Corrections to Muscle Memory

Under Development.. Started May 5 2026 will be finished soon 

Thank you.. enjoy 

 With "AI" as part of most internet browsers today, any information can be requested and a reasonable explanation supplied. However, as we have seen with "AI" there is a need to research the supplied answer as it may be confused with other information found on the internet.

  Asked "What is Muscle Memory in Sport Performance ?" and the following google AI reply is "

Muscle Memory" is defined as "the ability to automatically execute complex movements after repeated practice (motor learning) and the capacity (of the brain) to rapidly regain lost muscle strength and mass after a period of inactivity (physiological memory).

When as a Sport athlete with "Precision Performance" we work to understand and build "Muscle Memory"; we are concerned with the first part of the answer. ("the ability to automatically execute complex movements after repeated practice (motor learning))

The second part refers to Body building or weight lifting and the muscle's (physiological memory). This aspect of the answer explains in "The Journal of Physiology" is "‘Effects of training, detraining, and retraining on strength, hypertrophy, and myonuclear number in human skeletal muscle’. In simple words the muscle's cellular neurons allow to recreate the previous strength of a previous training (weight lifting) of recreate a previous muscle mass (body building).   In sport performance, it is good to know after a winter of no performance that our muscles will regain their strength; but we are more concern with the return of our "Precision Performance". 

The above diagram is from "Science for Sports" and their website offers a very detail explanation of Muscle Memory. However, as Closed sport athletes we are concern with the instinctive performance of our delivery, whether a Bowl Roll, a Tennis swing or a Soccer kick.  A Closed sport is where we are closed to the actions of other players during our performance, however Soccer is an "Open Sport" during most of the team performance and a "Closed Sport" as to the individual's performance. 

AI Deep Dive

Walk softly on new information offered by the internet, as like practice of your sport over time all development will reach the required point. The photo right isthe same question asked of "AI" which found over 6,200 results and of course is very detail. But if you are interested in a "Deep Dive" you can become buried in all the detail aspects of "Muscle Memory"

 The First search reply also had the following " It is a combination of neurological, long-term, procedural memory that makes skills automatic" which we will discuss here.

In a March 3, 2025 blog on "Communication with the Subconscious" , it was shown how Muscle Memory performance has "Tells" similar to the "Poker player Tell" because during the time of performance of the Muscle Memory action there is a particular moment of "Void" of absence of thought. During this "Absence of thought" which all athletes with a developed "Muscle Memory" experience, the subconscious mind performs instinctively the action. Like the braking of the car in time of danger, we are not thinking (consciously) what to do but because of experience our actions are performed.

The problem is as simple as two children each wanting to play with the same toy. The "conscious" mind wants to instruct the muscle of what to do while the "subconscious" mind, knows what to do and wants to not be interrupted. Since a thought is a conscious action often requesting a conscious muscle performance; a too long a thought during a "Muscle Memory" performance will return the muscle's control to the conscious mind. A "Tag" is used to insert a thought into the "Pre-Performance" of the Muscle Memory and not interrupt the actual performance.

Like a clothing shopping client who has just found what they would like to buy and now looks at the "Price Tag" to know if it is worth the expenditure; the "Muscle Memory Tag" also allows the thought without interruption of the performance. The "Tag" to be inserted into your muscle memory performance is an action which has no effect on your performance but which is a remainder thought of something you want to avoid or remember to do. A simple thing like tapping a foot before starting you performance.

To the shopping client (above) if the price was too expensive they simply leave the item; so also if the thought duration is too long the subconscious leave control of the muscle to the conscious mind. Simply said. Think of the muscle action you want included, and the conscious mind will tell the muscle what it thinks need to be done for the action to occur. But to insert a remainder thought into your performance which is just before the "Muscle Memory", if it is of a micro second duration you have a good "mini-thought" and will not interrupt your performance.

Tiger Wood

Tiger Wood in a Youtube Video "Visualize like Tiger" which is about being in the "Zone" of performance perfection says "Between my back swing and seeing the ball in flight up the fairway, I have no memory of what happen" The "tag" will allow you, if you have a developed Muscle Memory to like wise feel the "Void" or "Absence of Thought" while making a change to your "Muscle Memory Performance".

As I said to "Andre" last night. "When you see that the mistake you want to fix has returned to your delivery, Simply place the "Tag" into you Delivery and allow your "Muscle Memory Performance" to fix the action. When you are not making that mistake you don't need to use the "Tag".  Eventually the "Tag" will not need to be used after the correction of the Delivery error. The "Tag" is a remainder to not turn your wrist during delivery. Also of note. Do not re-use that same tag for another  corrective action as I have seen the subconscious go back several years and still remember an un-used "Tag". The use of a "Tag" is not a complete thought but a quick remainder; as a thought would be consider as instruction for a muscle action to be perform.

To explain... , At 81, my balance is a major problem in my bowls Delivery because of my knees.  About 15 years ago, a level 3 coach suggested I change my delivery style after showed me that I had a bad delivery habit of catching my delivery movement and balance by twisting my ankle sideway on my forward step. At that time, my ankle would become  so sore that I had to stop bowls practice for a couple of weeks.

At first, I did a physical change to my delivery style and although I still had my line there was very uncertain accuracy in my delivery weight. You would think it is  natural to expect such a change because you were making a change to the Forward movement.  But in actual sense I was nor making a change to the delivery but a change on how I stopped my body movement after the bowl has been delivered. Such a change should not have change the Muscle Memory Performance. It did. Sort like the Petanque problem above where the completion of the muscle memory performance was interrupted by the thought of my walking finish. 

 I finally  use a "Tag" to remember to perform a partial United Kingdom Delivery of walking forward instead of  attempting to stop with the forward first step during delivery. The correction was to allow my body movement to pass into another step and even a third on maximum length jacks. To this day I often warn against attempts to do physical changes to one's Muscle Memory Performance as it took me all that summer before my Muscle Memory Interruptions stopped.

The "Tag" that I created was to place my non-bowl hand, which was always placed on my knee for balance, was now being bend across my chest and touching my delivery arm elbow. It was an action to make me  aware of my problem with balance.  (Today, in watching my delivery,  if one was to see this "Tag" they would think it is a style of delivery. But, like the Poker Player's Tell, an educated coach seeing it would know I was doing some sort of corrective action. My problem is a bad knee which I attempt to try to do a delivery and to place the less weight possible on that side).

With this information in mind and a quote from the above mention blog on "Communication with the Subconscious"

"However, a problem can occurs during the introduction of this corrective action. If the "Tag" become the thought of "Tap you toe" instead of "Bowls" (for the auditive person) or seeing the "memory  image" of the Bowl's Bias (for the visual person); you are now consciously instructing the muscles to move your foot. The "Tag" is an non-interruption communication to the subconscious mind and the right word or image must be heard or seen prior to  the "Muscle Memory" performance or it becomes an "Muscle Memory interruption".

Last month a Petanque athlete was explaining to me his "Muscle Memory" correction of wanting to finish his performance with an open hand which is palm down facing the ground with fingers together. This action is a simple "follow through" and in Petanque is important because of the short duration of time between the end of the "Muscle Memory" performance and the athlete seeing the result of his "Takeout" shot.  In Lawn Bowls there is about 14 or more seconds (on Canada's outdoor's rinks) before the athlete see the final resting place of his delivery and any action which the lawn bowler performs after the "Muscle Memory" performance does not affect the finishing result.

