Percentage of Success on Bowl Delivery

 

As I update this blog in 2026, I am surprise that this video of the 2016 World Bowls Two Bowls Triples is still available.  Christchurch, New Zealand  welcomed world players and as the top two teams meet for the Gold Medal Game, the teams are given a 15 practice roll-ups. And the commentators are discuss the fact that Australia had not won this title since 1966.

The Australian team of  Barry Lester, Mark Casey, skipped by Aron Sherriff  will be meeting the English team of Jamie Walker, Andy Knapper  skipped by Robert Pexton after both teams having hard teams to beat to get here.

Sometimes, after a game, we hear during a skip discussion that he felt that there was a low possibility of making a  "Runner shot". I use this video her to explain both "Success Percentage" and "Failure Success" (although in overtime there is not need for Failure Success) Three aspects of a shot decision are in the mind of a skip as he evaluates his options.  His own success with this type of shot, the  "Percentage of Success" and the damage or consequence of missing the "Shot".

This Gold Medal game goes into a over-time as the 14 - 14 score shows how Australia set up a 'Catch Bowl' before attempting a takeout shot for the win. Using this game in this blog to show great decision making as Australian's  Skip Aron Sherriff of Australia goes to the mat to play his final bowl,

 At left we see the head of the overtime end of the 2016 World Bowls 2 bowl Triple Championship.  as the skips go to the mat and England is holding the winning point with a toucher within inches of the jack (This video is still on youtube).

We can see three possible deliveries for Aron. 1) A forehand "lightly over weight" draw to touch and remove the shot bowl or knock the jack back a few inches to Australia`s bowl (yellow) behind.  

However, England`s last bowl played by mate was to leave a block quite far up the green against this option.  2) A backhand draw to the jack with the danger of moving the jack to the English bowls rather than back to their own yellow bowl. (Aron during most of the play has been favoring his Forehand draw) and 3) A runner bowl to remove the England "Shot bowl". This shot would require a very fine cut (1/8 ot 1/4 cut on the shot bowl).

 This, the 3rd option, is the choice which Aron Sherriff decided to do and if succwssful, win or lose the game. As we see with the photo below, the bowl passes within a fraction of an inch for a miss and England wins the Gold.

 Here, I will explain what I meant by the term "Bowls percentage of Success" as I calculate the "Percentage of Success" The photo to the right is an example of a "1/8 Bowls" Touch for a Successful shot. Meaning, to pass the frontal bowls and hit the "Shot Bowl" allows for only 1/8" while a fontal 1/4" touch will roll the jack back to their bowl.. Remember that a fast runner does not have a lot of bias since bias applies when the bowl begins to slow. This shot can only be done with a perfect forehand overdraw. Yes, Aron has made many a "perfect shot", but in this shot his delivery is too heavy and the bowl stayed straight longer and missed contact.  I would say that the shot has a low Bowl "Percentage of Success" and only with a Forehand delivery. The percentage is increased as the delivery is slower ("over-weight") delivery.

Once, during a club championship final, I made a 1/8 bowl runner shot like this and my partner said to me "If you can make those Shots, you can make anything." However, my decision to try the shot was base not upon the "Success Percentage" but that the shot had a High level of  "Successful Miss" and of course was not my last end or bowl.  Let me explain the difference. 

As you know, sometimes, we must give up the point, if we do try a shot it is best to not be successful if that  "Miss" shot changes the head.. In the above example, by Aron Sherriff , his missed shot did not cause any damage to the head and if a bit off (1/4 bowl) it would have moved the jack back to his bowl.

Sometimes we are in the habit of thinking about previous games played with the same shot required. Because England still had a bowl to play, it is possible that Aron has thought of his shot as if there were still ends to play. I say this because of the weight of his shot and the " Percentage of Success" as beng Low. Pressure of the moment may have introduced the idea that with a "Miss" there is no danger of removal of the Australian bowl (yellow) which is second. This would be the skip's thought if there were still more ends to be played. (a thought which probably was done many times in Aron's Bowls career)

It is an opportunity to explain a High percentage of  "A successful Miss", a thought expected  in a game with more ends to play,  The miss here meant the lost of the game.  However, looking at the same "removal" of the "shot Bowl".  

Another important fact is that  many skips usually only throw with success one type of runner although I have seen a couple athletics throwing with equal success both handed Runners.  Maybe because  a "Forehand Runner" is easlier as a "Backhand Runner requires the bowler to be stepping away from the "Center Line" when throwing.(My opinion). Some great "Take-out Artists" like Ryan Bester has success on both hands.

The shot which Aron Sherriff tried was the "Forehand Runner" and as we see on the screenshot photo (left)  where his bowl is stopped; the runner (yellow) bowl passed very close to the shot bowl;  Aron just missed by an inch or so. A gutty shot for the Gold Medal of  the 2016 World Bowls. But the better players can and do make these hard and "impossible" shots.

This blog, which was started several months ago, and now being finished was important to finish as seldom do I get good examples of important information like Percentage of Success or Failure.  

