Question Time – Bowls ‘Parliament’

For the past few months I drafted a column which intends to cover the lessons to be learnt from the world’s best bowlers. Once again I delay that column topic because of the spate of questions arising from the two posed last month as well as those resulting from my presentations over the past month here in Victoria. The questions seemed more pressing than my topic. I think we can all explore the answers though I simply give my opinion in response to the person asking the question. Here goes.

Question time, Mr Speaker, starts now as questions without notice from bowlers, coaches, club officials:

Q.Why do the same few clubs succeed in winning the premier league championship?

These top clubs constantly turnover their best crop of players, recruiting to force pressure on current team members. I feel they ‘suffocate’ good players who coast thus ensuring these good players fall off  the pace, replaced by the next batch of motivated talented bowlers wanting to succeed.

Q. I want to be a better lead in a 4s team…becoming the best lead bowler in Australia, what do I need to know?

The prescribed role and measure for a lead for me would be

your MEASURED role

• The jack delivery must be within a metre of requested min/ max length every end
• 60% acceptable ML deliveries (state level)
• ML contributions 18/25 ends
• lead and the second are a front end ‘team’ and that ‘team’ goal is to have 2/4 bowls in the head 18/25 ends (where head = mat length from the location of the jack)

your ATTITUDE role

• lead to record these above on a card for each end for review at team segment meeting)
• support – once third finishes join her and go together as a team to the head
• team meetings- listen, learn, focus on your next segment (e.g. 5 end) goal,
• accountability: with the jack you deliver 33% of the bowls contribution, take responsibility for that role
• support: verbal encouragement for your half of the front end team every end

this dark (blue) shaded area allows the reader to compare the acknowledged performance

percentages expected for the positions of lead / second / third/ skip at the four described levels

of competition at Division One, group, state and finally national.

Q.I want to achieve my bowls goals that I am sharing with you for reaction?

Success comes about through having a goal, desperate motivation, talent, and doing the hard work required to succeed at the level. Now I think you need to know

              Your present skill level

              The present skill levels of the best players in that competition level

              Your competition performances for the year

              The current performance results of those best players

How do I get there (that higher level).

Not everyone has the skill and talent to be the best in your level of competition. But you should know what the best level is and compare yourself to it. It would be great if that best performance level is you.

However you can gauge what is the next level of skill (performance) above your own and set out to progress to that next (higher) level. Once there, review and reset the standard for the next level. Like climbing a ladder, one rung at a time. This applies both individually and for a team (of bowlers).

Q.What sets the elite bowlers apart from us other bowlers, that is what I want to know?

The best bowlers are all highly motivated, all talented, most have a coach, all submit training programs, use sports science even if only limited, and have instinctive sports competitiveness

Q.I want to improve my performance, however once I enter into competition…my mind and body freeze up, what can I do?

Read my above responses above as a start. Now I suggest maybe such approaches as

keep the game in perspective as it is only a game; confidence is accepting who and what you are, some of us are just not at elite level or as good as the other bloke / lady;

however go out with a coach (do you not do that now, well start) and do an audit of your delivery skills and maybe there is the first answer; and in coach driven training you can also work on mental skills; also ask yourself what is concerning you, is it a bit of an ego thing, is it annoying the hell out of you that other people (who you might not regard too highly) are too good for you, well learn to accept that; look around you we are all types not one type, part of the fun of being human; and maybe look at how and what you are doing to be better and in my mind playing a lot is useless, compare that to training often with a view to applying the skill in serious events; kids play games (and enjoy it too) but you train to be better; finally you are allowed to be anxious/ nervous but keep it contained as much as possible

Q.Which Psychology books should I read?

I reckon you cannot beat being coached to improve your mental skill in training. However go to any library and look up section 796.0 series of the shelves and see what they have; no doubt these authors are bods I read in the past in no order of surname-

Gummerson, Morris, Syer, Hodges, Loehr, Rushall, Summers, Butt, Orlick, Warren, Pyke and Connolly as a start. Any others would be helpful too.

Q.What bowl size and brand should I use?

The question most asked, annoyingly; it is not the bowl it is the person shoving it down the other end that matters. No disrespect to the bowls manufacturers. Bowlers have to learn to know their body, know what they do to their bowl.

Q. We have upwards of 50 new bowlers coming to our club….what sort of training should we provide?

Use all your coaches to plan and conduct even one weekly session for the season as a club group with the following as a sort of time breakdown

Q. I have been approached by a club to be the non playing coach and I seek some advice on plans, preparations and team goals?

I have already spoken to this contact person who asked the question. Briefly what I shared with him was the need to set mutual goals with the team, instill game plans, have a calendar of training preparation for the season, require a commitment from selectors to reinforce your approach, a training session similar in theme to that above, select the best players every time, and, I share a statement of a team values approach, minus the detail, that I am using this coming week, as follows

…

The Squad should set their guide to goals and values. Later the Team should refine these to suit the final team composition. And, next year the boys that enter the squad have a guide to commence their goal pursuit and to decide what it is their squad intake has as team goals/ values. The following content (not included in this article) intends to give example statements for you to consider, not accept, or have imposed. Beside each statement (total of 40) there is a box in which you place either a letter

Y= yes I feel OK about that for me, or

N= no, definitely don’t like or agree to that, or even don’t understand it, or

M= maybe, but not committed to it.

That represents your current view on the statement.

There is no obligation to any or all of the statements. It is what would drive me as a player striving to be better.

What I ask is for each squad member invited to read and if interested to place a letter (Y, N or M) in that box alongside and return to me today preferably as an indication to us all as to what you ultimately want as Team goals and values with other blokes alongside you in the ‘heat of battle’.

Please, if you don’t believe in any of this stuff, feel OK, but allow others to also have their own sense of belief.

Q.Where can we get your bowls book mentioned on Pat McErlane’s radio program recently?

You misheard my comment on Pat’s radio show. I indicated that the book draft is with a major Australian publisher, fingers crossed, and I await their confirmation of publication. But I am confident the approval will come shortly and when it does this is what the seven chapters will cover

• Chapter One             Warm up training routines ….A series of programs to get you to focus as soon as you walk onto the green
• Chapter Two             Measuring and rating technical skill (the science)…do you know your 'pb' when it comes to draw bowls; well if you were          Ian Thorpe or Tiger Woods they can tell you as any swimmer or golfer can; so why not us bowlers- here are some guidelines
• Chapter Three           Fundamental deliveries and drills…different training routines to add to those already out there in other bowls books and manual
• Chapter Four             Tactical skills and drills…where oh where is all this information to be learnt in bowls; nowhere to be seen except now her in this Chapter with accompanying training diagram routines
• Chapter Five             Mental skills applied in training and practice…research shows that you are only delivering a bowl 9% of the time you are on the green; we all need to learn more about that 91% factor and the skills that go with it
• Chapter Six                 Games sense and game simulations (for game preparation)…training for the reality of the game, called Games Sense is widely applied in all profile sports, we can do it for bowls too, read on and…do you really know what role you have in a bowls team; here is a wider interpretation and some training sessions to assist you too

• Chapter Seven          Coaching sessions, templates…finally for you coaches who would love to get a few ideas on how and what to include in modern and successful training sessions

I had not realized when I said last month to feel free to email me with your suggestions as we all learn the more we share and exchange. Boy that response has knocked the socks off me. I may need to hide to hibernate, but thanks for the interest. Cheers.