But in Petanque, because the "Takeout" shot as in the Youtube Practice video of "Mark Wildeboer Petanque Shooting" there is such a short time between the release of the Petanque ball and the ball contact with the target; that the athlete's conscious mind want to see the result of the shot. In wanting to see the result, the Muscle Memory is interrupted before it is completed. To allow the muscle Memory to finish it performance requires a thought or action to extend beyond the final movement of the Muscle Memory. (the release of the thrown ball). By attempting to open his hand and fingers he is creating an action which is interrupting the Muscle Memory"

In this problem, the athlete is creating a Muscle movement to be performed. The solution is to incorporate a thought before the "Muscle Memory Performance is started; which allows the Muscle Memory to finish it action. The same as if  the player was to think of  doing another action after his takeout shot, and not be thinking of his successful performance. 

Here, a Toe tapping which in the mention video of petanque is a memory viewing action (of a memory from previously several  time of seeing the shot) could have been used her to complete his takeout shot. Interesting is that here the "Tag" in the video had one purpose to complete the Takeout shot; it was not dropped after the occurance of an "result seeking interruption" had been corrected,

Mark had included the Tag and the mental  developed of a "Image Projection" and now uses it to verify the actual distance to the target ball. Where the subconscious mind would easily feel the distance as in petanque it is between 6 meters and 8 meters; Mark now uses the "tag" and image projection as his "Muscle Memory Performance." The "Tag" could have been any thought other than a thought of knowing the success or result of the performance. 

 Although I often see this "Image Projection" in Lawn Bowls because  the distance to the target (Jack) can varies between 21 meters and 31 meters; I worry if the recent game structure change of the World Bowls method of the "Jack Placement" for the Commonwealth Games will remove  the difficulty which a rolled jack creates in Lawn Bowls, Knowing the important of this "Image viewing" for a better bowl to the jack ; I wonder if less Lawn Bowls athletes will continue to develop to this  level or prefection of the use  of "Image Projection" for identification of distance.

This action was developed by this petanque player and others to prevent the Muscle Memory from being dropped before the "Muscle Memory performance" was completed; and someone in studing Muscle Memory of other sports, decided that the Lawn Bowl community could developed this use "Image Projection" to define the "Jack distance". Yes with this "Jack Placement" Change there will be tighter heads as athletes perfect the fix distances (3 mat positions and 3 jack positions).

 To quote from that blog "Talking to the Subconscious Mind (1/3)" which mention thist "Memory Images projection  to know the exact jack distance.

 " To see this same action in Lawn bowls as mention in "Talking to the Subconscious Mind (1/3) and in watching  the Youtube video of the 2016 World bowls Finals of Womens pairs which was in Christchurch NZ where "you will hear the announcer's  comment on the very long "Delivery Routine" of Angela Boyd. (If you watch a few end of play). But Angela in her routine, although long, has various parts of her communication with the subconscious; and is well beyond where some of us ever to go or develop our performance. Her rocking and swing of  delivery arm is similar to the  Youtube Petanque video of Mark Wildeboer as he does a Petanque shooting "Takeout" shot."

In brief, the Petanque athlete was attempting to perform a muscle action which became an interruption to the Muscle Memory performance instead of inserting a small mental remainder action (a Tag) prior to the start of the Muscle Memory which instructed the Subconscious to finish the shot action and then allow the conscious mind to wait for the result as the Visual image viewing to finish.

 If the athlete was a verbal individual he would have instead of   The Tag as a "Toe tapping" might be the thought of "Finish" or even hearing the memory of the sound of the ball strike. The "Thought Tag" is a remainder that "a good takeout shot must also have the memory being viewed as competed".

This same incident occurs with a Curling athletes who come to Lawn bowls for the summer and discovered their Curling "Muscle Memory" has become their delivery "Muscle Memory.   They are so similar that it is easy for Curling athlete to take up  Lawn Bowls. There are a few differences in the two sports, the most common being that the stone in curling is aimed at the broom and the bowl is aimed at a Delivery line which give the bias. A easy alteration of where you aim. 

The problem in the Muscle Memory of Curling becoming Lawn Bowl's delivery, is that in Curling, during the release of the Stone the curler does a small wrist "twist" to cause the stone to curl on the ice. This flick of the wrist causes a problem in Lawn Bowls because the perfect delivery should be a smooth release off the fingers,  a soft hand release.  With Hans, a second year lawn bowler from curling; he was able to correct this problem with a "Tag" of two toe-tapping before his release of the bowl. It forced him to think not to turn his wrist at the end of his release. Yes he could remember to include this in his thoughts, prior to his delivery but the physical action of the toe-tapping was a remainder where a new bowler still has not prepared a Pre-Mat Routine.

 Many first and 2nd year lawn bowlers have not yet developed a Pre-mat routine of thought and actions before going to the mat for their delivery. In an after thought coaching correction for players with Muscle Memory developed and identified, the "Tag" is a quick fix. The proper fix would be 2nd and 3rd year coaching to club members who now have a good couple of years and only need a fine tuning coach. 

When I started Lawn Bowls in the 90s there was 12 or 15 things we learned to do before going to the mat. Some physical like checking bias, some mental like a action plan; but all were part of the waiting for the opponent to finish their delivery and "Don't Forgot" thoughts as stepping to the mat. Now, new players see our greats lawn bowls like Canada's Ryan Bester or Australia Mark Casey; simple step to the mat and do an amazing shot.  These elite athletes should have a number sweater which indicates the number of years experience, so learning players now watching Youtube videos realize that perfection takes many years of work.

Cycle of Performance - Golf, Bowls and Petanque 2/2 (AMem)

(Very detail n Long)

In Lawn bowls and Petanque there are two parts to the performance. The physical development where practice and training develops a physical presentation and a Psychologic or Mental Development where emotional strength permit a consistence physical performance. Golf was included in this first part because I believe it is the most demanding of these "Closed" sports and I wanted to introduce the mental problems of spectators as well as some of the personal development tricks which are used by some of the greatest athletes.

In all sports the athletes are either  "Open" to the many activities of the other players which are participating in their game. Otherwise,   the athlete is performing with a "Closed" awareness to others as he performs and attempts to maintain a calm mental state. Athletes in  team games with quick actions, like Soccer, Basketball and other "Open" sports are performing their own "closed" physical action; the fast turnovers of their ball often require that the athlete's mental problems be addressed quickly as unlike Closed sports they don't have period of waiting for their opponent to perform.  

On the other hand with the "Close" Games like Tennis, Golf, Bowls the rules are designed to prevent distractions when the athlete is in their  mental state and  expected to performance a perfect physical action. In these sports, the athlete are given as much support against distraction as possible by the game Rules where players and spectators are expected to not create any distractions. Even those others playing athletes on different courts, greens or ice are required  to control non-play actions which might be a distraction to the performing athlete.

All  of our sprots have a physical performance which will also require some sort of mental discipline against the athlete's emotions or feelings during or after play. Sport psychology addresses these mental forms of interruption or distractions while would prevent a perfection  performance.  Sport Psychologists realize that various emotions and feelings destrpu the years of training needed to perfect that physical performance. In  "Open" sport game where  the athlete's mental recovery of emotions is done during the time of play; in "Closed" sports there may be minutes, a few to several, between the performance and the next performance. This interruption of  play allows the athlete to identify and address their emotions or feelings. 