I am late finishing this blog because I was here in Canada watching the  2020 Australian NSW Bowls Club Championship Singles Final. Here in Canada, to watch 6pm game from Australia or New Zealand requires a early morning  3am viewing. Watching such great bowls game online is all that we Lawn Bowls addicts have with the CoVid shutdown of Canadian and Americian Lawn Bowls Clubs.

From March 15 to 19, 2021 we saw the 2020 Australian NSW Bowls Club Championship streaming. was worth the early morning online. ( from March 15 to 19, 2021) Have not missed much of the Australian or New Zealand streaming this year, this 2020  Singles Final  was worth the early morning viewing.

In this game,  Corey Wedlock of Warilla  is trailing at 29 - 30 as he and Ben Twist of St Johns Park go to the mat for the final end of play.  Ben`s first bowl is a toucher and stops 5 or 6 inches in front  of the jack. Corey on his 2nd bowls decides that with the 29 - 30 score, and such nice bowls; the head  needs being opened a bit. His runner takes the toucher and jack to the ditch with a seperation of less than a foot.  (Game over as the toucher stayed with the jack). But I was impressed that Corey threw such a good "Backhand Runner".

The purpose of this blog is not to be an "ArmChair Critic" as often seem to be the reviews of good games. As anyone who has played singles know that a tough part of "Singles" is being alone on the green and at the end game there is a lot of pressure. Was this shot before the last bowl a sign of pressure ??. 

This was a great game,  played yesterday March 19, 2021; and can still be seen on NSW Bowls  . At one point Corey was behind 15 to 26 and came back to a 28 - 28 tie.  So, not to critize but show what is meant by "Bowls Success" or "Precentage of Success" I use this game to comment as in the final end of this game we see clearly the point of "Percentage of Success"as explained as to the number of bowls which the shot can be missed and still be quite an acceptable shot.

From the screenshot (right) we see Corey`s runner bowl (stopped) just prior to contact. It was a "Forehand Runner" which in this case has only one "Bowl of Success" as the contact with the 2nd bowl from this angle offer no level of success. The angle at which the forehand bow arrives in the head is from left to right. Greater "Success" is seen with a "Backhand Runner" which approaches the head right to left. 

On the "Backhand Runner" we see that there are three "Bowls (large) of Success" as even a narrow far right "hit" on the 2nd shot bowl will cause the head to be changed. When putting this in percentage I would say "has a 300 % of success". (No such option on Forehand)

We see that a runner on the backhand causes a difference approach and different results. Above, I mention that some players can only throw a forehand runner. In this case you must know your actual success at throwing the runner. A backhand runner is more difficult.

 

Even a backhand runner hitting the 2nd bowl square on will bounce a bit left and could move the shot bowl left and finally take shot. However, a runner is not the best decision here. 

Also, as Corey had last bowl; his decision of a runner could have been saved for the last bowl and the other bowls used to prepare for such a runner.  Very probably  the quick decision of Corey was more the Pressure of a really great game which all players feels at the final end-game. 

Practice makes Perfect.. What type of Practice ?

 How does Ericsson`s 10,000 Hour Rules apply to the expression of "Practice makes perfect" ?, Previous blog looked at the PodCast of "Good Life Project" and how the original research of Anders Ericsson began into the development of expertise.

   Jonathan Field, the founder of GLP in his podcast interview asks Anders Ericsson to explain the two practices " Purposeful practice" and "Deliberate practice".

Field: "Deliberate practice is very difference than just the notion of "practice". "Tell me if I am wrong" Deliberate practice is the type of very precise practice which leads most efficently to ,, growth, to mastery, to expertise" 

Ericsson: "To Clarify, people have been using 

"Deliberate practice" in ways that is a little bit different from what we originally proposed when we looked at musical students". "Musical students were working with individual teachers which actually guided their practice into "Detail Practice" activity which they could go off and do by them self and monitor the outcome". 

       "And we call "purposeful practice" when you have a training task with a goal, and then you have something you can do over with immediate feedback and you have opportunities here to repeat it and  you can reflect and figure out way you can do it differently to reach the goal you set for yourself". 

Field: "So the big difference than.. is one has more external guidance by a teacher"

Ericsson:  "Exactly,  So "Deliberate practice" would be "purposeful practice" which is now supervised or actually guided by a teacher".... "If you actually have a teacher who has worked with a lot of other individuals; they would be able to access"... "Well here is where you`re at and lets first correct your fundamentals first before we start moving into the higher levels". "To adjust what you are doing incorrectly because eventually that is going to be a real limiting factor".

Field: And the big difference between  weather it is purposeful or deliberate ... between those two categories (of practice) and just regular practice" ?

Ericsson: Right, that is a big difference between purposeful practice and .. practice or play" Using playing doubles in tennis as example Ericsson explains that in play you miss a backhand volly but of course play just continues. But if you coach was to define a meaningful list of routines to practice and build your perfection of your back hand volly. After the several different exercises of the coach; you would have a expertise in your back hand volly.

Ericsson: "The idea here is that with that purposeful practice where you are actually help to focus in on a specific aspect; you can probably gain as much in two hours as you would in a couple of years of just playing with friends".

Field: "You get together with friends... but the reason you do it is because it is fun".

