal) that the "subconscious mind" see or thinks before "Muscle Memory" is activated.

Actually, as you learn to use "Tags" you will sort of feel that "pre-void" interruption as a feeling of something different. A strange feeling felt immediately as you exit the "void of thought" of the "Muscle Memory" delivery. As you exit that void your Delivery routine is now looking to the delivery result or bowl placement near the jack. Often the athletic feels that sort of satification that you have after performed a proper delivery. But in this case it is not "luck" as new bowlers experience but a satification of properly executed delivery with a "Tag".

Saturday, March 1, 2025

Communication with the Subconscious 2/3

In every sport there are three levels of development. First we learn the physical skills needed for that "Prefect Performance" which is the raison that we practice daily. After years of Perfectimg our personal Style and many club games where we learned the game rules and finer point of strategy; we approach that point of maximun possible physical development.

The next step in the individuals development is the development of a total mental

awareness and control. At this point, the conscious mind transfers control to the subconscious mind and allow for instinctive performance using the finely tuned physical perfection which has now been created and which many call "Muscle Memory". The muscles know how to do the performance so the athletic is now allowing it to happen. The Stats at the end of February shows the actual blog readers volume and how it changes in a day (26th to 28th). But ofcourse, the blog is mostly Lawn bowls and in Australia the game is well developed giving a lot of readers. Myself, in Canada can only wait for the Lawn Bowls Season in late May.

Using Petanque as the example of a "Closed Sport" where the athlete simply looks at the Petanque ball, the target of their "takeout Shot" and with a perfect performance of developed muscles movements; throws their petanque ball and removes the opponents ball. At this point of performance, the athletic feels an absence of thought as the subconscious mind performs. The shooter must feel this "VOID " which occurs when the subconscious is in control and instinctively performs those rehearsed muscle movements.

All is good as shot after shot at the opponent's ball are successfully removed. But, at some point in the game the athletic finds that the opponent"s ball is within inches of the “Cochon”. This situration is common in the end of a end of play when the opponent has unsuccessfully played or attempted take-out shot and now finds themself with only two remaining ball to play.

Anyone knowing petanque know that if the "Cochon" is knocked out of bounds and the opponent has a remaining ball to be played; then the end of play is finished without any points having been marked. If that petanque ball which is very close to the "Cochon"(small green ball in photo) is removed without touching the "cochon" then the shooter has a "Total Advantage". After such a shot when the opponent has played his last ball and no longer has any bowls to play; the shooter now has all his balls of his team's possession to be counted as point; if they are closest to the "Cochon".However, if in doing the take-out shot you had remove the jack from the legal playing surface the round ends without any points earned. Of course this is what the opponent wanted to happen while he still has a ball to be played.

A common end to the round being played and a situration where in strategy the athletic may create such a"Take-out opportunity" situration and know that with this type of shot that it requires a careful attention on how the take-out is played. In the Youtube Video of Pascal Latoublon we see the "Y take-out" shot a bit into their short video. So of importance here, is that athletic must communcate with the subconscious mind without allowing the conscious mind to take control of the "Take-out". This communication and the successful "Muscle Memory" performance which follows will requires hours of practice. The reason for practice in this mental communication is to be able to think the instruction to the subconscious and that memory or thought be so short that the subconscious mind still has control and will perform the "Muscle Memory" shot.

As an example of how the Subconscious mind mixes with your "Muscle Memory" other instinctive actions is the need to maintain your balance. Since we were first learning to walk, when we felt that we were losing our balance our body (Muscle Memory) would shift our weight to regain our balance. In any action, in any sport, when you began to lose your balance the instinctive action of gaining our balance happens and ofcourse can happen during our Delivery or sport action "Muscle Memory".