 If an athlete's mental interference of stress, anxiety or fear could be simply switch "off" and  a short return to their established relax "calm" state of mind;  the athlete would always be  prepared to perform a perfect physical action. But with no  "on/off" for emotions and feelings except their own mental strength athletes would quickly experience "Burnout" after a few game. For this reason, we find Sport Psychology skills  taught to international athletes in an attempt to help them control and manage their mental interruptions of play. 

We are lucky to have, at this time, an internet with Google AI search where we can address these skills because the athlete only find Sport psychologist engaged as a part of Sport Coaching in the major clubs or the major "Open" sports at the international level.

Recently, when Stephen. an international athlete, came to the club he was asked by a few members his opinion on our sport.  One such question was "What is the most important ability an athlete should have?". He replied "An athlete should be able to maintain their focus and have a flareless performance",   Good advice but as a club coach for new players, I avoid use of words which create confusion as to their meaning in sport. "Focus" and its meaning is like "money" where there are so many different currencies, maybe one for each country of the world. A word like "focus" also has many meanings with the common sport reference being concentration on performance.

In a course for first or second year (new) students to Lawn Bowls a student or spectator will not find "Muscle Memory" or "Concentration" in my volcabulary because it is hard to define what these words mean and only confuse the new student who is learning to develop their skill of Delivery and game.

Focus is a common word used in Photography because a camera lens need to be adjusted for a clear picture. So I use it as an example and explain that as the photographer turns the lens ring and focus his camera; he is really making small changes until the best possible picture is obtained.  In development of a sport this should be the meaning of physical practice as we make small adjustments to our performance until we have what is the best we can expect.

Secondly, the camera explanation is good because the focus in photographic distance teaches that an object can never be in focus unless the focus is at the proper distance setting. Closer objects can be in focus with a larger f-stop; and of course both Lawn Bowls and Petanque require less precision for performance. But as the distance to the target increase, so does the level of difficulty. 

In Curling, where the target is always the same distance a repeated physical force is all that is needed. However, in a Lawn Bowls delivery we add more weight to the delivery force as distance increases so that our bowl rolls farther up the green. If not enough weight, we attempt in the following with the next delivery and adjust as we add more. 

In petanque, the same principle applies but instead of a roll the pêtanque player doing a delivery for a point (and also for a take-out) will throw their  ball  most of the needed distance, which will change for the different  distance. In Petanque the first lesson of a new player is this  half way to the "Cochon" (target) and  then allow it to roll the remainder of the distance.  Like in Lawn Bowls, the condition of the playing surface also influence the performance.

If the Petanque player is doing what is called a "Take-out" shot, he is throwing his petanque ball the complete distance to the target with the attempt to knock it out of the playing area. Like in Golf, the Petanque take-out efforts can not handle any small distraction or any emotional or mental problems. causes a failure or bad result and the player is expected to return immediately and do another performance.

However, Stephen was not referring to focus in that sense but in a false meaning of what is better called "Concentration". Concentration is also the wrong word but approaches the expressed meaning of have your total attention on your objective and performance. In the video of Eli Straw a Sport Psychologist "How to increase Focus in Sports" (on youtube) we find suggestions and tricks to improve Focus or Concentration. But both words are often used in the introduction of Sport psychology because of the mental problems of  any sport is where they both apply.

In the physical analysis of the direction of a student's improvement to be their practice and developed, "Focus" must be seen like the meaning of a camera being focus.  The turning of the "len ring" of a camera, when doing a "Focus" can be turned too far and must then turned back to get a better focus. In the student's practice, where the objective of practice of a delivery needs clear objectives and our abilities as the goal.  if we want our practice in focus, we must continue making corrections until we are getting the results wanted. 

As to the mental focus of our skill, we do the same thing as in the physical development, practice the skills; except as we often have to discover our emotions and even  discover how our feeling like  anxiety affect our performance. To know our feelings is not done quickly and even to make any changes will promote a stable state of mental stability.  We realize that we can never be completely in control of our emotions or feelings, but we can seek a stable place for our psychologic influence to our performance perfection.  Like the physical practice, the mental practice of psychologic skills is always a need to keep working as a practice toward a the point of development where we immediately return to calm feelings. 

We can clearly realize that any performance in sport is the combination of a Physical Training to a level of  "Muscle Memory"  performance and a Mental state of Focus or concentration which if always the same will allow for the best results.

As a "Blind Bowls" Coach, I was taught many years ago that sometimes we have to adjust our "Physical Focus". With three National Gold medals of Instinctive Archery I had learned that one must accept conditions over which we do not have control. Where Sport Psychology attempts to address the mental aspect, I have learned that sometimes a simple adjustment of our physical performance, our "Physical Focus"; is an  much more easier correction of the new conditions than working on new mental skills.

In a Lawn Bowl's delivery by a "Blind" athlete, the line of delivery is given by their assistance (voice or white shoes) for their bowl. Because they do not have an visual sighting which is taught as a "Point of Line"for delivery; the blind lawn bowler is seeing an mental image of the green and the game and they have as much confidence in this image as we do when we are looking up the green. The "Blind" student is taught that when their body and muscle performance are both properly aligned, they only need the proper delivery weight to draw directly to the jack. 

Stats last month

I was shown by a "Blind" bowls student that every day our body is some how a little difference than what we call normal. Sometimes several differences for several days, so the Blind student simple made a physical corrections for that difference of today. They live a life where something changes and  they react quickly to that change.

In Petanque when I am practicing my ability to perform a "Take-out" shot I often perform a "Body Awareness" near the beginning of my practice. Today, my biggest problem with age, now over 80, is my balance and a bad knee and my body's survival instinct may has changed something. Of course to perform with a difference body will not give me the results I expect.

  "Body Awareness" is a test which I do in Petanque practice when I discover that my "Take-out shot is not what it should be. I know that in a "Blind Shooting" effort that my "Muscle Memory" will perform and show me what has changed. So having prepared myself,  I close my eyes and like the "Blind Lawn Bowler" I use the mental image as my target. After my takeout performance and "Muscle Memory Void" is finished. I open my eyes to see the result of my performance. 

If all with my eyes closed  the thrown Petanque ball has landed at 3 O'clock and about 5 inches from the target after two or three times then I know my body is not in alignment for some reason.  I adjust my feet for that 5 inches to a  false target at 9 o'clock. Yes this helps and even today when deciding my mental changes or physical changes I will adjust physical before attempting a psychology skill. Although I certainly find myself quick to do Positive Self Talk.

Knowing our performance in both physical and mental performance may require us to make some adjustments so that the two influences (physical and emotion) do not influence our performanceé Both must work together for the result we want or expect.  So where a Focus, like adjusting a camera focus,  is really the physical progress, through psychologic skills, that the skilled athlete need to be attempted; we must also know what is a relax calm performance for us. An athlete should always practice and improve their performance, physical and emotion, by controlling  all the influences caused by feelings.                              (Stat of Visitor/Reader 2019 (7 years ago)

Stats a few years ago 2019

 This is why I feel the idea of "Focus" as a camera "Focus" is important. In lawn bowls if your body feel a wind on the left side of your face your "Muscle Memory" of the body's Balance will adjust your balance for that wind. Will this affect your doing a step forward as your Bowl's delivery is instinctive or will your balance be also adjusted by your "Muscle Memory" ? You may see the answer to this by a "Body Awareness" test during a practice. Your knowledge  of a change in the conditions of play should be information gathered during a practice. Yes we practice for better performance but now with the wind, you should feel your movement of your feet as your body adjusts your balance.