Ericsson: If you are working with a teacher, they would be able to set up a

Game play practice

sequence of  different things you should make adjustments and what is important is that the teacher is confidence you are able to make these adjustments with these activities". "And if you run into problems than the teacher is going to diagnose what is needed to fix first before you can achieve the goal".

Professor Ericsson suggest that instead of looking for that gifted ability which may occur magically while you are playing; that  "nobody actually finds the gifted and instead take the view that this is what I would like to do and then figure out what is the path".

Next blog, third of this series; will discuss where one gets that movivation and the value of a mentor and your teacher`s confidence in you and your abilities.

Anders Ericsson on Expertise

 

In a 2016 Good Life Project Podcast, founder, JonathanFields interviews K. AndersEricsson, PhD, about his research into the Psychology of developing one`s abilities as it pertains to becoming an expert in your field.  As Professor of Psychology at Florida State University, Amders Ericsson did research which  is probably the start of what is today the science of "Sport Psychology" and the relationship between an athletic`s mind and personal or physical development.

What started as a research project on a question of "How would one develop an ability to receit a long list of numbers; later advanced to a similar  study of violin and piano music students and resulted in what is now known as " 10,000 Rule of Expertise"  This suggests that. "To become an expertise one must invest at least 10,000 hours of practice" But the question then arrives as to what type of practice.

"If we take the task of reproducing a list of numbers.. at first a person recites to memory the numbers and can reach about 10... then it is found that a method has to be develop to remember more" Ericsson discovered that "humans have an inability to pay attention to a lot of things at the same time" "and we were interested in how could training really change that". The volunteer whom was being studied had reached a point of 10 numbers when he began a strategy of remembering the 1st three numbers and recalling from memory the remaining numbers and "eventually came up with a system which would allow him to do like 20 of these groups"

First important point is that eventually there was a need to develop a system or strategy to achieve the expertise wanted to be developed.  "But if you were sticking to doing more of the same you would never get beyond (a certain point) "but by shifting the strategy of using long term memory he was able to open up the space or possibilities" "and we studied others of his colleagues which also got to about 100 digits" "And now the current record (in 2016) is over 450 digits"

Secondly, "the amount of time it took to develop the skill to be able to do it". "This was over 400 hours during a couple of years" doing one hour a day. But "that intensity of being able to focus while being tested" "is part of the success of his training". "One of the things we saw here, and with many other experts; is the ability to concentrate during short periods".

"We are making a point between "purposeful practice" and "deliberate Practice". Those who have been able to reach the 450 ditits level are being taught the fundamentals and then like a music studiant work to practice these principles, they can achieve a high level of expertise. "By executing that system they are able to do vasely more than that individual that had to figure out for himself".

"That is a powerful idea.. if you can draw on what teachers have learned over time... about the best way of doing things... and as you get high and higher .. there are going to be few and few things which will allow you to reach one step further" toward your expertise.

Another interesting point is that although similar task or expertise in individuals, it may not be applied to different aspects of similar tasks. For example: The current Guinness World Record for recitual of the digits of π’s (pi)  is held by Lu Chao of China, who, in 2005 recited 67,890 digits of the value of pi. However,  about the same time, "Ericsson and his colleagues gave Lu as well as a group of people of the same age and education level, a test that measured their "digit span". (how well they could remember a sequence of random digits presented at a rate of one digit per second)". (Life Science) .

How did Lu do ? "Lu`s digit span was 8.83, compared with the average of 9.27 for the rest of the group"(published in 2009 in the Journal of Experimental Psychology.) Why ? Lu was using a method  "called the "memory palace"   which has (been) applied since the time of the ancient Greeks and Romans and which involves using spatial visualization (as a mental method) to remember information such as digits, faces or lists of words. ( read how at Life Science) .

Further in the podcast interview Ericsson states " I know of historial examples of people who had to relearn how they were doing things in order to advance to the next level of mastery" 

  Sometimes an mental ability can be transfer to a similar newly defined ability by translation of that ability but often the individual on reaching his plateau of performance must now find a new mental application to build his future advancements. " 

Next blog will look at the type of practice and the mental development which this podcast suggest is possible.

Making yourself a Champion in Bowls

"When someone is very good at a given thing, what is it that actually makes him good?” was the seemingly primordial

question which  Professor Anders Ericsson attempted to answer in his 1993  paper  published in the "Psychological Review". Remember that research in the  field of Human Behavior is difficult because volunteers for research are not willing to commit to several years of trials. 

Ericsson`s most recognized research was what is today called the "10,000-hour rule". Although misinterpreted by many like Malcolm Gladwell it suggests that 10,000 hours of practice is needed to become an expert in a field or sport. 

In his early research, Ericsson by using "violinists at the Academy of Music in Berlin, divided the selected music students into three groups: those who had the chops to be world-class performers, those who were very good and those who planned to become music teachers." 

Professor Ericsson and two colleagues  discovered that what separated the violinists’ skill levels was not natural-born talent but the hours of practice they had logged since childhood. 

The future teachers registered around 4,000 hours, the very good violinists 8,000 and the elite performers more than 10,000 hours. The same study was conducted with pianists, with similar results, thus creating what became known as the "10,000 hour rule".