Another example which show bad communication with the subconscious is attempting to do a type of shot where we think of what will happen instead of an instruction to the subconscious. In the photo the Petnque shot is to point and after hitting the left ball on it side, have their "pointing" shot rebounds into the ball just in front of the Jack. Yes, a good Petanque player can do the "Y" Take-out shot but like the previously mention, if the petanque ball in front of the "cochon" is hit as a normal "Take-out"; there is the danger of it being moved forward and into the "cochon" and thereby moving the "cochon". The thought should be "Hit the ball on the left side" either by looking at the spot (visual) or "there" (auditive instruction). But if you were to think of the shot you would discovered that the shot would be missed because it would pass between the two balls because the subconscious would not know the action wanted and would probably throw the petanque shot between the two balls.

Eventually this subconscious communication practice will become natural and after time the "Tag" or communicated suggestion given to the Subconscious become part of the athletic flows into the "Mental Void" and the successful performance of the Take-out shot.

In the pre-shot analysis routine of creating this "Y-split take-out shot" (Video above) the coach must know if the athletic is "visual" or "auditive" in their nature of thinking. Some of us see the action and some of us hear the instruction verbally to the mind. Yes, the athletic after many years of physical practice has reached this point of development where the conscious mind no longer is giving instructions and is in total absence of control, During their performance they may have felt the " Void" of thought which allows "Muscle Memory" or instinctive actions.

In the atheltic's "Pre-performance routine", the athletic has decided what is the next action and in doing his take-out shot, the thrown petanque ball must just strike the edge of thee opponent ball causing a "Y-split" take-out. A fine shot as per the attempt to strike the ball anywhere and accept the results. A thought or image from the athletic's conscious mind is a "Tag" or remainder; and it is communicated to the subconscious mind just prior to entering the void which is followed by the "Muscle Memory" performance.

As with the years of physical practice where the conscious mind told the muscles what action to perform now the "conscious mind" seeks out the feeling of the " Void" of thought which means all performance control is transferred to the subconscious mind. This "Instinctive Performance' allows a "Muscle Memory" action which results in the removal of the opponent's ball.

First, part of this "Mental practice" is the seeking and feeling this "Void of thought". To understand how one seeks out this "Zen Void" look at something and then close your eyes. While your eyes are closed, you will feel an emptiness or "void of thought " and if you have developed a "Muscle Memory" take-out Petanque shot; they you know and have felt during your practice this void or emptiness just as you were looking at the target and doing the "take-out".

But the mental practice is not just feel this void but to give a suggestion of the shot expected and then to seek the " void". The void is the actual start of the "Muscle Memory" performance and if you seek this "void" you will not have thought of the shot but actually saw it finished as you instinctive performance ended. You saw the shot performed and now feel the void as control is returned to the conscious mind. The shot is performed because when your conscious mind was feeling the void the subconscious mind was actually doing the shot instinctively.

The reason the mental practice is needed and eventually after several months of practice; the "Tag" which was the thought or visual image will no longer be needed and you will just have transmitted a micro-second thought. You have taught your two minds to exchange control just before the "Muscle Memory" or instinctive performance and then for the conscious mind to regain control as it see the actual shot having been performed. Thhis "Mental Practice" is intended to have taught the conscious to not take control, to instead to have given the "Tag" or thought which the subconscious mind has added or modified into the "Muscle Memory".

Another term you will see in my blogs of Subconscious communication is "Tells" which like in the card game of poker is a term used to indicates a subconscious action which a viewer can identify as the subconscious mind doing something. There are two types of "Tells". First a tell indicates the subconscious mind is doing something wheather an action or a thought. In a later part of this group of three blogs it will show the athletic using a memory of performance to identify the distance. Sort of seeing a memory of having done the action at that distance. Or the distance feeling is wrong and the athletic does another visualization of the shot. With each visualization, we the viewer can see the "Tell" of the subconscious thought.

The second "Tell" type is a incorrect action which the subconscious attempts to correct. An example is the Petanque player losing a bit of balance or doing a body twist during the "take-out" shot. This tell may be as simple as lifting a foot as if to regain balance. Remember, the human body does re-balance instinctively when it feels the balance being shifted. This "Tell" may indicate the error created by the "Muscle Memory" as in all it physical movement; it is doing a balance correction. This "Tell" is what a coach will work with the athletic to remove and thus not cause the performance to have a error of performance. Example, Maybe the coach will tell the athletic to feel the foot being pushed into the ground. This action will not affect the performance but will prevent the "instinctive" nature of the body to want to regain balance.