This is not mental or psychological but simple a body adjustment which has been made for some reason. Age is my reason that this would happen, but it might be anything like muscle pain,  too tight clothing or maybe even a thought like the wind is going to move my bowls of delivery line.

 Petanque athletes know that during their take-out shot a thought or distraction to their left side of play, will result in a miss to the left of target because their mind heard the distraction and thought about it. The sport psychologist would tell you to adjust your focus or concentration to not hear that distraction. I have suggested to an athlete that they change your body position a small amount to the left because of the spectator's area and the music coming from there. Try a test with one of your practice session. With some music to your left  and decide how you will work to ignore it.   Now instead of working on the mental solution (ignoring the sound) place your body direction a bit (half a shoe maybe) to the right and let this confidence in your solution. Did your starting position for this test practice change anything?. What did you learn ? How can you use this correction in a game.

What is Focus ???

 This is what Practice should be. Know your objective and  the result of your changes and make the adjustments until  you are satified or it not successful and you know you can abandon the idea.  Because each time you come to play in a game you should not make these changes unless you know the results. To be playing bowl after bowl or ball after ball (in petanque) to a problem will only lead to emotional feelings. If something occurs during a game it is best the student or athlete make notes, mental or a notebook (like the golfer).

When starting your first delivery of a game, your "Focus" should be to perform from a learned and well developed performance and any adjustment or mental skills only be applied when you have lost that performance. Self-talk with positive objectives may be placed as a  calm producing effort to relax and play the game which is identified as your best. 

Realizing how important this starting point is to a successful and clean performance, and Lawn bowls rules allow for "Trial end" to help the player read the conditions of the green in speed and influence with their bowls. In petanque the rules allow for the player to choose their place of contact and even tap it to judge its reaction when the ball falls there. In this sense, the new bowler should learn that focus is a part of their physical performance as they will always need to do an adjustment as practice improves.

We see that Sport Psychology has defined specific types of focus such as "Present Moment Focus" and "Selective" application of Focus in the sport. With a bit of wisdom a lot can be obtained from the Google Search answer. Why did focus in "Selective Focus" get changed to "Selective Attention"? Much for the same reason that "Focus" and "Concentration" got intermixed also "Focus" and "Attention" became intermixed. Maybe "Pay attention" and Focus on your Objective" is a good example of the differences.

With these questions of "Intermixed" meanings of words let us now look at  the meaning of "Distractions". First, mental skills must be developed and practiced in the same way that physical skills were developed. Some coaches will tell you that it will take almost the same amount of time of practice mental skills as your physical  performance perfection took in practice . 

Talking to a Curling Coach I heard him say "Muscle Memory takes about 1000 hours of practice";  and I replied "Maybe 500 hours of "Perfect Practice". Our discussion then moved into what was a "Perfect Practice". Then the topic changed the subject to "Maybe we should teach mental evaluations of Physical Practices such as "How did you feel as you completed that delivery?".  If feelings are a psychologic cause for problems which sport psychology address there is maybe the need for athletes to remain is a "Good Feeling" zone. Team communication is a major part of keeping a emotionally weak team player in their peak performance.

In lawn bowls there is about 14 to 18 seconds (the speed of the green) after each delivery, before the athlete knows the result of their performance. Also, the two to three minute delay while the opponent player performs, does not gives the disappointed player enough time to recompose his feelings and execute his "Reset" routine. Without this return to a calm emotion state, before he return to do another delivery the athlete will only find more disappointment in his performance. In come team management coaching the suggestion that the other members of the team must. and can,  influence this mental state of  the athlete. Communication, delays within respect of the rules, and even to accept the mistakes with positive team actions.

 However,  in the game of Petanque, there is probably not a second between the finish of the athlete's performance of a thrown takeout shot and the athlete seeing and knowing his performance's success or failure. If successful, the opponent will have two minutes to perform his Post-Performance routine before be requeste to play again. Of course, the excitement or disappointment is always the Petanque athlete feelings; the same as the golfer. But with the Petanque player not have the time to re-discover their calm state of self; their next performance will be difficult.

 But unlike Shane Lowey who now has a long walk up the fairway  to recompose his feelings and return to a mental state of maximum performance;the petanque athlete will be expected to play again within one minute if unsuccessful. And disappointment after doing a unsuccessful takeout shot is more difficult to ignore.  Also, because the athlete know immediately his result, very often we find that they are  actually  interrupting their "Muscle Memory" performance with the want to see their successful performance.  In such as situation, the conscious mind forces the control being returned back from "Muscle Memory performance with a thought of "was it successful"? ", (This blog is AMem because it assumes you know and have developed a "Muscle Memory" and know the feeling of lost of subconscious performance.)

Google AI defines "Muscle Memory" as "Muscle memory is a form of procedural memory where the brain and nervous system consolidate motor tasks through repetition, allowing actions to become automatic, such as riding a bike or playing an instrument."  In simple term it is memory of practice of muscle movement which when started will be performed instinctive. Breathing, Braking your car, throwing a ball are done instinctive because it has become "Muscle Memory"

In several of my blogs on Muscle Memory I speak of the subconscious mind taking control and performing a memory of a routine. This routine starts with a Trigger or action and finishes with a feeling as the conscious mind regains control. Simply put Tiger Wood in the Youtube video "Tiger Woods Mental Focus" said about when he is in the "Peak Performance Zone" (muscle memory working instinctive) "I tend to have blackouts, I know I was there but I don't remember performing the golf shot" (2.2m/6.3 video) and " I remember preparing for the shot" but "I don't remember (anything) until I see the ball leave" (3.30m/6.3 m video) . Muscle memory is doing the swing and return his conscious thought when seeing the ball in flight out in front of him.

In the three part of performance, Preparation, Action, and Result, I will start with the Action Routine. Before you activate "Muscle Memory with a the "Trigger Decision" you can do several suggestion thoughts that can influence the total "Muscle Memory performance, which is then performed instinctively. For example, if you were to think  "Balance" as a remainder to feel your foot on the ground, it will not change your performance except the subconscious will perform with a bit more control of feeling your balance. 

When your instinctive performance has been completed, you will actually be able to reply to your question of balance by it being your first conscious evaluation after your finished performance. The other two part of the performance are preparation before going into the point circle or onto the bowl's mat (method of holding your ball (or bowl) and evaluation information able to be view as control is returned to the conscious mind.

. In discussion with an well developed athlete this week about his "Reset Routine" he said that " My Performance has a lot of "Mental Discipline". This is true because he was a Petanque player, he felt that his performance preparation, performance and after performance actions were all one complete action. Each of the three part of the performance have their own mental skills. For example, hearing the spectator talking behind you, you may self-talk yourself that you can ignore them. When your performance occurs your concentration on giving control to "Muscle Memory" will probably cancel their sound of conversation. And after your performance is completed you self-talk will be a thought of if you had actually blocked out their sound during your performance.

In working with each of these three parts of your action, you must be always appling the same mental activities with each performance if that mental skill is needed. Otherwise the performance will be interrupted and broken because of the new element introduced. Using the spectator distribution above, if in the preparation you were not aware of the spectators then it's mental skills would not be incorported into the other two part of the performance because your decision was that it was not needed.

