Now this is the hardest part of the story of Previsualization... Hardest to explain and hardest to do.Think of our brain is like two sister in a family. Each a bit different.. One sister is always in control (probably the oldest one) and the other sister who is very smart, is also a bit shy and waiting to be asked to do something..
We all live our lives in the conscious "Control side" of our brain; with occasions of being so good at doing something; we relax and let it happen instinctively (Second sister "Subconscious). Even during driving a car or throwing a baseball we are always in control but sometime we just let the subconscious brain do it's thing.
Permit me to place Archery and it's Performance into this blog at this point, because this sport is more easily to explains. Zen says "Be the arrow, find the target" but the coach says "Relax let it happen". The zen idea is a subconscious direction while the coach's instruction is to you for your conscious mind.
Both, Archery and Lawn Bowls, require a lot of preparation to do well, but actual precision is only done at the release, In archery, a few micro-seconds while in bowls a bit longer. In Archery like bowls everything is prepared.beforehand.. The position on the floor (mat) the loading of energy into the bow and alignment of our body and prepare of aiming (line of delivery) are all preparation.. The precision is, in archery. " to release without error, the bowstring and let the arrow fly" or "roll the bowl". Throughout the preparation and the delivery of the object (arrow in archery and bowl in Lawn bowls) the conscious mind is in total control.
The archer is told "relax your hand.. let the bowstring be pulled out of your fingers" In Visualization the archer is taught to occupied his mind with something else and to say "ok now" as he aims his arrow. THEN the subconscious mind relaxes the hand and fingers and the bowstring is released. the archer hears "PLOOMP" as the arrow hits the target, A perfect release, a perfect arrow.
.However, where the archer has a split second to not make a mistake and get a good result, the lawn bowler has about 5 to 6 seconds from starting the back swing until the release of his bowl Easy for the archer, you say, no, because the problem is the same in both sports.. "Not wanting to give control of the action to the subconscious mind" Staying in control..
.So for those 5 to 6 seconds of a bowl release we need something to keep the conscious mind occupied. This has been the Previsualization exercise.. an extension of previous thought as we become so involved with see the imaginary bowl roll that we are too occupied to realize that the subconscious has done the delivery.
Concentration.. If in the middle of the delivery we feel a breeze on our face, OPPS we feel it, we think it, and the conscious mind wants to be back in control. Concentration is therefore finding a mind-set which allows for this multi-second absence of thought.(In archery a micro-second ) This is as hard as a swimmer wanting to exercise a muscle to develop it. So, we use the visual image of the bowl rolling up the green as an exercise in staying in the Zone..(subconscious mind set) Look at the Concentration in the photo. It was found on Justsports.com.au and now I got to discover who this Canadian bowler is. (shows one does not always know everything and always something new to learn)
Now I must take issue with our teaching of Lawn Bowls and our limited perspective of our sport.. It is good to break down the delivery to several steps for a beginner to check everything is done right.. Great for a beginner in Lawn Bowls, to know all they should do and how to do it right. But some where after the first year we got to leave the techniques and move toward instinctive rolling the bowl. I had a club bowler who said "I have only been bowling 5 years so I am not that good"
Like a baseball player throwing the ball to someone.. "Think it and do it" in the split second of the thought. Bowls can be the same. They say.Ryan Bester is fast on the mat and in doing his delivery. Maybe he has moved in development to the mind set of the baseball player..Wanting it.. and doing it.. a total subconscious delivery.
So there is now two things... Previsualization which is an exercise of switching from Conscious involvement to Subconscious actions ' and being "In the Zone" . Being able to let the subconscious do it thing. An ability or action while occupying the conscious mind.
. Earlier blog, I showed the bowl preparation of Val Smith NZ. which is important routine to correct everything. but it is also a confidence everything is right before we let the Subconscious take control.
The best archery athletes attempts to do one 10 (center of target ) after the other, 144 times in a row for a FITA 1440 (1440 points) and the winning score often is near 1350 points. With the microsecond "in the Zone" and still not always perfect.
In Lawn Bowls we hope for maybe to have 10 or 15 perfect bowls in an end of 54 bowls. (3 18 ends).Yes the time of action is longer in the delivery of a bowl, but is it any longer than a baseball players throwing a ball, or a basketball players shooting basket. Confidence, and Total concentration is the truth. Again I mention that basketball coaches has the player do previsualization to exercise his "Give Control to the Subconscious" Be-in-the-zone ability.
