In the Northern Hemisphere It's the time of year where many clubs are starting to look at opening the greens and getting that first cut of the year done. For those of us who don't travel south or to a warmer climate to continue our outdoor bowls season and those who aren't fortunate enough to have an indoor facility to join, we are eagerly anticipating the official opening of the greens and the start to our season.
With all that time off (and some possible hibernation) during the colder months, what does that mean for your first few roll ups in the new bowls season? How quickly do you want (or need) to get your game sorted out so that you are ahead of your competition? Do you just want to shake off some rust for your social leagues or do you need to ramp up to competition level quickly because those National Championship qualifiers start early?
You should check out our growing list of videos that can help you kick off your season quickly and dust off those basic skills so you are ready to kick some butt right away! Here are 7 videos to kickstart your lawn bowls season on the right foot.
Start it off with a self assessment
Something that players and even coaches don't do enough, assess where you are at now and then set goals to get to where you want to be in the future. It's a process and something that needs to be done on a regular basis. Players can plan and set goals if they know how they are performing and coaches can plan training and look at event calendars to plan how their player(s) will peak for those events. This video gives you the steps to do an assessment and a link to an assessment template in the description.
Check your grip!
One of the basics of delivery is the grip. How you hold the bowl an have an impact on how you deliver the bowl and what level of smoothness you have at release (or a dump or a loft). It's not complex or time consuming, so make sure you take a look at your grip and see if there's a better or more reliable way to grip your bowl.
How do you prepare to deliver a bowl? Evaluate your setup on the mat
You probably don't spend a lot of time thinking about how you approach and get set to deliver a bowl. Usually you have 100 things going on - "Did I check my bias?", "What was the called shot?", "What weight should I play?" - but checking up on your stance and how you get on the mat and prepare to play a bowl can pay dividends to the flow and ultimately the finish of your overall delivery. Balance, lining up your body to your line and making it a simple routine so you don't think about it in competition.
Review how you move and finish your delivery
Some critical parts of the overall delivery are how you move from stance to your release to ultimately roll and propel your bowl down the rink to your target. How does that all come together? Sounds simple, but why am I struggling so much? Take a look at this video to see all the components of the delivery movement and the release to follow-through - there's a lot going on!
Now that your delivery is perfect, how do I actually get my bowl to where I want it?
One of the mysteries of life (or at least of the bowls world) is how you translate a good delivery into a well played bowl. How do you figure out your line to the target? How do you calculate the weight to play to get to a certain spot on the green? It's one of those questions that keeps coming up whether you are a player looking for the answer or a coach trying to help a player find that answer. It's not easy, but the video below tries to give you a method of taking that newly perfected delivery and put it into action with good line and good weight.
Rounding out the talk on training, answering questions asked about delivery and more
It's hard to capture everything in a short instructional video, but thanks to a number of viewers and their questions, the Canadian Bowler was able to produce a few videos on the topics of the need to train and practice to get better as well as why you shouldn't fall for the "new trick" and "instant fix" videos. Getting better takes time and takes some work. You need to pick things one at a time and work your way through them and then move to the next.
It's never too early or too late to take a look at the basics and see if you are hitting all the marks to get the most out of your game. A tweak here and there, some practice and focus on certain technical items and you could be performing at your best.
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