In Golf, the picking of the golf club, the analysis of the intended shot, the ball placement on the tee and even the placement of the tee and it height are all preparation routines. The performance is the swing and Strike force done with "Muscle Memory" and after ward as you see the ball fly up the green your thoughts are the Evaluation of the flight and what might be part of a Recovery routine to prevent the next swing/strike from repeating the same error.

In Lawn Bowls, the placement of the bowl in hand with bias and other effects of delivery (feet placement, balance, etc) are the preparation while the action is the delivery of the Lawn Bowl to the green. After release of the bowl as it rolls up the green everything following is Feedback and Correction as for the 14 seconds of the rolling bowl you are watching everything. If you know your bias and are aware that the bias line seem to stay straight at one point; you may decide there is a small fall in the playing surface and your next performance you will allow a foot more line as your Recovery Routine..

In Petanque, the performance may have more mental actions needed to learned and incorporated with the action because the individual's learning has usually been self taught with little coaching. A "club coach" in instructing a new club member may suggest certain mental actions as necessary and explain why if not developed it will result in the individual's lack of discipline of thoughts and feelings. 

However once the athlete is in the "shooting circle" and the trigger action has initiated the Muscle Memory action, everything of the performance  is done as total instinctive. But because within the following second the athlete's conscious thought has returned and he sees his result of performance; it will appear as if Preparation, action and Follow-up are all the same.  The confusion is feeling is not normally a part of the evaluation but a mental reaction after seeing the performance result.  

Trigger action is something which is done by the athlete to begin the Muscle Memory action and can be the practice swings of the feet placement. In petanque, I have seen the foot smoothing the surface in the circle while in Bowls it is to me my foot placement pointing up the green.

Once the Trigger action is performed the Performance should be all the same movements. If practice swings are done they should always be the same number of swings before final action is performed. If a lawn Bowls athlete does one swing or three the mind will expect to do it delivery after the last swing. The raison for this consistance is if mental skills have been developed they will fit into the routine in the same place during the action.

As an example, the need to judge the distance for the performance may be a hand in front before the swing starts (Bowls and Petanque) or a visual place on the fairway (golf). In the same way if self-confidence is a feeling or thought it is also in it proper place and can be memory of a great performance or memory of a correction of delivery which builds confidence. In the Preparation Routine the decisions are made from information collected and reviewed in the Post performance.

In all three sports, when the athlete is in the stance position and the trigger action performed the mind stops thinking or instructing the muscles and the instinctive action is allowed to be performed. In Petanque, the athlete "Shoot" or "Point" thought. In Lawn Bowls the stepping action into delivery and in golf the full back swing  action. All the Muscle Action is in control start actions. 

As the country singer Chad Brownlee's song "Forever got to start somewhere" so also in sports Muscle Memory must always start at the same "Trigger Action"  If it is when you step into your shooting circle (petanque) or onto the Bowls Mat; it must always start there. If something interrupts you action then you leave the mat and return. In petanque the announcement of teams to playing surface area may be an interruption of your action. 

If you have not developed a "Rapid Reset" mental action and that game announcement is an interruption you stop your performance. I have noticed the Petanque athlete simple stands waiting for the announcement to finish. Probably because they have not seperated their action into Preparation, Action and Evaluation so just wait and do the action. If a player's Muscle Memory is a set of actions they must always be the same else the subconscious mind will return control to the thoughts of the conscious mind.After such interruptions the athlete returns to his start position and trigger action to initialize a new performance.

In Sport psychology literature several correction actions are suggested to athlete for mental distraction or concentration problems.  Stress, anxiety, fears or lost confidence, all different and the and the emotional repairs skills and controls are processed in the Pre-Performance and evaluated in the Post-Performance.

Because this will be the only blog on this subject, I will close with a very important distinction of the ability to change or influence the physical performance with mental skills.  Like the physical practice was many hours until you had your style and performance ability; so also the Mental skills of instructions and changes to "Muscle Memory" require patience and practice.  The skills of Sport Psychology are different. They are things you can to to modify the level of distraction and emotions. Like medicine for a illness.

Recently, I asked a Petanque athlete to do a few mental test for me and I discovered that any thought which the individual imposes into the Muscle Memory action becomes a interruption and the conscious mind maintains control as it attempts to perform that thought action.

However, because of almost 30 years of Mental development, I have the skill by using short single word or vision thoughts to suggest to Muscle Memory possible small modifications to performance. The problem that like the physical Practice took years of practice, so also this perfection of communication will take several years of practice. You will know it has been achieved when a thought (word or vision) does not interrupt the Muscle Memory and allow conscious actions.

We are Left handed or Right handed and when we want to perform a task of difficult we use our dominate hand. In the same manner, the mental interruption is the dominate thinking , conscious thinking. The instinctive action is without thought, but to introduce thought into the instinctive action is like the right hander learning to use their left hand for that action.  It is possible but the minute the dominate hand can take back control it will take charge. This happens with the mind. Start small and be sure of the results are because of the change made by the inserted thought.

Some thoughts will be more easlier to insert because like instinctive actions (like breathing or balance) are natural physical action gets those instinctive actions included. An example is an individual deciding to do a unbalance move (spin, flip, or jump) the instinctive nature will return immediately to recovery balance.  In the same sense the mental instinctive actions will return to regain stability.

An example is mental control like concentration. Over the years of schooling and attempting to study we have developed instinctive mental abilities like concentration or distraction acceptance. So when developing the undominate mind set (using the subconscious) some of these instinctive mental abilities will be easly accessed.

 Concentration during a game should be easlier if you did not use music to drown out the distraction when learning to study as a youth. Otherwise the new earplugs can allow your music concentration mental skill to be part of your mental skill to confront distractions. 

 But as the right hand pitcher has his skills of an extremely well develop baseball throw; so also the mental psychology skills must be developed to an advance level to allow introduced thought without interrupting your "Muscle Memory". No more can the skilled baseball athlete change his physical dominations (right or Left handed) of this highly developed skill, can a athlete develop or change their mental dominations with having reached a point of extreme awareness. The Conscious mind will always be the dominate mental aspect unless long and hard work has established a strong mental skill of retaining the dominance by the subconscious.

Thank you, it has been long..Probably because my bowls seasons starts in 2 weeks and probably no more blogs until October. As this will be my only blog on Sport Physchology and Mental development of the athlete's skill I wanted to cover most of the difficult parts. Also your patience will be part of  mental training and practice which also will be long..

Be patience and return as you progress in training, remember there are two type of athletes. You will be one of these two.  Those who have a limited skill set but extremely overly perfected; and those who have a unique physical skill matched with a mental skill which allow for the same performance result. One is unique and well developed, the other is chosen for it situration or need and used on special occations but not over developed.

To give an example. Lawn Bowl's Runners are thrown with an "Off Bias" to keep the bowl straight longer and I have only seen one or two international athletes who throw both left and right handed Off-Bias Runners.The Off-Bias Runner become part of every "Muscle Memory" runner.

 On the other hand, there are some players who use a "Off Bias" slow delivery which is chosen for a unique sitruation of game play where extra weight delivery has that added extra weight lost by the off-bias roll. Once the rolling  bowls speed is back to it normal Bias performance speed it will perform like a regular Bias delivery. However, the athlete in evaluation the problem (a block or something) has chosen this skill with some level of confidence but may only use it a couple of time in a season of game play.