The physical movement of delivery in Lawn bowls and Curling are almost idential except for the Curling athletic will do a small wrist twist to place an effect on the curling stone. In helping a Curling athletic who was learning lawn bowls as their summer sport, I used a "toe-tap" as the "Tag" to communicate not to turn the wrist. How does this affect the wrist movement. If the athletic allows total "Muscle Memory" the wrist twist is part of the many physical action of the movement. The "Tag" was given with only two ideas to the athletic learning Lawn bowls. The visual image of seeing their bowl go straight and the vocal word "Bowls". The "Tag" does not interfer with the performance of delivery of a Lawn bowl but the athletic subconscious mind makes the correction because of the micro-second image (visual) or vocal word (auditive).

In 2/2 of this group of three blog the "Tell" of the Lawn Bowlers suggest the athletic is using a "Memory retreival" to know the distance of the target jack to which the Lawn Bowling Bowl is expected to be rolled.. In lawn bowls the player rolls to a "Jack" which may be between 21 meters to 33 meters, so distance is important to know as one complete roll more or less of the lawn bowling bowl can be a different of 12 to 15 inches less or more in the delivery distance.

Being "Visual" my self and in my sport of Instinctive Archery when I was doing a Bowhunting competiton at the national level; I would be hearing or seeing the heart beat of the animal of the paper target which I was shooting. This, my mental "micro-second" was the "Pre-void" thought just prior to my arrow being released to the target.

In teaching the above mention Lawn-bowling student with a "Muscle Memory" habit of Curling (but of another sport) I supplied a "Tag" which was visual and auditive. It was intended to correct or instruct the subconscious of an action to be (or not to be) performed. With practice of this mental trick, eventually the athletic will simply , like my self hearing the heart beat of the target"; no longer think of the "toe-tap" because the "Tag" would have created a modified physical action. In this case a corrective action to prevent a wrist twist which was needed in Curling. Of course when this athletic returned to Curling in his winter sport his normal curling shot would be performed because he would not have the "Tag" as part of his routine prior to performance of their Curling delivery.

The creativity of the coach in conjunction with the athletic must find that right "Tag" which does not interfere with the "Muscle Memory" performance but communicate the selective hit wanted. At some point in the Petanque athletic development of his "take-out" shot he stopped seeing the complete 3 1/2 inch ball of the opponent and began seeing an area of the ball which was now the target followed by theview of the actual result of the "take-out" shot. But because practice such a shot is a conscious mind instruction (aiming) the athletic is still fighting with the conscious mind to obtain control by the subconscious mind to perform the instinctive "Muscle Memory". In the case of the ball near the "cochon" shot my visual image is see the ball go the direction I want willout the actual remove the “Cochon”. Prior to the "Zen Void" I imagine the opponent ball jumping over the "Cochon" as it is removed.

I said earlier that in some sports like petanque (where the target distance is short) or the performance is immediately followed by seeing the result of the performance; that the athletics stay in the Phase one of physical development and not advance into "mental Performance". Unless they move into this second phase, the athletic will want to aim at the side of the opponent's ball and create a "Y" take-out shot. The thought which you experience in reading that last sentence is the conscious thought the athletic has and being long it becomes a conscious instruction. So the two mind are always fighting with having control of the action and this cause misses.

In the video suggest in 2/2 of this "communicating with the Subconscious" mind you will see how rapid the petanque player's performance happens. But to create this type of "take-out shot required practice of aiming at the outer side of the ball and successful transfer of control to "Muscle Memory" or instinctive shot.

There are many different performance shots in every sport and if the "Muscle Memory is to do the successful performance or shot this "Mental practice" of communicating with the subconscious and giving control for the final action, must become natural and occur every time the action is performed. Missed take-out shots or performances is the slippage of the subconscious mind as the conscious mind took back control.