In the next blog we will look at the lack of confidence as why we revert back to the slow motion , stop action, analysis of our technique rather than continue along the development of Lawn Bowl's "In the Zone" Performance development. Allowing ourself to becomes blocked by lack of confidence
. . Imagine Golf and Tiger Wood having 90 strokes to do in a game and trying to get 70 or 80 perfect strokes. And he is not alone...all the great Golfers know this is the next step to their Performance.I am sure in Australia, this is the mind set.. like golf.. it can be a high percentage of perfection. However, I have not seen muchof this detail prefection in North America. Or maybe it doesn t get down to the club level.
We all live our lives in the conscious "Control side" of our brain; with occasions of being so good at doing something; we relax and let it happen instinctively (Second sister "Subconscious). Even during driving a car or throwing a baseball we are always in control but sometime we just let the subconscious brain do it's thing.
Permit me to place Archery and it's Performance into this blog at this point, because this sport is more easily to explains. Zen says "Be the arrow, find the target" but the coach says "Relax let it happen". The zen idea is a subconscious direction while the coach's instruction is to you for your conscious mind.
The archer is told "relax your hand.. let the bowstring be pulled out of your fingers" In Visualization the archer is taught to occupied his mind with something else and to say "ok now" as he aims his arrow. THEN the subconscious mind relaxes the hand and fingers and the bowstring is released. the archer hears "PLOOMP" as the arrow hits the target, A perfect release, a perfect arrow.
.However, where the archer has a split second to not make a mistake and get a good result, the lawn bowler has about 5 to 6 seconds from starting the back swing until the release of his bowl Easy for the archer, you say, no, because the problem is the same in both sports.. "Not wanting to give control of the action to the subconscious mind" Staying in control..
.So for those 5 to 6 seconds of a bowl release we need something to keep the conscious mind occupied. This has been the Previsualization exercise.. an extension of previous thought as we become so involved with see the imaginary bowl roll that we are too occupied to realize that the subconscious has done the delivery.
Concentration.. If in the middle of the delivery we feel a breeze on our face, OPPS we feel it, we think it, and the conscious mind wants to be back in control. Concentration is therefore finding a mind-set which allows for this multi-second absence of thought.(In archery a micro-second ) This is as hard as a swimmer wanting to exercise a muscle to develop it. So, we use the visual image of the bowl rolling up the green as an exercise in staying in the Zone..(subconscious mind set) Look at the Concentration in the photo. It was found on Justsports.com.au and now I got to discover who this Canadian bowler is. (shows one does not always know everything and always something new to learn)
Now I must take issue with our teaching of Lawn Bowls and our limited perspective of our sport.. It is good to break down the delivery to several steps for a beginner to check everything is done right.. Great for a beginner in Lawn Bowls, to know all they should do and how to do it right. But some where after the first year we got to leave the techniques and move toward instinctive rolling the bowl. I had a club bowler who said "I have only been bowling 5 years so I am not that good"
So there is now two things... Previsualization which is an exercise of switching from Conscious involvement to Subconscious actions ' and being "In the Zone" . Being able to let the subconscious do it thing. An ability or action while occupying the conscious mind.
. Earlier blog, I showed the bowl preparation of Val Smith NZ. which is important routine to correct everything. but it is also a confidence everything is right before we let the Subconscious take control.
The best archery athletes attempts to do one 10 (center of target ) after the other, 144 times in a row for a FITA 1440 (1440 points) and the winning score often is near 1350 points. With the microsecond "in the Zone" and still not always perfect.
In Lawn Bowls we hope for maybe to have 10 or 15 perfect bowls in an end of 54 bowls. (3 18 ends).Yes the time of action is longer in the delivery of a bowl, but is it any longer than a baseball players throwing a ball, or a basketball players shooting basket. Confidence, and Total concentration is the truth. Again I mention that basketball coaches has the player do previsualization to exercise his "Give Control to the Subconscious" Be-in-the-zone ability.
In the next blog we will look at the lack of confidence as why we revert back to the slow motion , stop action, analysis of our technique rather than continue along the development of Lawn Bowl's "In the Zone" Performance development. Allowing ourself to becomes blocked by lack of confidence
. . Imagine Golf and Tiger Wood having 90 strokes to do in a game and trying to get 70 or 80 perfect strokes. And he is not alone...all the great Golfers know this is the next step to their Performance.I am sure in Australia, this is the mind set.. like golf.. it can be a high percentage of perfection. However, I have not seen muchof this detail prefection in North America. Or maybe it doesn t get down to the club level.
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