Cycle of Performance - Golf, Bowls and Petanque 1/2 (AMem)

Tiger Wood, golf's greatest athlete in his video "My Game, Episode 1, My Practice  by Golf Digest,  says " "feeling and reality are not the same". During our performance we often have a feeling that everything is great; or "things just aren't right" and "everything is going to go wrong". These feelings may be no more than your negative self-talk or signs of a lack of confidence as you go into a important performance. Reality may be all is good and your doubt is creating these feelings. Sport Psychology offer the mental strength to know your reality and destroy such feelings of uncertainty.

 Tiger's coach says of Tiger's Preparation "He is very detail oriented in the preparation, a lot of "uma minuta" in his home practice" because practice is important without regards for what level of performance we actual have achieved.

(Uma Minuta - Minutes or a Draft in Portuguese like a business contract prepared before being signed) Used in English, it often may refers to detail preparation before the final event happens. Practice makes perfect is not true if you do not do the practice with the proper goals.

If you were going for a job interview you would have three parts to your preparation. Pre-interview preparation, The interview, and the Post-Interview Waiting and Results.

Sports performance has the same preparation, and this blog will look at an athlete's preparation and his performance as to these three steps. Realizing that there is a different in Lawn Bowls and Petanque as to the distance of play to the target that the athlete has to do their performance; each sport has a different committed mental strain.

 Lawn bowlers rolls their bowl as much as 31 meters, while in Petanque play; the target (jack) is usually between 6 meters and 10 meters.(rules allow it to me moved by play up to 20 meters). Feelings are different for the athletes of these three sports. (Golf, Lawn Bowls, and Petanque) because of the length of time until the action is finished. Also, Sport Psychologists, which  attempts to help athletes with problems due to these feelings or emotions, must treat team sports like Soccer, Basketball differently than "Closed" sports like Bowls and Petanque and how performance  is affected by the time of their performance.

Where running sports with performance like Soccer and Basketball (Open to everything going on around the athlete) the closest sport to the continue play of running sports is Petanque. If an athlete of Soccer has an psychological error or damage (lack of confidence) the coach will give them bench time to re organize their feelings. In Lawn Bowls and Golf there is a waiting period between performance and the next performance by the athlete, which allows the athlete to do mental exercises to regain their confidence of recover mentally. In petanque with the one minute time to perform and if unsuccessful the athele must return and perform immediately; the burden of an athlete enduring a  psychological incident may destroy their play, and may last for several ends of play and even be responsible for the complete lost of the game.

Today, April 11, 2026,  The final stage of the most important golf tournament, The PGA Masters, was being played at Augusta National Golf Course (Augusta Georgia). Over the last 2 days 91 of the world's best players have played, and today history was made as  Shane Lowry (Ireland) made his second Master's Hole in One. As the only player to have make two Master's Hole-in-One in the total of  90 years of tournaments. (Shane made his first Master's Hole in one  in 2016). I mention this because my blogs on the subconscious performance of athlete of Lawn bowls also started in 2015 and 2016.

In Golf there are a lot of rules about distraction of the players. How does an athlete continue to play great at  their sport after such an exciting moment as a "Hole in One" at such a hard golf course. As in the Canadian Press victory photo of Shane Lowry's 6th tee excitement. The photo also shows a sort of major distraction, as a lady spectator in the background seems to have got too excited. (she probably was jumped in the air or  her boyfriend's hug  ended up showing too much of her). This photo is used to shows two emotions which destroy an athlete's game (confidence) but golfers have a strong mental game. The "Game Success" Excitement which usually happen at the end of the day and / or any "Shocking Distraction" created by  a spectator, are mental changing events during game play. 

This blog will attempt to show how sport psychology applies mental exercises to helping  with an athlete feelings or emotions. Ofcourse, knowing various mental exercises (self-talk, breathing, etc) does not necessary lead to athlete's self doubt which could lead to errors that destroy their performance. A mental training program which may be developed by a Sport Psychologist each type of sport is intended to help an athletes avoid the danger of  their reality of excellent performance confidence to be destroyed. Without a "Time-out" like is Soccer or Basketball, the athlete which is required to continue game play with their emotion baggage may find it hard to perform. 

The series of Tiger Wood's video which discuss various aspects of Tiger's Previsualization and game play strategy; suggest how his shot imagery in his Pre-performance preparation is actually a 9 square vision of a grid of his shot placement during his performance. (photo below).

Golf visualization of shot

The photo above, show an excitement and a distraction as two emotions or mental feelings which destroys an athlete's performance.

Until the golf ball completed it three bounces and dropped into the 6th hole cup there was probably a couple of minutes of waiting and watching after his great golf   performance. Shane in realizing that he had made a "Hole in One", shows his excitement but now has a long walk to the green and plenty of time to recovery his mental stability. In some sports like Petanque where there is not the opportunity to "Reset" their emotions; the exictement or distraction can be a serious problem.

 Shane time to recompose his emotions with his long work up the 6th fairway and his wait as his fellow players finish their game, was important. Like most skilled athletes after such a success, he would perform a Post-Performance Mental Recovery, which is his personal routine to recapture  his self-confidence and  return to the next tee with a performance he know is needed for the remainder of his game. 

At this point, I will leave golf as my intention was to show the mental game of great players and the above photo of Tiger using a "9 square" Shot Planning grid. This sort of grid can be used by Petanque athletes who may have to refuse a Petanque playing surface in their approach to the "Cochon" (jack). Although our sport may not be Golf, we all can learn even if our sport is not golf as Tiger explains how the depth of his tee into the ground before his golf swing may allow him to make a difficult shots more easly to physically produced. We all can find small things in our sport, like balance, feet placement and others preparation decisions which allow us to do a more controlled performances.

This blog was decided to be presented  because of a discussion with a great future Petanque athlete, whom I learned from his comments that he was seeing  the mental strenght during his play as not being made of three parts but as one performance. Physical and psychologic and all part of his instinctive performance.

 I continue to insist that the reader in wanting to better and develop their "Muscle Memory" must make their Performance as three simply section of play. The most important being the "Thought Free" instinctive actions of "Performance" (Delivery in Lawn Bowls and "Takeout shoot" in Petanque)é  with thought on strategy and decision being a part of "Post Performance" and then afterward before returning for another Performance to make decision and mental adjustments in their Pre-Performance.

This division of thoughts and performance will make the new  performance as only a physical action with controlled emotions and self confidence. In Lawn Bowls there is plenty of time for the athlete to do an evaluation and study of their performance result; and this analysis done during the Post-Performance  is used in the decisions of the Pre-Performance. In Petanque with out the same opportunity to collected  performance information, it may become a task for the team player and communication of decisions and mental support.

 In a fast moving game like Petanque, game Stress, lack of confidence and fear of losing must be an experience or feeling which we identify and know how to correct the thoughts or feelings. Often there is not a lot of time for the Petanque player  between the end of the previous performance and the beginning of the next; so the mental exercises (discussed in part two) must be a part of our performance. Too much thinking or negative self-talk in Petanque can destroy the mental psychological strengths needed for the actual ideal performance. The athlete if in top mental displince will perform his physical best; but with minute to minute occurance of emotions or other other unwanted feelings, he will find a slow lose of self-confidence with that burden.