Saturday, February 8, 2025

Winning Bowls with Positive Thinking

On March 2nd 2014, ten years ago and a couple of years after starting my Blog history I wrote a blog about positive Thinking and how valueable it is in Bowls. In Canada, as with many countries in the world, Bowls as a summer game leaves many of us searching for a similar game throught the winter months.

This blog discussed the French game of Petanque which is a roll close to the target ball (jack in bowls and Cochon in Petanque); and the lesson learned in a fast game. Normally a Petanque game is about 45 minutes to play as the rules allow each player one minute for their performance after the opponent's ball has stopped. So a game of 20 minutes, as discussed here would require a quick pace and very little wasted time on decisions. In recent blogs now in 2025 I have been writing about "Muscle Memory" and the "Subconscious"; which is best performed when it is a quick pre-performance activity and a rapid execution of the performance.

Hope this redo of an older blog is of interest and enjoyed. The older blog is still listed in 2014.

The growing popularity of Lawn Bowls is that it is a game for everyone. As a social game, it can gather friends and club members out onto the green for a friendly game. No special dress, just a fun time together.
(photo Teeswater Lawn Bowling 2012 , Photobucket,)

These games can be fun and also educational. Some clubs, like our club here in Montreal, Canada insist that there is ¨No Coaching¨ during club gathering games to promote enjoyment and remove the often seriousness of winning. However, sometimes, we are serious about our practice and want to learn and perfect our abilities. Here, in right photo, we find a serious played game where the rules all being applied and the bowlers in their whites are clearly doing their best. Whether they are at the local club level, at a inter state or province level (here in Canada) or at a international competition; these players work a routine of excellence and performance with success the goal.

The difference is clearly seen as dress becomes parts of their the presentation. Like a business man in a suit or lady in smart business dress finds success in a well dress performance. This blog is about the ability to enter into such a challenge and always showing a pride in your performance whether sports or business.
Very often club members look for the social aspect of the club with only a few people seeking to develop into this competitive level of their sport. We as club members must respect those of both groups, but when we do enter into such a challenge, we sometimes feel that our game is pushed beyond our present level of skill. Such expectation only lead to a heighten level of performance.

First, in such games we don't have the choice of our opponent, and sometimes we are matched to what the club calls ¨the Club's champion¨. Often at these times we tell our self that this opponent is beyond our skill level and with the negative attitude we are often beaten before we have rolled the first bowl.

This negative and destructive train of thought, that the opponent is too good; only leads us into an acceptance of LOSE before we even have start the actual game.

The following story tells of one such occurrence where I was totally unaware of the strength of my opponent and although he was the best of this competition; I entered into my best performance. And before long the first game was over and I had won. The Positive belief in myself had allowed me to surpass his ability and with a rule of a short time limit, which became his preoccupation; I was surprise with my "'Great Performance"

(Note of 2025) - Two years ago, now nearly 80 years old I entered a competiton which in the final game for the cash I was matched to the best in the province and his wife; both international athletics. However, the club has given us the worst green of their club by random draw and these two were use to exception good Lawn bowls greens and during the first 7 or 8 ends we matched them point for point. Finally as is the case with exceptional athletics they adapted and ran away with the points. Always something which may be to your advantage. Find it.

I had entered a "Head-to-head" or "One-on-one" Petanque competition. Where in Bowls the roll to the jack is always a questionable expectation of results; In Petanque, if the ball is very close to the Jack (cochon) and the point, it may be removed with a thrown through the air "takeout" shot. Therefore, where Bowls is a Draw game, Petanque is a "Takeout". In such a game the successful takeout is called " Carre" because afterward the shooting ball has remaind at the point of the contact with the target ball. Where in Lawn Bowls a takeout is a overweight type rolling shot; in Petanque, the thrown ball through the air, has creates a different takeout strategy. (Shooting Competition on Youtube) In this video we see the strategy of Petanque where the ability to continually remove the close ball is repeated by each player until one has a missed shot.

