Post Novice Course 1/5 Coaching

Session one - Day one Gathering of participants and Description of the Course.

 Because over the years my experience in several Lawn Bowls' Clubs; I believe there are many clubs throughout the world that are much like those we have here in Eastern Canada, New members come to learn the sport and because of lack of qualified (Certified) coaches we all use volunteer coaches to teach bowls to these new members. And with club volunteers  also being paid members and wanting to participate, these new members are quickly abandon to learn the rest by them self.

These Novices, or New Members,  receive a few courses  2 or 3 hours teaching before being pushed into club games; and during the remaining of their first year, if  they are lucky, they may find their instructors watching and suggesting mistakes they are making. With limit time, the volunteer instructor is busy in end of Bowls season competition and too occupied with the new members. 

Come the e 2nd or 3rd year  these members as novice are now being guided by comments from the club members who as  experience players believe they are helping them. How long would you remain as a paying club member with this experience where the suggestion  of improvement come from people whom have their own opinion on how to bowl. The Novice is doing the best they can but without a Post-Novice Cource they will continue learning wrong advice. When 20 years ago we were educated as coachs, we were told that teaching was not how to do it but the information of why to do it that way. Many clubs loses thes members.

as the Mat stays always in the same place

First, we, the coaches or volunteer instructors should realize that what the new club member gets in basic instructions is usually limited by the want of their instructor to get them on the green as quick as possible. 

Often The older club members and executives (green keeper) are more concern with mistakes which damage the greens than mistakes the Novice will carry for the next three or four years. If we believe that the new member has join the club to play bowls we should also conclude they want to learn enough to be satifity with their abilities. We as club exectives or coaches also should want to see them coming back every year and become a contributing member of the club..

. However, like a toddler learning to walk, the new member is allowed to fall (fail in their attempts) as club coaches and volunteer instructors believe it is by making mistakes we learn.  So we see the toddler of two years walking with their security blanket and maybe even in their mouth the Pacifier, and our new member is also with is security item (a point of aim on the bank) and his Pacifier (guessing at the jack distance).

In looking for the proper spelling of "Pacifier" I hit upon the dictionary description of "Purificatory"  which is really what this course attempts to do. Purificatory is defined as " A Purificatory practices remove bad thoughts and feelings from someone so they become pure (= morally good)".

 Hopefully these few sessions will remove incorrect information and feelings (of failure or success) which prevent a Novice from advancing beyond the "Basic How to Bowl" ideas and begin developing their own "Pure (good) Delivery". 

The idea of a delivery being an exercise in "find the right line and weight for the jack distance" is a false pacifier (keeping the new member quite for a while). The Introductory course when dealing with their physical performance like delivery; should have introduce the new idea of "Get your body position on the mat right and do a delivery with proper weight for the jack distance .  In this way, thinking only of one thing and your security blanket will be replaced by what all athletes know as "Muscle Memory" (explained in Session 2) and a sport psychologic term called "Self-Talk" (explained in Session 3).

After which the Post-Novice course moves into the third  and final session of how the equipment and Lawn Bowl rules influence their delivery performance. You, the Novice or the instructor, will begin to see the purificatiory ideas will build a performance which is smooth and with body balance. Ideas like "if our body position is correct on the mat. no matter how much delivery weight we use our bowl will come back to "Center Line".

 If not then something other than a mistake occured which made the bowl perform like it did. Maybe it was an envirormental condition. w equipment, or even mental like tired that caused the change. You will learn what the writing and symbols on your bowls mean as it indicates your bowls's bias, size and weight. However, every manufacturer mades a different type of bowl but all bowls perform the same way. The bowl goes straight until it's speed slows to a point where it's weight and bias cause it to swing to the jack. You will learn about wind, rain, sunshine, or even the conditions of grass cuts, only a few of many other influence on your bowl.

This knowledge is more to remove from the new bowler (novice), the idea that did something  wrong and  they must now make a  change. ( your line, your weight, your balance, your attitude). The photo right show the five bowls made by the manufacturer " AERO", but each bowl has three types of Bias, four or five largeness and three (sometime) weights- In a similar nature there are such a Bias Chart for each of the 5 major Bowlmanufacturers..  You will over time and practice know what happen when your bowl does not perform as you though and this course is to give you facts on how to know or analysis such errors and make necessary adjustments in performance or equipment..

 Somethings like "Walking the mat" or "Changing your bowl Bias" are individual skills which you decide to use or not. There are many tricks all athletes use at certain times and some are very complex and take year to develop and other is just knowing the real facts. Last month, I heard a athlete who had done several Canadian national Competition tell a visitor "The bowl has a weight on one side which makes it fall and curve inward" (very false).

The fifth and last session will answers and show how the game can be very interesting in strategy, mental development, and psychological skills. Your confidence and ability to "Focus"; must be build upon having that knowledge to analysis and apply changes during the right time. Changes will lead to the success you want to achieve whether in that delivery, in that game or over the next year. No development is quick as like the practice you have done, so many skills worth perfecting take time to be developed them from knowing what to do and actually doing it corectly. The ideas will be given and you will often think back or research how you progress to the point you wish your bowl career to go. Club champion or Provincial or even international.  Myself, to day when I see a great bowler I just can wait to match play them to see what are their weakness and if I give them a good game or even outperform them. We learn everytime we play someone better than us. 

This introduction of the course should finish with a Question and Answer time where the instructor question what the particpant want to obtain from the course and the Novice reflecting on the difficult they have and how the five session will help them progress in a path to what they expect from Lawn Bowls.

Because the Post-Novice Course should be a part of every club's support to new Members; it should be given evey second or third year. For this reason the course should be open to all club members who are involved in helping new members so when this years course instructor is not available they have an understand of the contents. No two instructors will give the same information but the important fact is that there is advance information being given after the "New Member Introduction " course.