Any thought once into the pointing circle (Petanque) or on the mat (Lawn Bowls) must be before the trigger point of Muscle Memory and be a quick "non-instruction" thought, as any thought that is a muscle instruction will interrupt the "Muscle Memory". If as a developing player you are now starting to see the results of the long hours of practice, you next step should be to identify you "Subconscious Void" as you feel your conscious mind receiving control.

A year ago (March 2025) I did three blogs on "Communication with the subconscious Mind" which are intended for athletes with a well developed presentation of "Muscle Memory". A year earlier (sept 2024) there were three blogs on "Talking to the Subconscious Mind " and want to pass shot instructions to the subconscious mind before "Muscle Memory" is started. For the developing athlete there may be a need to identify the "Void" or "Zone" where total control of actions is done by the Subconscious mind or instinctive performance.

In Feburary 2023 a 2016 blog was redone to include Petanque teaching of being in the Zone. The blog "Muscle Memory and the Zen Zone" is an interesting blog which allows a developing athlete of Bowls or Petanque to better understand the Performance section of their Sport.  It is a long blog and the intention was to show the ¨Pre-Trigger" actions of both Lawn Bowls and Petanque players. After the athlete's feeling of the distance (with visualization or other), the players will have decided "now do it", starting the trigger phase of Muscle Memory and his performance will have entered their Muscle Memory Zone; where his mind will allow for an instinctive performance.

First step for a learning athlete is to identify this feeling of the mind moving from Subconscious actions to Conscious thinking. Have you ever got out of bed last at night without lights on and walk down the hall feeling for the light switch until you find it. Or miss it because your feeling position on the wall was lower than the actual position of the switch.  Feeling you Zone is the same thing. once you know the feeling you can know you had completed your  Muscle Memory performance. After that point you are then feeling for that feeling and knowing you did not interrupt you instinctive actions.

Days ago we all watched as the NASA Artemis Splashdown after their amazing trip around the moon and back. In 2016 I blogged "Zone Awareness - A new frontier" which discuss the strength of our subconscious mind. Those who follow this blog closely would have seen in February 2026 a blog which explain the strength of the subconscious mind. In just 7 days it had 100 read/visits. 

It talked about strength I have developed with the inner mind like removing a headacke of a family member in Mexico (I live in Canada) which my wife, a native, has done all her life for friends and family. (this blog was reset to Draft after a month because of the comments I received and personal information.

For the Lawn bowls developing athlete who want to discover this Zone or Void there is a December 2012 blog "Three subconscious  Mind Exercises" and I will explain here in a paragraph or two such an exercise for Petanque players want to experience it.

To identify the feeling of the Subconscious control of your performance in Petanque I suggest that you as the take-out shooter attempt a "Jack Take-out" with the jack at about 7 to 8 meters. If you are doing this exercise because you find that you donot compete your action; you must learn to feel for the feeling of the Void and not look for the success of the shot. Like all practices, this mental practice will be successful and maybe not but the more you work at it the more often you will fell the Void return thinking to the conscious mind.

In the second part of this blog, it will continue on the physical evaluation of performance with the intention of a study exercise into the Post-Performance data. If there were mistakes made we immediately must find the time for the psychological exercises needed to return our emotional state to our maximum performance potential.

 Also, I will attempt to explain how in the Pre-Performance, before going to the mat (bowls) or player's circle (petanque) to do a few mental exercises to identify our psychological success from our work in the Post performance analysis of our addressing our feelings.

 

Rain and Wind Bowls Play 2/2 (NMem)

Updated March 14,2026 

As mention in the first of these two blogs, the  similarity between condition of play for rain and for days of a strong wind address the same problems a Lawn Bowls athletic must work to overcome.  As often said in these blogs. There are three aspects of Lawn Bowls perfection. Delivery development ( Line, Weight and Bowls), Mental Development (Focus, Muscle Memory and Game strategy) and last  Condition of Play (what nature give us as a new day)

Condition of play involves the speed of the green, the equipment used (type of bowls) and the difficulty which the environment offers. All of these will influence the game as we develop our perfect delivery, choose the various type of bowls and equipment and build through practice an instinctive performance. But what we can not control is  the weather unless we decide to alway do indoor bowls. 

 We would all love to go to the club on a nice sunny day and roll bowls, but when a competition of major level of players is scheduled; we often find the conditions of play very demanding as we can not order the weather as we would like for that important game.

As  I would like to finish an important aspect of Bowls in the rain by bring forward a previous August 2012 blog and  for a bit discuss some problems or nightmare of Lawn Bowls in the Rain. Before Covid (2020 to 2022) most Canadian club executives and green keepers were concern for the large size debits made in the greens by new members learning to bowl, but in money competitions players bowled an open green.

2024 photo of Club practice

The blog  was written 6 years before the Covid, and at a time when we saw "Protective Screens"being only used in Club games for Coaching. But with COVID and clubs losing volunteer, their Green Committees in trying to keep clubs with playable greens, continued to use the screens during major money competition.

 Even today in some parts of Canada, (Here in Montreal Quebec) ; the "Protective screens are still used. In the blog we see a reference to "Lonnie" size debits and suggestion that during rain condition of play; one should be concern for their best delivery style.  (Lonnie is the name of the Canadian dollar coin because the image a Canadian bird, called a Loon, on the coin face and "Lonnie Size Debits" is still a expression hear at clubs and competitions).

Updated Blog of August 2012 "Rain and Green Debits" deeply editted.

The nightmare of Lawn Bowls in the Rain is not the wet clothes but the wet greens and the "Lonnie" size Debits.  
There are two basic debits types   Those caused by the dropping of the bowl at the front of the mat, and those caused by not bending low enough and thus having a long throwing bounce at about 3 feet from the mat..  Both cause damage to the green because the bowl is not rolling as it hits the green and then the surface of the green is use to begin the bowl's rolling movement.

   A good delivery will have a finger flick or the bowl will roll of the finger. This  type delivery will make the bowl roll before it  hits the green.  Otherwise, the soft wet green will be one debit for each bowl delivered. (With 100 rolls per team even 20% bad delivery mean 20 or 30 debits at both end of the rink)

 On rainy days, the player's thought is, "I am short because of the rain" so we throw the bowl (not roll it) harder and  hear someone say "oh a debit" and we think "Oh  that happens because of the wet green". 

And because we know why, we easily forget that last bowl and it debit, as others are rolled and new debits made. Immediately instruct your self of the  need for a smooth rolling delivery, and be concern for the green.  Remember, when you need to catch your balance after a heavy delivery and a  "long stride" delivery that the side of your footwear may causes quite ugly debits. 

Henselite #5

WHAT CAN YOU DO ??  

 First, if you have more than one set of bowls, use the smaller bowls as you will find  a better grip and delivery easier when your hands are wet. If you Bowls  have "grips" it may help you to grip better, but also it may cause bad debits when you have one of those off-bias rolls because of forcing your delivery. (Update added) The photo right is a #5 by Henselite from the 1960's and the bowl's grip is less than you will find today on 2025 bowls (end)   

Use a different type of Gripoo.. (there is a sticky wet weather type)  If Gloves are allowed... try those Kitchen rubber gloves with grip ridges.  Maybe even change your grip... The Claw grip requires your finger grip the bowl where cradle grip requires a  rolling bowl movement.