This game was with a Time limit of 20 minutes per game, and as I had never played such a game; I was not aware of how tight the time limit would be a cause on how the game advances. I therefore performed quickly on all shots and quickly stepped up to the pointing circle and did my pointing shot or takeout shot.

No strategy thinking or building of or pre-performance routines pep-talk. I have over the years learned that my experience in playing Petanque had been good for my Lawn Bowls as I had developed an overall common game strategy. As an example, once,in Bowls, I discovered that the 4th point Bowl position of the opponents was their only bowl in the head and if it was removed from play it gave me 6 points, Who, in Lawn Bowls, would bother to try a removal or back-off of a far left out of the head bowl. I had learned that we must always evaluate the options, and not just do the shot which seems so obvious. When it comes to the end of the game, often 3 or 4 point end is not enough for the win and a few extra points might mean a different strategy.

Back to the game. My "Play Routine" was.. My turn, Position myself, Do the decision of which shot to play, Do the shot, and exit the Pointing circle. (saving as much time as possible) However, seem every shot I did was a perfect or near perfect execution of what I was attempted. By the time the game was within a few points of the finish, (13 points is game in Petanque); I discovered that only half of the time limit had been used. No pressure was really needed and I could have relaxed. The game ended 13 - 2 with plenty of time but if I had been aware of not needing to rush my performance I probably would not have played as well.

As the Competition continued through the other 5 players which I had to play that day; I realized that my opponent that I had beaten in that first game was one of the club's best. As the final games of the day approached, it was clear; for he had won all of his games, as I had also. For the prize money, I had to play him again At this point he was not a stranger and as I reconized him as a great player, I began thinking and the pressure felt. Told my self to just relax and go for the win; but of course he won this our 2nd game because I knew of his potential and skill.

The point important is that in the first game, I had gone into the game thinking he was just another player and I could easily win. I knew most of the better players in the local Petanque Elite group of the Montreal area. However, I had been out of the Competition circuit for several years, and during the time Carl had made an impressive climb to the top of the Elite circle.

To me he was a nobody and if I had been playing Thomas, or Bruno whom I had seen in many international competitions; I would have doubted my abilities to give them a good game.

I had created a Positive expectation of myself in the first game and I just performed without any "Mental baggage" based upon my opponent ability. Having memories of previous games I had viewed or played as well as those negative thoughts of my abilities; I would never have performed as well as I had in that first game.
Going into a match with a Positive attitude means a lot toward the winning of that match. Terry Orlick in his book "In pusuit of Excellence" writes of a mental readiness as " Develop an action plan and a way of think that brings you to an ideal state of readiness is essential for... consistance high level of performance."

Developing your abilities to generate Positive mental attitude before, during and after a game is important as Orlick writes.

"The world's best performances ... depend upon positive memories and recall the feeling of previous success" As I have been a continual writer about the "Being in the Zone", writers like Terry Orlick and his ideas are of interest to my blog readers.

Tuesday, December 31, 2024

Blogs Gathering List

Today, 29 December 2024, the U.S 30th president Jimmy Carter passed away at age 100. As I approach my 80th birthday in a couple of weeks I realize that not all of us can leave a legacy like that of Jimmy Carter but each of us leave something.

I have decided that following my Birthday on January 20th, instead of continue to write blogs; I’m going to attempt to group the present 155 blogs into a List depending upon their sport and the general topic. I will update those that are regularly view and although 20 visits a week is not a lot it means the material is appreciated.The blog's subject matter has always (often) been on sports and a list will allow a visiting reader to find what they want quickly.As I am grouping them in reference to their basic topic it will be possible for me to update them at the time. (any blog title with a .... has been updated.

Over the last 10 years of blogs for Lawn Bowling, or suggested Coaching instructions, the sport athletes which are at a competitive level, in their development can see this gathering of blogs as my legacy. As I wish to finish it quickly and return to similar topics is 2025; I reach out to the 100,000 readers of my blogs over the last 10 years for their patience. I shall return to the advance training topic as quickly as I can and if health allows me.