Using  the next few blogs I will look first at the  Podcast " titled "Anders Ericsson: Dismantling the 10,000 Hour Rule" by  the "Good Life Project founder Jonathan Fields who interviews K. Anders Ericsson, PhD, and discuss his last published book "Peak" on the "Secrets from the New Science of Expertise". (2016).

The first miss interruption of Ericsson work was by Malcolm Gladwell, author of best-selling "Outliers" (2008)

 actually popularized Professor Ericsson’s research;  but to many in the field of  "Human Behavior" research, it was consider to oversimplified  the findings of Ericsson`s 2009 research paper. 

Angela Duckworth, a professor of psychology at the University of Pennsylvania and the author of

actually popularized Professor Ericsson’s research;  but to many in the field of  "Human Behavior" research, it was consider to oversimplified  the findings of Ericsson`s 2009 research paper. 

Angela Duckworth, a professor of psychology at the University of Pennsylvania and the author of

As far back as 2006, Stephen J. Dubner and Steven D. Levitt, authors of the book “Freakonomics,” attempted to explained Ericsson research in their NY Times profile of Professor Ericsson and stated that his lifetime work was "on defining what makes an expert in their field."  

Their book “Freakonomics, suggests that data analysis and incentives can explain a lot about human behavior. Using their tools of economics; they attempted to explain real-world phenomena that are not conventionally thought of in terms of "economics". (by Shortform) 

Good Capitalistic Sports Information

 In  the year 2020 when the CoVid 19 virus scorched the earth and closed Lawn 

Bowls Clubs the individual`s love of their sport has place "Stay-at-Home" Armchair athletics on the Internet searching for new articles or information on Lawn Bowls.

Yes there are a few countries which have returned to the Greens like Australia and New Zealand and a few social media sites like Australian Lawn Bowls Facebook which streams 2020 Championship games, but the most common Lawn Bowls watching has been the "Friday RePlay" of extremely good past Championships on Club`s Facebook.

I speak of Capitalistic Sports Information because with the Internet in almost everyone`s home the Search for Lawn Bowls instruction other than Learn-to-Bowl videos on Youtube is almost impossible. 

Depending upon your browser and it`s "search structure" you may never find that specific sport information you thought to seek out; without hours of searching or investment into a on-line service.  I use the word  "Capitalistic" to describe the information we are seeking is because websites and social media structures are build and maintained for one big purpose -- "to make money". Yes from obvious things advertising to the less obvious "Cookies" data collection. These things are what drives and give our results in the first choice of your search engine.

An example of such surfing and searching, I started with a good point of depart. The web page of a great Coaching icon.  Lachlan Tighe Bowls and with an interest in his notes on mental development for the athletic. A small reference which Lachlan had written  when in 2012 to 2014 he was Head Coach for Bowls Canada. 

He speaks of reading the works of  Anders Ericsson on "solitary practice" as a method of developing the top athletic perfection of their skills. ( Mr. Ericsson a psychologist who was reconize for his research into the skill development of experts) 

  Searching for"solitary practice" on an Microsoft EDGE browser gave me the introductory description of "A solitary practitioner is an individual who chooses to practice their spiritual faith in the privacy of his or her home or other designated space, without the need to participate in a group such as that of a Wiccan coven". obviously to general so I then modify the request  to "Solitary Sport practice".

This finds 3,040,000 results and mainly based upon two Search criteria,  I am in Canada, Canadian websites and "Sports Practice".  Immediately I am suggested sites like Canadian Research in Sports such as SIRC (Sport Information Research Center) and it forums or topics and secondly  suggestion of-sites on leadership or sport practices. 

Obvious I need a more unique Search  likes "Works of Anders Ericsson"  which catch on the name "Ericsson" and reveals news of his death ( June 17 this year in Tallahassee Fl at the age of 72) and  finally further down I find a few interlinks of his works and  research with published results. 

Stats of Blogger Sept 2019

In a study by Cloudfront.net Cote,Baker and Abernethy published  20 pages on researching  perfection by athletics under detail solitary practice which I will blog and review in the next few days as my future blogs for December tackle this subject.

We can see from the Blog Stats (photo at right) of Sept 2019 that there is a sudden increase in readership and the topic of concern was a 2015 blog  "Being a Leader Bowler".  Also we can see that the search was a Google.com search. This sort of information allow a blogger to choose their topics for future blogs based upon the interest of their reader base.

The photo (right) show my second dissatisfaction of the recent Capitalistic changes of the Internet. Compared to the previous stats (Above) this stat is useless to  a sport blogger, I have been happy to leave my  over 200 writings with Blogger.com which supplied me enough  personal satisfaction to continue to write. But to Google.com, these detail statistics add no revenue to the company, so now the simple new stats show a graft increase from 28th Nov 29th  of over 60 readers but no longer with  reference . It is  obvious that for blog writing, a new format of information is needed puts less value on the " save money" and more on the satisfaction of the contributor and the reader. 

