In Canada where Curling is the winter sport which draws of a lot of Lawn Bowlers into a similar Game play, there is a different attitude developed toward the act of delivery .
In Curling, each delivery is evaluated as to the expected result and the actual performance, Curling leads and skips all know what their Skip want as a result of their delivery and understand how to evaluate the accuracy of what they have performed. In lawn bowls, yes even in competitive games, we often roll a bowl and "accept" the result as it happens. Why not consider the evaluation and Percentage of Success ?. I wonder if Lawn Bowls coaches at the international levels do a percentage evaluate of the performance of their athletics.
A term which comes from "Petanque", a French game of Bowls (Balls), we may hear a competitive Petanque player's strategy based upon "Free Balls". A "Free bowl" refers to the performance of an opponent's delivery which does not require the next player to fix or recover from that situation of the previous play. In Lawn Bowls, the lead and second (mate in triples) usually do as the Skip requests, and accepts the body action of the skip as a sign of success or failure in the Delivery.
Because when the Skip comes to the mat, his decision are often depends upon what he needs to do to win the end, or what he should not do to lose the end; we do not have an insight into his thoughts or strategy. As skip he is completely free to do something defensive (like a block) or something offensive (like develop the head) without explaining his actions. Maybe, his decision is to accept the best percentage of success. Ex: Try a block but if heavy it will trail the jack or change the opponents ability to recovery the point.
Another Term of interest is "Wasted Bowl" No bowl should ever be wasted and often we as lead or seconds do what the skip ask of us without knowing his intentions. We walk away from the mat thinking "What a wasted Bowl that was " What I refer to here is bowls played in such a way that the skip does not give information to the opponents about certain conditions of the playing surface.
Sometimes better explained with an actual Game play situation.
With the above tight head we can see by the closeup that there is a change that a raised jack will go straight back or strike the back bowl and be thrown to the left. (round white circles) If the bowl on the jack is your then this can be a "free bowl" and you should consider a wisely placed bowl in preparation of something happening.
Another situation was one game a couple of years ago. We had been bowling the morning game with Dew having just lifted and were adjusting to the changing speed of the greens. As the final ends approach we were leading by a few points. The opponent has attempted to do a heavy overdraw and had moved the jack to the left side of the green. I came to the mat with the winning shot at about 4 feet from the jack and would require a rolling up the "Virgin Green" with an " Out Turn" Bowl, The bowls in hand were, my two bowls to the opponents last bowl. It was my decision to bowl back hand through the centre of the green, and bowls (much like the photo above). I had another bowl and did not want to give the green speed and Dew delay of the new green. "This was a wasted bowl in that I had shot and did not want to bowl to a closer position. Actual what happen was the opponent skip tried a closer point and only passed the shot bowl by a few inches there by removing the pressure of a tight jack delivery.
My players said that I had "Waste a Bowl" in that effort to pass through the impossible tight previous collection of bowls which had been the head prior to the jack roll.. In curling when the skip has, "the hammer" he will save a certain shot for the last stone or delivery knowing his success depends upon the success of that shot. Sometime in Bowls this can be a wise strategy.
In a tight game, we skips often find the "Skip mat Play" is a Skip Game in that one skip performs a shot and the opponent skip repairs or regains the shot. While we, the skip, are at the mat, it seems each delivery is trying to recovery from the opponent skips fine delivery and shot.
But not always. If you are sitting shot or two and the opponent has not done a shot to change the head you may have a "Free Bowl". Do you know everything you need to know about that green or direction of green. If the jack was to be ditched at the out of bound limit.. would you be able to draw a shot at that location.
Of course, one may consider this a wasted bowl, but by using a difficult " Virgin green" or simple fine tune your draw to the back carpenter (board along the ditch). It is not wasted if you learn something important in the game. So often in bowls we see the skip giving the sign to take the point and rolls his bowl into a non dangerious area of the head.
Why not use this bowl to learn something which may be needed in the game later.Bowl a imaginary short jack, bowl a next to ditch point, or even check a forehand or backhand you have not yet established. ( First ends of actual game bowling)
Never waste a bowl or learning opportunity and remember defensive bowls means you pick the shot or roll to best instruct you or your team while not creating a dangerous situation or bowl opportunity.
Because both Lawn Bowls and Curling are six month sports, the mind set of the players often carry personal performance views, In Curling we often hear about an individual making a 70% of their shots. Can you imagine what your "Shot Percentage" is in Bowls ?
A term which comes from "Petanque", a French game of Bowls (Balls), we may hear a competitive Petanque player's strategy based upon "Free Balls". A "Free bowl" refers to the performance of an opponent's delivery which does not require the next player to fix or recover from that situation of the previous play. In Lawn Bowls, the lead and second (mate in triples) usually do as the Skip requests, and accepts the body action of the skip as a sign of success or failure in the Delivery.
Because when the Skip comes to the mat, his decision are often depends upon what he needs to do to win the end, or what he should not do to lose the end; we do not have an insight into his thoughts or strategy. As skip he is completely free to do something defensive (like a block) or something offensive (like develop the head) without explaining his actions. Maybe, his decision is to accept the best percentage of success. Ex: Try a block but if heavy it will trail the jack or change the opponents ability to recovery the point.
Sometimes better explained with an actual Game play situation.
Another situation was one game a couple of years ago. We had been bowling the morning game with Dew having just lifted and were adjusting to the changing speed of the greens. As the final ends approach we were leading by a few points. The opponent has attempted to do a heavy overdraw and had moved the jack to the left side of the green. I came to the mat with the winning shot at about 4 feet from the jack and would require a rolling up the "Virgin Green" with an " Out Turn" Bowl, The bowls in hand were, my two bowls to the opponents last bowl. It was my decision to bowl back hand through the centre of the green, and bowls (much like the photo above). I had another bowl and did not want to give the green speed and Dew delay of the new green. "This was a wasted bowl in that I had shot and did not want to bowl to a closer position. Actual what happen was the opponent skip tried a closer point and only passed the shot bowl by a few inches there by removing the pressure of a tight jack delivery.
My players said that I had "Waste a Bowl" in that effort to pass through the impossible tight previous collection of bowls which had been the head prior to the jack roll.. In curling when the skip has, "the hammer" he will save a certain shot for the last stone or delivery knowing his success depends upon the success of that shot. Sometime in Bowls this can be a wise strategy.
In a tight game, we skips often find the "Skip mat Play" is a Skip Game in that one skip performs a shot and the opponent skip repairs or regains the shot. While we, the skip, are at the mat, it seems each delivery is trying to recovery from the opponent skips fine delivery and shot.
But not always. If you are sitting shot or two and the opponent has not done a shot to change the head you may have a "Free Bowl". Do you know everything you need to know about that green or direction of green. If the jack was to be ditched at the out of bound limit.. would you be able to draw a shot at that location.
Of course, one may consider this a wasted bowl, but by using a difficult " Virgin green" or simple fine tune your draw to the back carpenter (board along the ditch). It is not wasted if you learn something important in the game. So often in bowls we see the skip giving the sign to take the point and rolls his bowl into a non dangerious area of the head.
Why not use this bowl to learn something which may be needed in the game later.Bowl a imaginary short jack, bowl a next to ditch point, or even check a forehand or backhand you have not yet established. ( First ends of actual game bowling)
Never waste a bowl or learning opportunity and remember defensive bowls means you pick the shot or roll to best instruct you or your team while not creating a dangerous situation or bowl opportunity.
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