Strategy - Play the Percentage Success Shot

Under development  Patience Please  Sept 10, 2025

Level 2 Skip Strategy

To night following a singles game my opponent said, "It is so hard to find information on Strategy" and I took time to explain a "Percentage Strategy" by reproducing the before last end and a actual shot; to explain my thought  then just an end ahead of that last single point end.  At that time of play, the score was 4 points from the end and I had 2 pointscounting  and last bowl. I walked to the head to read my possible options and saw the bowls as per those I have created in the photo below. The setup was as to the bowls in the photo t without the "X White mark" bowls which I paint added to show my options of play. What  you should get from this blog is to know what was important ? Was it to have the line right or to have the delivery weight right. All percentage shots depend on your choice.

The 4 bowls with "X White mark" bowls are the 4 possible shot which was possible to make 3 or even a 4th points.  Because a miss by as much as 3 bowls  left still gave a successful shot, we say we have a 400 Percent Success shot, as each bowl width left will still give a good result..

Bowl 4 has 2 possibilities for 3 points as it can kiss "A" and wick to jack or pass "A" and remove the blue 3rd shot. Bowl 3 will pass and remove the Blue 3rd and Bowls 2 and Bowl 1 will hit the standing white(and blue) bowl and raise it to kiss the Blue 3rd for 3 or 4 depending how the played bowl continues to roll. The space between the 4 shot and the 3 shot is the "Failure Percentage" as it will hit A and maybe knock out your shot bowl. (a 25% failure possibility. Set up during a practice the 7 bowls as shown and try the shot 4 or 5 times and see what happens. Not only will you know about "Percentage Success" but also you will have confidence in you viewing of the actual Percentage. Remember that weight is important as the slower bowl will give a proper finish on your bias while too heavy will cause a "Pass Through".

The question was "What is more important, Line or Weight" In the example it shows that you have more than 4 bowl width of possibilities and if the line is toward the Bowl 3 then an extra weight will keep the bowl right (bowl 1 and 2) and if too little weight will allow the bowl to finish more to the left (Bowl 3 and 4).

If trying to remove the blue Bowl 3rd shot is to use the percentage Success, then the shot must be played a full bowl right (earlier blog of visualization is to see the shot) so line is there at the Bowl 2 position (Black arrow). Yes we could try the accurate takeout shot to remove the blue 3rd Bowl but if we are not all that good and want  to use the Percentage Success as method to remove  the opponent's bowl; then we must see  a different line.  To know that a miss on the left of the chosen  line still has 2 possible "Good results". And realize the danger  to try  Bowl 1 shot, as it is the less of a chance of success. 

If the  bowl is too much right on such a shot, or even a whole bowl right; there is thepossible shot that it may even raise the opponent's frontal blue bowl "B" to becoming shot. So "Line" is more important if the percentage is to be 4 bowls wide. Why ? If delivdyr is with too much weight then Shot 1 and Shot 2 happen and if the delivery is too light; then the lack of weight may even result in the bowl finding it's bias and still doing the removal of the opponent's  3rd shot bowl. 

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I live here in Quebec, Canada and every minute of every day we make a decision to talk French or to Talk English and after that decision we do it. This is the same with the Percentage Success Shot. You make the decision and then do it. If one was to try the removal of the opponent's 3rd shot with a well played weighted shot;  it might have remove the actual shot Bowl ("White"at 9 o'clock) Bowl. In using the Successful Percent -age shot we don't  worry for the played bowl to actually pass the frontal bowls as we would with the danger of not having the exact delivery weight.

I played the percentage shot with the line that I knew as important for the best percentage because I am playing at the end of this game and I am confortable with line now.  (The  created Shot photo and the bluebowls are a modified screen shot, created with bowls from the first or 2nd end of play of 2025 Australian Open Men's Single which is streaming on Youtube, a good video to learn Single strategy)

 So what happen ? I was a bit light in weight and the bowl roll therefore ended as  actually being the "Shot 3". Because of  the under weight delivery (by 18 inches) it saw the bias finished a bit more and just tapped (hit) the opponent's Blue 3rd shot. If I had had more weight on the delivery, the bowl it would not have finished so much bias and which only moved their about 2 inches to give me the 3 shots (score was then 11-17 as condition of play was for game to be played to 18 points). What is important is with this shot my trying was rather safe as a miss still game me the extra point as long as draw weight was near to perfect.

What is important is that we will often miss a little and if you play a large percentage shot it will still be successful even with the miss. What is important in reading "Percentage Shots" is to decide if "Weight" is important or if "Line" is more important and making that decision apply the importance to your decision.