As a blogger, my articles were based upon the statistics  I received from Blogger.com  and clearly identified my readers and the area of the world where the sport of lawn bowls is being developed. to the topic which the search had brought reader to the site and even less information now with no indication of the  location of reader.

Maybe I will do like Mr. Tighe and build my own website. But than again, I am not a professional coach using my knowledge to write books; which are to be sold or using my website to obtain employment in some international bowls organization.   

The need to make money by website owners means the Internet is not longer showing an interest toward the needs of the reader. Maybe we will soon see all these free information blog site began to charge us with an access fee.  I have started backing up my nearly 200 blogs to my private USB and will begin printing a club coaching binder; but at 76 it may be my last project but I will continue to blog..

But for the rest of this CoVid 19 Shut-in period I will tackle Lawn Bowls on the Mental Performance and Subconscious Mind development.  Ty 4 following

Feeling the Distance 3/5

If, to yourself, your judgement of the Jack Distance and your delivery of your bowl to touch and stop at the jack. is like the Baseball player, It is a feeling and

Instinctive Baseball Throw

"I just do it" is your reply to "How do you know the distance ?"; then you understand the mental balance between Physical Performance and Subconscious Performance and probably find yourself  in the Zone. The zone is a period of a absence of mind which during the delivery allows the subconscious to perform the action which for years, you have repeated the same action. (Muscle memory)

A state of mind where you are "Void" of thoughts, and this void allow the body to perform, without though, the actions and even decisions of how much weight is needed to draw to the Jack.

Much has changed in this mental aspect of sport performance and the book "The Inner Athlete" written in 1976 on this subject by Robert M. Nideffer (Phd) with the topic of "Mind Plus Muscle for Winning".   The ideas are the same but over time changes. Saw a book last week of "Zen and your Sport". 

The Inter Athlete (1967)

Always we hear that Physical performance is 10% while performance toward winning is close to 90% mental and long time developed mental abilities..

Pre-visualization was then "Mental Rehearsal" and the basketball player would see in his mind doing his basket shot and after the "Mental Rehearsal"; he came to the line to without effort made the shot. So, why not ? It had already been done 20 times in his mind.  I use the term Pre-visualization because this thinking and seeing your bowl rolling up the green; is done before you actually do the delivery of your shot.
Also Mental Rehearsal was a term use for a method of an athlete studing his  game after it had been completed. Some player can  recalls each point won or lost and analysis what could have been done differently in the game strategy; while others can not remember.  (another topic)

Earlier, I suggested training the mind to measure the distance by counting the jack throw until it stopped. This is an exercise of Visualization and teaching the mind the feeling of the jack distance from seeing it roll. The mind see the action but does not collect information unless it is instructed.  Afterward it will have the feeling and alway compare the information to previous collected information.
Also before delivery of your bowl try a  is mentally seeing your bowl  roll up the green to the jack. It is quick and a couple times before you delivered your bowl will not seem to affect you delivery. Like the Blind Bowler who can not watch his bowl roll to the jack. In his mind and knowing the time it takes for the bolw to roll to that jack distance; he visualize seeing the bowl roll to the head. (especially if he was previously a visual lawn bowler and had this visual experience before he lost his sight).

Earlier I suggested that the bowler after rolling the jack and his bowl within 30 seconds. Here we are replacing the mental Pre-visualization with an actual roll of the jack.  Try this exercise. Go out to the green and roll the jack, while counting its distance  during the roll and announce from the roll; the jack's final distance in number of meters. After several times rolling and counting the jack; ask a fellow bowler to assist you and like the blind bowler, after releasing the jack close your eyes as counting the jack roll. You helper will tell you "now" when the jack has stopped and before opening your eyes you tell them the jack distance in number of meters. This exercise is training the mind and memory.

 How precise are you ?. Over a short time you only need to count a few numbers and the mind will compare the jack speed and you can actually tell where the jack will stopped.  In the beginning of developing this mental skill or ability it will requires you count always count but eventually you can close your eyes and feel the distance of the jack.

Rebecca Van Asch
in the zone

One of the good things of streaming is the close-up view of bowlers. In the photo on the left Rebecca Van Asch for a moment is in the zone during a jack delivery. Becky has the habit of always keeping her eye on the bowl or jack but in the photo she is in her "Zone". Watch her bowl delivery and you will frequently see this microsecond moment and empty expression.

At this point in the jack roll, the instruction of how far the jack is to be send has already been decided and given to the subconscious mind. Now, being in the Zone it is just to let the mind to do what it know how to do. Using muscle memory and a the mental pre-delivery instruction, the subconscious mind now combines everything to perform and give the expected result. But also immediately after the release of the jack or bowl the player can feel  the "Subconscious feeling" of satification on what has been done and even before we see  the result.

This feeling of distance, can be said to be just that awareness of jack distance from seeing over the years several thousand incidents of the bowl rolling to the jack and feeling the duration of  time that the rolls needs for that distance of the jack.

To be in the zone and your mind in a void of emptiness is hard to do. But in the delivery of Chloe Stewart we see a trick which allow the player to find or be in the Zone.

