Lesson 4: Stance, Delivery & Follow through

 Stance

The characteristics of the recommended stance on the mat are:

• Fairly upright posture; avoid crouching and consequent stress on leg joints.
• Trunk inclined forward so that body weight is poised on the balls of the feet.
• Shoulders square to the aiming line.
• Bowling arm aligned with the aiming line; avoid angling it across the body.
• Knees slightly flexed.
• Focus of attention directed forward.

 Foot Positioning

A bowler should prepare for a draw shot by locating the centre of the trailing foot heel over the mat centre line, and aligning the toe with the required aiming line. The leading foot should be parallel with, but slightly apart from, the trailing foot. For a fixed stance, a bowler advances the leading foot a normal pace and continues delivery preparation in that position. With other stances, a bowler advances the leading foot during the delivery movement. New Zealand and South African bowlers advance the leading foot 15-35cm during preparation, and complete the pace during delivery. Australian bowlers commonly prepare by aligning their toe caps square to the aiming line, and they advance the leading foot a full pace during delivery. International bowlers use all of these methods with comparable effectiveness. The 'Australian' method may use body momentum in the delivery phase a little more efficiently, so it may be marginally better for slower greens or faster shots.

 Delivery

The principal action in any method of delivery is the pendulum-like back swing and forward swing of the bowling arm along the required delivery line. However gravity is never the only force involved in the action of the bowling arm. Lawn bowlers and ten pin bowlers alike use some muscular force in their deliveries. The slower the green and the faster the required bowl speed, the greater is the contribution of muscular force. The main muscles involved are the deltoid in the back swing and the pectoral in the forward swing. There is no physiological means of neutralising these powerful muscles, but there is no need to do so. Bowlers intuitively integrate gravity force with muscular force in a co-ordinated and consistent way to produce a technically good delivery arm action.

Freeze-frame analysis of video-taped actions of champion bowlers under identical conditions typically show great differences in the elevation each gives a bowl in the set up and also at the end of back swing. The reason for this is that each bowler augments gravity force with muscular force to differing degrees. Bowlers who use relatively more muscular force tend to have a compact action sometimes called 'pushing'. History shows that bowlers with a pushing delivery action have not been at a disadvantage in international competitions.

Other features of recommended delivery technique are:

• The opposite arm moves towards a steadying position on the thigh of the leading leg.
• The step begins as the bowling arm passes through the vertical in the back swing.
• The leading foot advances directly forward; should the leading foot ground anywhere near the delivery line, the base of support becomes too narrow and sideways instability is likely.
• The knee of the trailing leg should drop to a position near the heel of the leading foot.
• The bowling arm brushes close to the side during the swing.
• The hand releases the bowl once it passes the toe line of the leading foot.

 Follow Through

Features of good follow through technique are:

• Complete the delivery swing by extending the bowling arm along the delivery line, palm upward.
• Stay down to confirm that the bowl is following the intended line.
• Recover and take a pace forward with the trailing foot.
• Watch the bowl come to rest to assess any correction required.