Topics of Blogs

- Level 4-5 Coaching

- Muscle Memory

- Subconscious interaction and Coaching

Blog Under updating today

2024 - November 29 - La pensée inconsciente a la Pétanque In evaluation and waiting for French correction from Professional athletics.

2024 - October 24 - Subconscious Mind in Petanque This blog discuss the athletic's performance and development beyond the local competitions and suggests the perfection of mental disciplines. It also explains detail type of training an athletic would receive from a "Competition" or "Inter National" level coach. Actually, watching Lawn Bowls in Australia we often hear the athletics speak of mental displinces they worked on in preparation over the past year leading to their International success. Finished in Dec 2024

2024 - December 7 - Subconscious Interruption on Muscle Memory

This suggest the value of Sport Psychoogist in advance coaching of competitive athletics. Not just the stress or need for concentration but several aspects of mental health and post competition development for the athletics. This blog is being updated after the "Subconscious Mind in Petanque" because where it gives an example of a great athletic's major change in performance as he attempts something new. I believe many athletics find that the absence of professionals to help them as they progress and attempt to maintains their top position in their sport.

2024 - September 27 - Talking to the Subconscious Mind 1/2 A Lawn bowls Blog about using "Memory Data" like the rolling of the Jack and watching it to allow the subconscious mind to know the distance of the jack which can be up to 30 meters away. Also what is involved between thinking of the change you want and communicating to the subconscious of how to do the change; always just prior to "Muscle Memory" performance. These two International Lawn Bowlers each have their own "Tell" of their communication with the subconscious; but each are still visualizing the roll to their bowl with "Memory Data" and if not feeling it is the right "Memory Data" being used then they do a retrieval of another.

2024 - October 23 - Talking to the Subconscious Mind 2/2 This blog looks at "Memory Distance Retrieval" for distance calculation. Bowls use the action more than Petanque but also we have in a 2024 Petanque final an athletic developing the Retrieval. We ask a lot of the subconscious mind and sometimes when the subconscious does not have the data it needs to give us an answer to what happen, we find it will invent its data from "Memory data". At the end of this blog we have an example where an athletic which was preparing to go to the World International competition was tricked into seeing something which did not happen. The subconscious mind use "Memory Data" to explain what happen. (January 8, working on this blog as a cleanup and check of videos)

2025 - February 8 - Having been sick for the month of January 2025, and as I returned and while checking the viewer stats; I discovered an interest in a 10 year old blog on "Winning Bowls with Positive Thinking" (original on March 2nd 2014) and decided to redo it a small bit. Enjoy, although it is a bit of Petanque and Lawn Bowls. Today (Feb 10) I posted this updated blog to Twitter but twitter subscription changes does not allow for the posting the actual link. Researching now www.bsky.social as a replacement for twitter.

Blog Notes (Added or personal suggestions)

In France there is a "3 level" FIPJP Petanque coaching structure and France has produced great athletics who had learned the sport in the first years of schooling. But as to a "5 Level" (or more) structure which is common with other major sports there is still a big development needed in many countries. Sport Psychiatry and mental health is slowly in the development and with time it will provide the answers to athletic at international competition; which often leave many great athletics not wanting to continue with their career and training.

For most of the material in this blog, it was intended to show a bit of the " Level 4" and "Level 5" instructions to athletics.Although I am not at that level of coaching my own youth and competitive history saw in Archery a major development. Today, Canada's Petanque Federation in Montreal is working to reconize that it was not just athletic's performance but also their mental health and training that builds a world class athletic. The athletics of today become the coaches of tomorrow.