A Zone getting Trick
Chloe Stewart of Australia

 In the photo on the left, we see in her delivery that she starts with her hand on her leg above the knee and as she lower her body to delivery the bowl she slides her hand down her leg to the knee. This action is a "Zone getter" in that to empty the mind  we need to be occupied our thoughts  with something else.  In the early stays of development of her style someone suggested that if she thinks of feeling her hand on her leg and knee the subconscious mind will take total control. Probably now she only thinks of the felling of her hand when she find herself losing her Zone delivery period.   Just muscle memory and subconscious mind doing what it knows how to do. Letting it happen by being involved in another thought.

This visualization also help in times of mental instability. Being upset for something is not an international athletics regular problem but some people get upset regularly during a game.  Mathew, a young club member, mention in a earlier 2015 blog used visualization to relax himself and return to concentration on his game by visualizing the image of the tree at the end of the home club green and the sunset behind it which was a regular early evening beauty that most of us club member knew. Use your mind more and more to help you perform that perfect Delivery to the jack or a spot you want to leave the bowl.

The next step is being able to feel your  delivery as being well done. When doing a relax delivery and reaching your "In the Zone period" you also have a positive feeling of success which only gets better and better.  While practicing without a jack, try to have that feeling which occurs when you have done a good delivery ?

Tighe Bowls Video Nominate
your bowl ressults.

In the Lachlan Tighe Coaching Video series (2018) found on Youtube Coach Tighe defines the exercise  by saying "By the time the bowl has gone 7 meters, they (the bowler) must Nominate where the bowl will finish", He then explains  the reason for this exercise is to help the participants "to be in touch with their body".  As I explain in this blog, to have a feeling of your delivery and maybe your mistakes and success.

In this same principle of practice, bowl your bowl up the green but without a jack, Repeat it several times to get a nice grouping of your four bowls but the exercise is to search for that feeling which indicates you did a good delivery. Like with the above exercise of  Lachlan Tighe video; announce your bowl placement immediately based upon your feeling of how good your bowl was. Remember, unless you seek to feel that feeling it is not easily to find or feel. This is the purpose of this exercise, Feel the feeling of a good delivery or what was done wrong. (feel the lost of balance or the little grip slip.

I have seen and explained in an earlier blog how the subconscious mind was able to detect a shot error of  2 mm off target at a distance of 8 meters. In "Muscle Memory Managing" May 2019 I was recalling a coaching I was doing in 2010 0r 2011 with an International Petanque player who was practicing. He thought he has seen the jack (in petanque it is about 1 inch large) being hit and fly off to the left and we went there to find the hit jack. However I had the jack in my hand because I had removed it from its hiding place behind the bowl. The exercise was for Alex to pass the ball in front and hit the jack but while Alex was returning to the shooting circle, I had removed it. But he did not know this  and continued his exercise. His subconscious mind knowing his shot was good but that he had missed by a small 2 mm off center  in his shot;  actually created an image in Alex's visual feedback  of the jack flying to the left as would have normally happen with that missing the center of the jack.

Some questions to think about and the feeling of Jack distance.

 Does the players in the head influence how we see or feel the Jack distance?. (I sometimes stay on the bank with a long jack because the player thinks the jack is closer and less chance to be too heavy and in the ditch).  A tall person in the head make the jack seem closer as distance is calculate by size of objects.

Looking up the green towards the Jack we have an open field behind the fence at that end of the green. How does this change your evaluation of the jack distance ? With the big clubhouse behind the jack we find we are often to heavy think the jack is closer..

These deceptions on how we  feel about the Jack distance should be part of our first  three or four ends as we are always remind ourselves that the objects we see behind the Jack changes our  judgement the distance to the Jack. Eventually in time  the subconscious will include this variable in its calculation of where the jack is located.. but the subconscious need to be told or trained to look for these things.

As a conditions of play changes, speak to the subconscious mind telling it "the rain will slow the jack" or "the lifting of the dew has increased speed as the green warms up". Remind the subconscious during the delivery those adjustments that must be made for the changing conditions. Having done this we do a delivery from within the void or Zone.

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Judging Jack Distance Coaching

Planning a series of Blogs on a basic topic like Judging Jack Distance requires an approach to the presentation of a topic with what most of my blog readers actually want to improve. (Update 2026 - This year World Bowls declares the new "Jack Placement" structure for Lawn Bowls at the Commonwealth games. So with the possibility of no longer a "Rolled Jack to a unknown distance as was common when this blog was written; I have added a few edits).

 I believe that most of my readers are great bowlers with their perfected method of delivery. Many are using a "Muscle Memory" and even have a "Mind's eye" view of their bowl's path to the Jack. Some are still fighting to "Being in the Zone" and identify when  "Not in the Zone"; while others are not sure of the "Zen" Zone. If we are now to the point of an "absence of thought period" during our "Delivery" then Muscle Memory is a reality. We now see our delivery where the subconscious is free to perform without our attempts to consciously control our performance. ("Delivery", in quote makes reference to an Instinctive "Muscle Memory" Delivery)

All good Club Coach,  in teaching their new first year members would be wise to begin with the jack distance of these members first practice always being at the same distance.  Their "Natural distance" would be the best, although it takes a couple of months before their delivery has  a consistence distance. Until then, define their "Natural distance" as a relax delivery and move this fix distance as their delivery become a smooth movement. Without the need to adjust weight, these students can learn line and a good delivery. As their roll of their bowl is now always to the same distance, we in Coaching can now define what is their "Natural Delivery Distance". (Update 2026 - As Commonwealth games will place the jack at one of 3 marked distances with the mat at 3 marked distances, a Coach which pushes these distances to new members will remove their need for a judgement of distance. But where students build their ability on their "Natural distance, now their first effort should be to modify their delivery to these 6 jack distances.)  

