Crown Green Bowling Tips

You are in the right place if you are looking to find out how to play Crown Green Bowls. These tips are primarily aimed at beginner players. I should also state that I am an enthusiastic amateur bowler and not a qualified coach, so these are tips that I have found to be useful.

Choosing the Right Bowl

As a beginner, the first thing that you will need to do is choose your bowls. If you have friends that play, try to use their bowls for practice before purchasing your own. This will give you a better idea of the right weight for you. Commonly used bowls range from 2lbs 6oz (known as 2-6s) to 2lbs 12oz (2-12s). I have always used 2-10 high density.

You may be able to pick up some bowls second hand from members of your club or from online marketplaces such as ebay/gumtree. There are also shops in the UK where you can buy new bowls, and nowadays you can get a range of different colours. You can also find bowls for sale and relevant reviews on Amazon - see the links below for more details.

Delivery

If you are right handed, stand with your right foot on the mat and bowl in your right hand (opposite if left handed). Step forward with your left foot as you swing your right arm back, and bend your knees.

For an ideal delivery, you should get low to the ground, so that the knuckles of your delivery hand are only a few millimetres from the ground. You should aim to release your bowl at around the position of your left foot, although this will change dependent on the pace you want on your delivery.

Getting the Land

In theory there are only two things to consider to send the perfect bowl - the land and the weight - or where you throw it and how hard!

In practice, that's harder than it sounds, especially for a beginner. In order to get the right land I was always taught the following;

If you are not sending the jack, watch carefully where it goes
pick a feature on the green that it passes through or by - around a metre or two in front of you
when it is your turn, try to send your bowl through that same spot

If you are sending the jack, simply try to pick an feature on the green yourself. Features will usually be a slightly different coloured section of grass - try not to use leaves (or bugs) as they are liable to move before you send your bowl!

Once you have been playing a while and understand the green (especially on your home green) you may be able to pick an appropriate land without having watched the jack, or you will be able to bowl the alternate bias and still bowl a good wood. However common sense says you should always pay attention to where the jack goes and watch your opponents bowls also.

Getting the Weight

Sending the bowl at the right weight is always a little more tricky to describe and simply takes practice. The 'right' weight is dependent on not only how far the jack has been sent, but also on the weather and the condition of the green; dryer, lower cut grass will be quicker than wetter, thicker grass.

When starting to play the best advice is the most basic - simply concentrate on trying to put the same effort, backswing and weight into sending your bowl as you do the jack.

Use your first bowl to give you an idea - adjusting with your second if you need to. This is especially good advice if you are playing a competitive match and don't have the jack.

Advice I was given as a youngster was 'make sure you're up'. If your bowl is short you are not in the running for anything - if you make sure you get to the jack, there is at least a chance of hitting either the jack or another bowl. In that sense, it is better to be too heavy than not reach!

Adjusting

As suggested above, a key part of the game is adjustment. This means changing your land or weight on your second bowl, based on what happened with your first.

Adjustment is always difficult for a beginner, especially if both land and weight were off with the first bowl. The steps for adjustment should be something like;

assess whether land or weight was off (or both) - this can be more tricky than it sounds, as if weight is too heavy it will mean the bias doesn't kick in soon enough and could make it seem that your land is off also. Think about whether your bowl went through your landscape feature to indicate whether your land was right - or was it the same land as your opponent, and where did their bowl go?
pay attention to your opponent when they send their bowl - the amount of effort they use may indicate the weight they are sending it, and watch carefully to see if your landscape marker was correct to find the right land.
send your second wood considering the above. Also assess that. Consider whether you made the right judgement - but don't dwell on it. Your assessment of each end will help to build up the picture of the green and use it to your advantage on future ends.

Concentration

As with many sports, concentration is vital in bowls. I have already highlighted above that you should be watching closely where your opponent bowls and picking features of the green which will help you to pick the correct land. It makes sense, therefore that you need to be able to concentrate to do this.

Bowls is a game where external distractions can sometimes throw you off - whether that is other players actions on the green, or cheering or shouting from around the green. It is important that you keep your focus on your game, adjusting when necessary and capitalising on any mistakes that you opponent may make.

However, as in many games and sports, the mental aspect is often what makes the real difference between good and great players. The very best players are usually those who are able to put their emotion aside and remain relaxed under pressure. This allows them to identify what improvements or adjustments they need to make from one end to the next without allowing frustration or over confidence to cloud their judgement.

There are some really good books which provide good insight to the mental aspect of sport and which are useful for a range of physical activities. I would strongly recommend the following:

The Inner Game of Tennis - This book gives a great insight into how you can 'try too hard' and highlights that for peak performance in any physical activity you need to ensure you are relaxed and don't overthink - instead you should rely on your body's muscle memory. I strongly believe this book can vastly improve your approach to many sporting activites and can't recommend it enough.
Winning Ugly - This is another great book which encourages you to make the choices that will help you to win. It's all about out-thinking your opponent and being one step ahead.

Firing

Firing is a useful tool to have in your arsenal, but I believe that the real strength here lies in being able to identify the appropriate time to fire. Firing (or striking) means to take aim at either the jack or your opponent's wood in an attempt to knock it out of position or off the green entirely. The usual method of firing is to turn your wood to the opposite bias that the jack was sent and deliver the wood at speed, directly at your intended target. Both turning the wood and bowling at pace are intended to counteract the bias, resulting in a straight delivery. Of course, you do have to also take into consideration the lie of the land and any features of the green on your intended route.

Often the pace at which you deliver your bowl when firing means that whether you hit the target or not, your bowl is unlikely to count. You should also taken into consideration that you may also miss your intended target entirely, or worse, you might hit your own bowl.

Choosing when to fire can be tricky and it should be noted firstly that you should never fire in anger or frustration. When you are struggling in a game it can be all too easy to make a snap decision to strike purely as a release of some emotion, but it is rarely the correct decision.

Instead, there are a few factors that you should consider. Firstly, it is relatively rare that a player will choose to fire with their first wood, as it makes sense to try to bowl the end initially. Secondly, you should typically reserve striking for an end where there is an appropriately large target to hit. This usually means that your opponent has a wood either touching or in very close proximity to the jack - so much so that you also feel it would be difficult for you to beat the wood.

For beginners, I would also only advise firing if you are two shots down on the end and don’t believe you could beat your opponent’s second wood by bowling the end - saving one shot is preferable to missing everything firing and ending up two shots down.

Ultimately it is a judgement call, but you should consider your bowling ability vs your striking success, along with your current score on the end vs the current score on the card and how you and your opponent are both bowling. Consider also whether ‘playing through’ the end is a better option - this means keeping the bias the same as the jack bias, bowling slightly inside the land and heavy - without hurling the bowl as you would when firing. You still have a chance to hit something, but is potentially a more accurate way of doing so as you’re not purely focused on pace.