Purposeful Practice #1 – Double Bubble (Indoor)

Double Bubble is a bowls practice drill that turns a routine roll-up into a proper contest. It mixes skill (drawing to two different lengths), tactics (which jack to play to) and communication (the skip has to call it), and it suits bowlers of all ages and abilities. It’s the first in our Purposeful Practice series.

What you need

One rink, two jacks (one white, one yellow), two bowls per player, and a measure for the close ones.

How to set up the Double Bubble bowls practice drill

Place two jacks (the “bubbles”) on the rink, one white and one yellow. Put the white jack on the T and the yellow jack on the 23m dot. That gives your bowlers one long jack and one short jack. The mat is always on the T.

The rules

• Play in teams of 3 or 4.
• Two bowls per player.
• Leads must deliver one bowl to the yellow jack and one bowl to the white jack.
• The remaining players deliver to either the white or the yellow jack, as instructed by their skip.

Scoring

Score 3 – 2 – 1 for each jack, so there are 12 points available every end. Because both jacks are live, a team that’s losing on one jack can still win the end on the other.

H2: Why this bowls practice drill works
Most practice is one length, one jack, over and over. Double Bubble makes you change length on every bowl, just as you have to in a match when the jack moves. Leads learn to switch weight between a long and a short jack. Skips have to read two heads at once and decide where the points are. And everyone has to talk: the skip must tell the player on the mat which jack to go for, and why.

Purposeful practice means practising with a goal and a score, not just rolling up, and this is the kind of practice that makes players like our sponsored bowler Andrew Spencer improve so quickly.

Variations to try

• Narrower margins: move the yellow jack to the 25m dot, so the lengths are closer and harder to judge.
• Singles: play one against one, with four bowls each, alternating jacks.
• Pressure end: in the last end, points count double.

Tips for leads

The hardest job in Double Bubble belongs to the lead, who has to switch length on every bowl. Before each delivery, pick your landmark (the point where the bowl starts to turn) for that jack, and take a moment on the mat to reset. Don’t let a good short bowl fool you into over-weighting the long one, or the other way round. If your first bowl misses, use it as a guide for the second.

Tips for skips

Look at both heads before you call a shot. If you’re holding three points on the yellow jack, it’s often better to send your player to the white jack to pick up points there than to add a fourth bowl where you’re already winning. Tell the player on the mat which jack, which hand and what weight, and explain why. Good, clear calls are half the point of this bowls practice drill.

Running Double Bubble at your club

Allow about an hour for six to eight ends, and keep a running score on a scorecard so there’s something to play for. Swap positions every two ends, so that everyone gets a turn at leading to both jacks and at skipping. If numbers are odd, play triples against fours, giving the triples three bowls each. At the end, ask each team what they’d do differently next time. That short conversation is what turns a roll-up into purposeful practice.

Try it at your next club practice night and let us know how it goes in the comments. Looking for more drills? See all our posts in the Bowls Buzz Lounge.

This post was first published on 25 December 2023. Last updated 1 October 2026.