It was for years the next step of Coaching to simply work  the new members on the prefection of their "National Distance Delivery" and then how to make corrections for other distances.  Although the new member must know how to roll the jack to different distances, a Club Coach usually would have placed the jack at always a different distance and tell the new member how to add-on or take-off weight for that distance as it compared to their "Natural Distance" Often the new member heard said that they would develop a feeling of  the Jack distance. 

Myself, I find this more a lacking in understanding of the student's efforts to learn to Lawn Bowls. I have always believe that students should be told the jack distance. ( Update 2026, I expect that local competition will be organized with these new World Bowls Commonwealth Game "fixed Jack distances" (with mat movement) the student will now be expected to makes correction to their delivery "Natural Distance".to roll to these  six distances.)  This bIog suggests for the first 4 sessions of learning that the new student know how to roll to the jack.  Next is the effort to know and  understand how to put-on or take-off delivery weight for different distances.

All new members, are first taught the proper style and techniques of delivery and if the club offers the following year a follow-up "Second Year Coaching";  you then teach them how to add on distance and take off distance from their "Natural Distance" which they had seen their development the previous year. As from year to year, we develop our personal style of delivery and have now a constant movement and result; our subconscious mind was collecting and developing a storage of these memories as performance information.

Through these blogs you will read about  "Being in the Zone" and now when you stand at the mat and looking up the green toward the jack and prepare for the Delivery we think  "Jack is about 26 meters", This thinking is a calculation of distance and allow the mind to search out the memory needed for Muscle Memory. Above I said "You stand at the mat" because all this thinking is Conscious mind working to know the distance. (example of thinking ... the mat is out 3 meters from the "Mat Line" and jack is just a few feet over half way. (half way between  the minimum distance (23 Meters) and the back ditch which is probably 33 meters. Half-ways is 23 + 5 or 28 meters and now substract the mat distance which is now out 3 meters.

 With this 25 meter plus a few feet calculation, your subconscious mind is now ready to use a trick of Delivery to add on or remove some delivery distance from your Natural distance. This Distance evaluation must be a part of your Pre-mat routine unless you feel you can judge the jack distance and you just roll the bowl and the subconscious does it.  (Yes maybe after many years this will began to  happen).  For the beginning member (2nd or 3rd year) the subconscious will know that for that distance "YOU" must take off 2 or 3 meters from your "Natural Distance" of  28 meters.

When we are teaching a new student, we want to develop consistency in their delivery; so we explain how  the pendulum swing, the body movement and even balance; all contribute to the "Natural Distance", During that first year they saw (and told by their coach) how perfection of their delivery had change their jack distance. (I did not say "Natural Distance" because in the first years few new members have a natural distance) We then instructed  the students on  how they can put on distance with increase body movement or roll to a shorter jack distance by shortening the pendulum swing or our forward step. (I use a clock method as if the arm and pendulum swing is going back to 7 o`clock)  Over time the subconscious mind will combines all these modification to your delivery and depending upon it's evaluated distance to the jack; will always give a  delivery which is in the Zone. (Zen Zone)

If Lawn Bowls was like the Canadian Ice Sport of Curling we would find the jack always place at the same distance, 23 Meters, and all Novice bowler  need only to develop is a style and weight of delivery for that one Jack Distance. But with Lawn Bowls we Learn our Delivery movement then we "Learn to Deliver to a Distance".

Curling Rink

 In Curling the center of the "House" (which is like the jack in Bowls with several rings) is always at the same distance; 21 Meters from  the "Release Hog Line" (today our Short Jack in a Lawn Bowls game is still at 21 meters); Probably when Curling was being firstr developed it was easlier on a frozen lake to create the "Center Ring of the House" and thus thee removal of the need to always evaluation  the Distance to the jack before delivery. Lawn would be so much easlier with a fixed jack distance. 

Back to the topic...In "Golf", The golfer arrives at the tee (or his ball in the fairway) and  looks up the fairway and decide the distance to the green (or his layup location) and decides how he will arrive at that distance. Like the Lawn bowler, the golfer knows that he has a consistent swing giving distance for each club, and with  always

Golf Clubs for
difference Distances

 the same amount of energy to his swing. ( same delivery. In Lawn Bowls). In Lawn Bowls, this delivery energy which the bowlers has developed give him a "Natural Distance" when performed correctly.

 However,  the Golfer has several Clubs and know each club distance that his constant swing will give  as a "Final Drive Distance". The novice Lawn Bowler, however when stepping up to the mat, after evaluating how far the Jack is from the front of the mat; and must also modify his delivery for that distance. His "Longer Forward Step" or "Faster body movement" are like clubs in the golfers bag. We often call these tricks of delivery modifications in our "Toolbox" as tricks of How To modify our delivery to get that distance.