The second reason,is now being addressed this year with an effort to have International officials beginning to use the often seen "yellow" and "red" cards for rule enforcement. Also a "green" card is expected to be introduced to be use as a "Time out" option for the team . (Players have a 1minute Play rule). Our Canadian team to the World Petanque Competition did well. (13th position in Competition of Nations, I believe) but with out a Canadian coaching structure, our athletics end up being accompanied by a previous World Petanque athletic. With a better developed "Coaching structure" for their sport, our Canadian participants can even see funding and eventually the podium.

Also in Canada, if funding for such world competitions is to be found it is often provided by agencies which studies the possibility of the athletics making a great performance. Also our Federal (and maybe Provincial) funding is based upon the Team coach history of success. In sports like Soccer not only are 5 or more levels of Coaching, but also each of the these level sometimes have a "C", "B", and "A" classification of competence and even now we are seeing a bit of support from sport psychiatrist.

2024 - November 29 - La pensée inconsciente a la Pétanque - The french "Google Translated" of Subconscious Mind in Petanque. Published in late 2024 but waiting on a french language edit and correction by the Canadian Petanque Federation. (for their members whom are mainly French)

2024 - December 7 - Talking to the Subconscious Mind 1/2 Note on announcers. In any sport being streaming on the World Wide Web (WWW) the knowledge of the announcers is important to the education of the viewer. In the exampe video we find the announcer freely critizing the style of one of the athletics. But as per the blog when you know the mental work being done by the athletic to perfect their delivery you reconize how we must work to upgrade our sport announcers. ...Working on it now January 7 2025. (Update and verify videos available).

Note: January 2, 2025

What is a Sports Psychiatrist? (from www.forbes.com as written June 8th 2024 by Brooks Choulet, M.D. a Concierge Sports and Performance psychiatrist).

"Sports psychiatrists often work with athletes individually and with sports teams or organizations. When a sports psychiatrist is brought into a professional sports team environment, they often provide a multitude of services, including education, workshops, policy development, emergency action planning, and individual services. Treatment interventions for athletes can include medications, psychotherapy, and lifestyle modifications."

Brady Howe, MS, ATC, CSCS, former VP of Health & Performance for the NBA Phoenix Suns, in describing the importance of mental health programming and policy development that a sports psychiatrist brings to teams and organizations; says “With an endless array of psychological obstacles athletes and coaches experience in their pursuit of greatness, having an experienced sport psychiatrist helps team members focus, build resilience, and sustain high levels of motivation, ultimately optimizing performance and consistency,”

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Saturday, December 7, 2024

Subconscious Interruptions on Muscle Memory ....

The publication Psychology Today Canada on June 24, 2021 had an article by R.Douglas Field Ph.D which explained "How Muscle Memory Works" which said "A recent study shows that interspersing short breaks between repetitions encodes skill memories better than back-to-back practice sessions".

This publication is interesting because as a Coaching teacher knows that students have a level of saturation when learning; which we must consider in lesson planning. Now see that the brain also needs a rest during learning a performance.. In the recent article published on June 8 in the "Cell Report" Dr Field suggest that "Mental Saturation" occurs when our brain is over worked.

There are two interesting aspects of this article. First, “mental instant replay” is a part of Feedback after the practice or the delivery performance has been done. Later when these collected “mental instant replay” are accessed by the subconscious mind the athletic can switch from one memory of an "instant replay" to another "instant replay" memory and use it as view to stablish the actual distance to the target ("Jack" in Bowl or "Cochon" in Petanque) in preparation of the intended performance action.

In the recent Subconscious Mind in Petanque blog it was interesting to see how interaction of minds interfered with the performance. In the article I used a 2024 Petanque Tête à Tête Competition to suggested as a game video for viewing in preparation for this subject matter.

Being one of the Best Petanque players of our era; and as we watch the "Take-out" performance of the 2020 PPF Grand Final "Tête-à-Tête Final we agree that Dylan Rocher's performance against Michel Hatchadourian is as beautiful as expensive art. The Passion Petanque Francaise (PPF) final video was capture and made available on Youtube by B J Petanque which is still available. With Dylan's style of "Step into Shooting Circle" think.. decide.. and Shoot (Tir) we see a single arm swing resulting in a perfect take-out shot. If we watch his performance in the 2024 Shooting competition, where he performs 97 of 100 perfect shots; we see why Dylan is consider the best. Yes result and accuracy are important, but an athletic can become tired quickly if these mental stress and conflicts are not addressed by a profession like a Sport Psychologist.

