In Lawn Bowls a "Head" refers to "The bowls gathered around the jack", or the "Skip" as team's head; and lastly, "thinking".. Athletics in developing a perfect form often forget the basics. Prior to 2023 "Seeing" the game was the theme but now a look at other sports, "Petanque" or "Curling" helps us better understand "Lawn bowls" In August 2025 I started to identify the blogs as levels of your development.(1-Novice,3-Competition,etc) I hope to create more discussions between club members .
Tuesday, October 31, 2023
ToolBox ABC's (AAA BBB CCC)
Being re done.. will be posted new in a week or so. ty
I'm sorry to see no other replies, as the article is excellent. I find sadly, few skips really know how to build a head, let alone how to explain it to others. Fact is, most skips start in that position far too early, without the basics themselves. I lead all the time now, as its a position I've made my own within our little club. One of the things in my head that goes around al the time is "Why on earth did he play that shot" Thanks for the great blog. RB
Building a head is unique to each individual skip. Where Bowls is a "Draw,Draw,Draw" game the skips tend to become "Take what I get" head building skips. Accepting that their "Lead" (and Second) are doing their best to draw close to the jack and as skip coming to the mat; my task is to protect the points the teams bowls have created or to regain the lost point. One must be prepared for a great opponents bowl.
In a team which plays a lot together the communication (a C of CCC) is not the in-game Skip's communication of "A bowl here" or "This Bias"; but the "Team Training Instruction" and Liberties to perform as a Team member. As an example, the Lead may have been told to "Balance the Head" as a performance responsibility. The skip may have a hand signal or such sign to remaind the lead of this responsibility. So the lead is thinking, "The point is ours with a 2 inch bowl, so place a bowl Back near the opponent's Behind the jack bowl". Match their bowl unless in front. Use "free bowls" to collect another point. (A free bowl in balancing the head is when the opponent missed their delivery and one can play where the skip wants or what is best as another Point)
This summer I played the Final, money winning game against a Mixed pairs team where he was on the National Team for several years and she was an international Team Lead from an Southern Hem Country. She saw in the first end of play I was left handed and often her bowls protected their head with a 12 to 18 inch (leftish) bowl (at 4 o'clock or 8 o'clock). She had responsibilities which were only changed when her skip asked for something else. If the forehand (right handers) delivery is the true delivery side of the green, she made sure it was hard for my lead to use it after she had captured the point. Sending my lead to the Backhand which was a less perfect side often showed something surprising green charactistics. Her head was balanced and protected with bowls placed so when her skip came to the mat, he had a clear objective to finish the head. The game was a "Skip - Skip" game as both he and myself did clean -up, tight draw, or an extra point draw.
In the first 6 ends the points were single points and score was 4 - 3. Until he did a small 1/4 inch jack touch to send the jack 10 inches across green behind his 2nd,3rd and 4th and collected 4 points. Not a jack roll but "jack near miss slide". As much as I tried with my lead to regain the lead it was never more than a point if I had last bowl. As skip and as a team which played always together and with knowledge from international level, he allow her to build the head. Glad to hear you say "I lead all the time", as I do the same but I often advise the opponent skip that "I skip from the mat". My partner is in the head because he bowls the last 4 bowls of our pairs. But as skip I am in the head at the end of the game and I build the head with the first 4 bowls. But not all teams have this sort of arrangement.
I'm sorry to see no other replies, as the article is excellent. I find sadly, few skips really know how to build a head, let alone how to explain it to others. Fact is, most skips start in that position far too early, without the basics themselves. I lead all the time now, as its a position I've made my own within our little club. One of the things in my head that goes around al the time is "Why on earth did he play that shot" Thanks for the great blog. RB
ReplyDeleteBuilding a head is unique to each individual skip. Where Bowls is a "Draw,Draw,Draw" game the skips tend to become "Take what I get" head building skips. Accepting that their "Lead" (and Second) are doing their best to draw close to the jack and as skip coming to the mat; my task is to protect the points the teams bowls have created or to regain the lost point. One must be prepared for a great opponents bowl.
ReplyDeleteIn a team which plays a lot together the communication (a C of CCC) is not the in-game Skip's communication of "A bowl here" or "This Bias"; but the "Team Training Instruction" and Liberties to perform as a Team member. As an example, the Lead may have been told to "Balance the Head" as a performance responsibility. The skip may have a hand signal or such sign to remaind the lead of this responsibility. So the lead is thinking, "The point is ours with a 2 inch bowl, so place a bowl Back near the opponent's Behind the jack bowl". Match their bowl unless in front. Use "free bowls" to collect another point. (A free bowl in balancing the head is when the opponent missed their delivery and one can play where the skip wants or what is best as another Point)
This summer I played the Final, money winning game against a Mixed pairs team where he was on the National Team for several years and she was an international Team Lead from an Southern Hem Country. She saw in the first end of play I was left handed and often her bowls protected their head with a 12 to 18 inch (leftish) bowl (at 4 o'clock or 8 o'clock). She had responsibilities which were only changed when her skip asked for something else.
If the forehand (right handers) delivery is the true delivery side of the green, she made sure it was hard for my lead to use it after she had captured the point. Sending my lead to the Backhand which was a less perfect side often showed something surprising green charactistics. Her head was balanced and protected with bowls placed so when her skip came to the mat, he had a clear objective to finish the head. The game was a "Skip - Skip" game as both he and myself did clean -up, tight draw, or an extra point draw.
In the first 6 ends the points were single points and score was 4 - 3. Until he did a small 1/4 inch jack touch to send the jack 10 inches across green behind his 2nd,3rd and 4th and collected 4 points. Not a jack roll but "jack near miss slide". As much as I tried with my lead to regain the lead it was never more than a point if I had last bowl.
As skip and as a team which played always together and with knowledge from international level, he allow her to build the head.
Glad to hear you say "I lead all the time", as I do the same but I often advise the opponent skip that "I skip from the mat". My partner is in the head because he bowls the last 4 bowls of our pairs. But as skip I am in the head at the end of the game and I build the head with the first 4 bowls. But not all teams have this sort of arrangement.