With most Lawn Bowling Greens about 33 meters ( a normal square green) and the minumim distance of a "23 meters Jack" (25 from the front ditch) is12 meters from the "Back Ditch" which is 33 meters. Even when the mat is not brought forward and the jack is placed at it's farthest distance on the "Respot Mark" (31 meters);  the Lawn Bowlers may has to adjust their delivery weight by 10 meters, (impossible for some).

Have you ever watched a Blind Lawn Bowling competition.  In our club we have a "Blind Lawn Bowler" who is winning gold at  international Competitions. Before losing his sight he was a Australian Lawn Bowler and for many years did international competitions. So, having bowled as a sighted lawn Bowler he had his "Muscle Memory" an evev a feel of the jack distance.

Having experence the actual distance of the jack as a visual lawn bowler, the front of the mat to the jack being given by the Jack Placement Assistance; his bowl were frequently  on the jack. the Jack placement  assistance would announce the distance of the Jack was from a the "Mat Line, If the mat was not on the "Mat Line" the Blind Bowler's assistance or "Coach" (Assistance) would tell him about the placement of the mat ahead of the Mat line and maybe even do the calculation. The individual  "Born Blind" Lawn Bowler had with their introduction to Lawn Bowls been taught and developed his Delivery without the need for an evaluation of the  Jack Distance? It is simplethe subconscious has mixed the Learning of the Delivery  and Corrective Delivery instruction with where the bowl will actually roll. Their thinking was only to do a good delivery and accept what their coach was telling them about the jack distance. 

In an earlier Blog about evaluating the jack distance it was said that the Baseball player in left field when throwing the baseball to home plate for a runner; knows that his subconscious evaluate the distance while he is expected to throwing the ball.  This evaluation is experience, or "Muscle Memory" over years of rolling bowls which the blind and  experienced Blind has developed.

 However, as all baseball fields are about the same distance to home plate from left field, and all lawn bowls greens are the same size; we can began our Novice bowler by explaining each new jack position must be followed by a evaluation of the distance.   As a coach, when I start my new bowlers, I place the jack at their Natural distance and discuss different jack distance in the 3rd or 4th lesson of coaching. But to tell the new "Novice"  bowler (new club member being coached) that he will eventually gets to a feeling  of distance after years of experience can be rather discouraging. Remember, every new bowler has a different "Natural Distance" so the first 3 lessons are a "one on one" coaching.Later in the 4th lesson where the coach is with 2 or 3 new bowlers the instructions will  now began explaining how to bowl to different jack distances. Certainly, not expect the new member to know how to do it.

Sometime, a "Short Jack" Delivery might have a different "style" of delivery; and  also one would say that the "style"  has change for a long (maximum) distance Jack. One "short jack "style might remove the  body movement part of the delivery while the Longer Jack style might do a larger step which creates a faster body movement.  Looking like two different style of delivery they are just modification to the Natural Distance Delivery. 

As we become more consistance and on the jack; we may think we have advance beyond this method of Evaluation of  Jack Distance and Delivery of our Bowl; but if we feel we can drop this modified style method:  we get the feeling of the jack distance. Do we still need all our  tools or tricks in our Tool Box?  No !! we must remember that the trick that helps us also require we learn to quickly fix our errors, One such error is putting more confidence in our feeling the distance.  The sister (Blog 5) of this method will show tricks to understand our evaluation of  the Jack Distance. 

.Blogger.com helps the blogger to know and evaluate his audiance with stats like the one on the right. the following two charts show the participation after I posted the new blog on twitter.

May 19th Blog Stats only a day after publishing
of the 2nd Blog on Jack Distance.

The 2nd part of this blog of 5 parts was published only a day earlier than writing this. The stats on the right show the volume of readers who follow me on twitter and received the  announcement of the blog. 

Each line on the graft show one reader and how many blogs they viewed.  Like advertising, one blog brings a reader and they stay to look at other blogs. The Map (Lower right) show the area of the world  where the blog viewer accessed my blog.  Because I am in North Americia and posted midday here, the mat shows a lot more Canadian and Americian bowlers visiting the blog. 

Blog Stats taken 6:29 am 21 May
showing the australian blog readers

The Stats on the right shows 2 days later when I did this blog. Of course the readers seem from the same area although the blogs they read differ.  Two days allow for local club discussion and suggestion to other club members to go look at the blog.  Stats are not always go as sometime they give false information.  I saw a lot of participation from Russia and thought that they were interest in Lawn bowls.. Actually now Russia is always showing as a small participation because once I wrote "Would you invite Donald Trump to your Club ? " and since then, their BOTS are  always checking my blog for TRUMP news. No I don't think Lawn Bowls is being developed in Russia or similar areas.

Update, Today June 15, 2022, I have cleaned up this blog and published it under a new title..How to Judging Jack Distance. The Old blog "Golf Like look at Jack Distance" which was  deleted.  Enjoy actual date should be June 2022..

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