Second, Move the mat a lot. It does not need to be always at the same placement. When the mat stays at the 2 meter mark and end after end replaced to the same spot it can cause damage.  A lead, when laying down the mat, should look at the delivery area of the green where the bowls will be deposited.  Remember, you may have left handed team member.

 And Third, although, we do not want to tell an opponent that they have made a bad debit; we can still before rolling our bowl, walk forward and repair that last debit. (Just a light foot push back of that crescent moon shape grass rolled out) This will show the player their debit and eventually the repaired debits will recover.  Rather than close our eyes to opponents marking debits, if we repairs that last debit made by the opponent; it shows and tell them to be careful. 

  Strange, in Petanque, the french sport of throwing and rolling the metal balls to the jack, rules prevent a player from arranging the receiving area of their delivery but a players is allowed to fixing the last debit made. (The game is play in sand or gravel so the full moon indent is best fixed before your ball rolls over it).

 Interesting fact of Boccie, the Italian bowls game now being played in the 2012 London Paralympics games  this week.(August 2012) Players can have different hardness of balls in their six balls team group. Soft balls for hard to remove when hit and once at the jack and hard balls for those throwing shots which will be a slam takeouts. That year British boccia player David Smith took Gold I believe.

(End of 2012 Blog)..

Returning to Bowls and condition of play with Wind.  The last month blog  Analysis 2026 Australia Classic Singles (Info)  has a good video commentator about the choice of Bowls for windy conditions of play. The final is played by two of the best (World bowls Ranking ) players and Irish Gary Kelly as tech commentator is # 6 WB ranking. At the video 7-7 Gary explains why the choice of the narrow bias bowl by Corey Wedlock (# 2 ranking WB) is an advantage where there is such a heavy cross wind.

Bowls with wind behind mat

In the Atlantic International Challenge which happen last summer in Windsor Canada and brought together Scotland, England, United States and Canada we see a strong wind behind the mat and bowlers bowling into that wind. The photo right show the  bowls placement in the head when the wind was face on or east to west (see the flags behind the players) and the photo below show the bowls in the head when the wind was  west to east (behind the bowlers)  A  completely different collection of bowls in the head at these two back to back ends. The players found with the wind behind them that the bowls were blown off line more than the bowling heavier bowls (into the wind) which stopped quickly without much bias.

A May 2, 2021 blog titled "Bowls in New Zealand Wind (AMem) has a good insight into how the wind can change the bowl's bias. But as noted by the (AMem) classification this blog was intended for Advance players who have a good Muscle Memory and are still developing advance aspects of it  Some of my ideas are so badly expressed the an un experience bowler might see them in a manner as too much detail for a beginning lawn bowler.

Bowls with Wind behind Lawn Bowler's Mat

 From this point on this blog touches on more advance information as in the following paragraph I will discuss how the wind affect the bowl's bias. Discussing how a Bowl is today constructed and depending upon the curvature of the running surface, how the bowl's bias  will  defines the bowl's "finish" bending; is too detail for the beginning years of Lawn Bowls.

Another Lawn Bowls Blogger "The Greens Bowler" who as a retired scientist does a mathematical description of a Bowl's Bias with diagrams and mathematical equations. His blog objective is to explain why the bowl keeps the same bias as the mat is moved forward. The reason is your delivery weight. So if the mat moved up making a shorter jack, and therefore forces you to delivery with less weight; then the bias which starts to be performed at it normal Bias starting speed;  as the bowl is rolling slower it starts it bias sooner with the less weight and will perform the same as the longer distance.

However, this also explains what makes a bowl as a narrow bias. If the bowl has narrow running surface, like a car tire or a disk, when it become slow enough to begins to fall to its side, it will drop without rolling any farther. But because on either side of the running surface of the bowl there is another curved surface to catch the green and continue it to roll, the bowl does a "Finish" bend. How wide is this 2nd surface is what makes a bias narrow or wide. The closer this 2nd surface is to the running surface the bias will begin at a faster speed. And if the 2nd surface is wide it becomes an extension of the running surface and prevents the bowl from  falling and is a bowl with a narrow bias." As more material is build on the Bias side of the bowl it will begin it bias fall sooner and thus a wider bias curve.

 I once had an old set of "woods" which has such a wide bias and finish curve that it seem to hock like a walking cane handle. Actually place your bowl on a hardwood or tile floor with a very small movement and you will find it actually doing a complete circle before it fall to its side.

In the photo above, I have marked the bowls of the "Lead" (L), 2nd, and Skip and there is an interesting study of the photograph's bowls. The Skip's forehand delivery we see the bowl keeping its bias (and standing still) while the Skip's Backhand (near the Jack) has almost fallen over. (because of the wind and slow green 12.8 seconds). The same with the two bowls of the third (in the square box) the bowl have a different stopped standing bias because of the player's forehand/backhand  delivery.

Let now understand this as to how the wind affect the bowl during it's roll. A fellow bowler said to me "Don't tell me that with the weight of the bowl, the wind is going to push the bowl over and off line". No, the bowl is not pushed over. but on a narrow running surface it is pushed enough to actually go to the 2nd curve surface and that start of the bias will pull the bowl off it's delivery line. On a wide running surface or narrow bias the 1st and 2nd surfaces are almost as if only one running surface; (the bowl is like a car tire with the running surfaces together wide and flat like) and will roll straight until the last minute before falling.

 Like Clark, In the blog of the mathematical study (above link) the author, if he had continued his study he would have found that for each 2nd running surface of a lesser distance from the main running surface you would have a quicker change in the bowl's Bias. (start to change it's direction of roll).  If a wide bias bowl (narrow running surface) is pushed a bit by the wind its small main running surface shifts to the 2nd surface as the wind  push the bowl to start its Bias sooneer then with no wind .

 In the above photo there is a small cross wind although  the wind is basicly from behind, you see how the bowl has a completely different curve finish for each delivery hand.   You can almost tell if the bowls are wide or narrow bias by how the bowl stopped or fell over (came to rest on the slow green). Compare this to a strong cross wind like the  suggested viewing Video of the New Zealand game in a strong wind.  A lot to think about, maybe too detail. Certainly not the detail for a beginning lawn bowler and maybe even not a subject for an elite who simply thinks. "Play into the wind push with wide bias" to push the bowl back straight and "Play with the wind's assistance to increase the bias of the bowl."

Because we must change the "Delivery Line" to allow the wind to change the bowl's bias, (more or less) I have over the years developed a "Oof-bias Draw" delivery for the wind. Normally "Off-bias" grip on the bowl is used in "Runner" deliveries, but with practice you can take a lot of speed of a "Draw" Delivery.

 The advantage is that with the extra delivery speed needed on the "Off-Bias" Draw one finds that  the Bowl's Straight Line part of the Bias is extended beyond where the bias starts (its "Belly") and allows for getting around blocks or pass "Falls" in the Green. 

Interesting week of Stats on my blogs.  0ver 4000 read visit a week.

Stats of 2 week period March 2026

Update March 20, 2026  -  Of interest on World Bowls participation of Blog readers is this following Blog Stat of 2018. When Blogger started by Google it was concern to supply the blog creator the knowledge of what blogs were of interest and the country from where the visitor came.  Also in the graph of usage it does for each viewer an indication of how many blogs that visitor/reader visited during that visit.

End of March Stats

 (Finish Cleanup and Update. except to date the above blogs.. March 14/2026)

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Blog Stats in April 2018 (good detail)