This blog is intended to show why with intended type of changes or performance improvement at this hight of the athletic's level of development; that all sports should offer their athletics a professionnal. Either sport psychologist or top of the line "Level 4" or "Level 5"coach with experience in these subconscious (mental) interactions and their effect on the performance.

Also a lot can be learned from the comparsion of videos and sometimes with a very long jack and take-out distance the athletic will move toward the memory of previous extremely long take-out shots and attempt to use a method of "memory retreival". In viewing (image recalls) of previous "Memory Image", the subconscious can actually use these images in learning and knowing the target distance. Often, at these times, the athletic's subconscious advances into a development of style or create perfromance action which changes his normal shooting style. If you must communicate changes or new development to the Subconscious mind; it must be done careful and not in such a way that your thinking returns control to the conscious mind which will want to tell the muscle how to do the expected action or preformance. The "Muscle Memory" has the knowledge of how to do the muscles for the performance. Your effort is simply to add an remainder of a small change.

Let me explain this a bit farther. Above we read of a recent and new studies which show that the brain needs time to store the data during a practice and in "Muscle Memory" development. And of course, later, in this blog and others, I attempt to explain that the subconscious can use a memory of a previous performance to calculate the distance to the target by recalling the actual action happening. Although viewing a memory is faster than actual live action, the mind (subconscious) can infer or calcualte the difference distances between different memories of previous performance.

Two new terms are introduced in explaining these subconscious action. "Tells" and "Tags" where a "Tag" is a small action placed in the Pre-shot routine to remain the subconscious of an extra ot different action. Maybe a method of distance calculation. The "Tells" are actions similar to "Tag" actions which remain as part of the Pre-Shot routine and which indicate the athletic's communication with the subconscious prior to transfer of control to "Muscle Memory".

Sometimes the "Tag" become a permanent part of the performance and likewise is also a "Tell" however very often a "Tag" is forgotten eventually when the reason for the "Tag" has been achieved. In the Youtube video of "Mark Wildeboer Petanque Shooting" we see such a ".Tell". Above, it was suggested that Dlyan Rocher has began using " retreival of "Memory Image" for the calculation of the distance by the subconscious. Mark Wildeboer can be seen (with a Tell) lifting his right toe a couple of times before doing his take-out shot. The tell suggests he is using a "Memory image" of a previous take-out shot and watching his ball in that memory fly to the target ball. Because the chosen memory is not of the correct distance Mark has changed his viewing "memory image". This sort of subconscious calculation occur in Lawn Bowls for the "Jack" distance.

A second possibility is that part of Mark's "Pre-shot routine" is to imagine his ball flying to the target and making contact. When you work on this type of subconscious calculation you are waiting for a feeling of confirmation that you distance is correct. If not you attempt it again and push the distance a bit farther. In this case or subconscious action, the toe-tap is a tell that he is viewing the take-out shot prior to actual performance. The different is in the first explaination it is a "tag" inserted to instruct the subconscious; while in the second it is a "Tell" of what Mark is thinking as he communicates with his subconscious. The difference is one (the "Tag") was inserted as a remainderand the other (the "Tell") is a "once used tag" which is now part of the pre-shot routine and now a sign of mental communication before the action is performed (part of the "Pre-shot Routine).

Because of the several regular blog visitors and that I should respect their viewing of videos given as example of the blog; it is best that I use only one or two videos to make the point even if repeated in several blogs. In such a way, the reader having already viewed the videos, now can clearly recall what they saw and understand the subject of the blog. On the other hand, if the reader wishes to search Youtube for Petanque or Lawn Bowls video they can certainly find changes in athletic performances from year to year which show their training and development of the subconscious communication.