Stand and Deliver?

Stand and deliver, or step forward and roll?

There is no ‘golden rule’ about what stance a new bowler should adopt. There are some helpful pointers which may help the novice evolve a style which produces good results consistently.

Stability is key. So the feet may be side by side as you stand and deliver or in the ‘shooter’ or stepped position, and the bowler may (or may not) take a step forwards as the delivery arm begins the rear-wards pendulum swing. The essential check to make is that there is balance throughout the delivery action.

Follow-through is an essential part of delivery in all ball sports. Doesn’t matter if you are a cricket, tennis player, golfer, footballer or bowler (tenpin or lawn!): completing the action through the line of travel of the ball or bowl will help achieve accuracy.

Smooth transfer of the bowl from hand to green is a good thing, giving maximum control over direction and bias balance.

Think of an aircraft’s wheels at the moment of touchdown.  A less than perfect landing results in clouds of rubber smoke as the tyres slide and bounce on the tarmac.

The perfect landing is smoke-free, and that’s the ideal visualisation for a bowls delivery as the bowl makes contact with the grass or carpet. Flexing the knees to lower the body and get the delivery hand closer to the ground is good practice.

On outdoor greens, dropping the bowl from waist-high onto the green is frowned on because of the damage (divots) it causes to the lawn.

Indoors, although a high release is not regarded as good practice, many older, not to say elderly bowlers with back and knee injuries successfully deliver their bowls from knee height or even higher with surprising accuracy onto the jack.

Finally the novice bowler cannot do better than remember the golfer’s refrain: “The more I practice, the luckier I Get!”