Body Flexion

Filed under: Macka's Coaching Clinic

BODY REACTION: Why do I play good one day and shocking the next? How often have you heard this question uttered by bowlers at all grades and levels! In lawn bowls the body movement in the delivery action has always been simply described as being an easy movement from an upright posture to a forward balanced postured position but the experts over the years, in order to improve the technique, have gradually drifted away from the natural flexion of the body, these changes do, without doubt, involve abnormal displacement of joints, muscles and tendons. Consequently the brain as a protection action will every now and then react by kicking in its healing factor and mentally and physically return everything to its natural central position of flexion. When this happens your alignment and weight in most cases will deteriorate dramatically.

FLEXION: What is flexion? The motion of a joint which brings the connected parts continually nearer together; the action of any flexor muscle (opposed to extension)

VARIABLES:

  • The state of a part so moved; injury, damage and arthritis etc.
  • The range of motion normally required of a joint or muscle.
  • Variables such as gender, age, body type, temperature and psychological stress must also be considered).

WHEN DOES IT HAPPEN: Body re-centring occurs when you least expect it to happen. Listed below are the most common occurrence periods

  1. At the start of a game: For many it occurs on the first end with the first delivery of the jack or bowl. These areas are defined as follows;

(1)Medium speed greens: It may take anything from one to four ends to attune the body system to the bowler’s desired posture.
(2)Fast greens: When playing on fast greens the conscious mind takes over and bowlers will attempt to adjust every thing together, which in turn restricts the bowler from attuning the body to a slower deliver action. Symptoms of Psychological stress may occur
(3)Slow greens: On slow greens the conscious mind battles with the speed of the forward arm swing and ratio of the pendulum action will become uncoordinated. The bowler will resort to abnormal displacement of joints, muscles and tendons to obtain the correct length. Many players will be under or over the bowling length, consequently there will be more on-shots played on a slow green than on a medium or fast green.

  1. During the game: This often occurs automatically during the game and causes the bowler’s powers of alignment and length to deteriorate,
  2. Sleeping Night or day: It also occurs over night or during the day when asleep.
  3. When learning: Potential bowler’s who commence with a natural flexion action are often exposed to physical change by the expertise of tutor’s and helper’s (with or without qualification in body mechanics). The result is that the bowler suddenly goes through a regressive period of learning unnatural flexion which leads to repetitive ingrained delivery faults. “What was once potential may now be lost!”
  4. Long rest periods: Body readjustment can be particularly noticed when you return back to bowls after a few weeks of rest, your standard of play improves and everything mentally and physically that relates to delivering a bowl becomes magic, it appears that you are a born again bowler. But as the weeks progress you again, in order to improve, begin to adopt body positions that do not flow with the natural flexion paths of the limbs or body.

DURATION: The duration depends on the amount of abnormal displacement of joints and muscles. It may last for 3 or 4 ends, throughout the entire game or continue for longer periods. I don’t believe there is one bowler who has not experienced this frustrating situation of poor performance.

SCEPTICISM: Should you be sceptical that re-centring actually happens, then the next time your playing standard deteriorates in the game just check what you are doing to uplift your performance e.g. realigning your feet, checking your grip etc. “Your friends or opponents will notice it before you do!”

DIFFERENT METHODS OF DELIVERY: It should be pointed out at this stage that there are two distinct methods of delivery, the parallel and gyrostatic method, briefly these are as follows:

a. Parallel method: The principle technique having the same direction, course or tendency e.g. standing square (feet, hips, shoulders square, upright and horizontal etc), stepping and swinging the arm all parallel to the delivery line. This, method very much relies on a parallel alignment of the body along an axis and involves various aspects of the body being placed off its natural flexion. It very much relies on judgement of positional movement of the limbs and consequently requires constant attention and readjustment to maintain a high standard of performance. It consists of approximately 80 odd faults that a bowler may make or could be corrected on. It frequently causes iterative knee and back problems when playing over a series of continuous one day games. It also requires a high level of fitness to atone the muscular system to compete at the higher levels of competition. The method is difficult to accomplish and maintain by many bowlers.
b. Gyrostatic method: The principle technique relies on the natural flexion of the body, such as natural upright balance in the stance position. The forward direction is controlled by the eyes; naturally looking, stepping and swinging towards an aiming point. The movement of the body has a gyrostatic effect that naturally corrects its course or direction. The eyes are focused on an aiming point from start to finish of the delivery action. The only part of paralleling is finishing with eye, hand and aiming point alignment. It requires lesser adjustment because the focusing of the eyes automatically controls your concentration, balance, alignment and length. The pendulum action controls the speed and ratio of the delivery (see note below). The eye, hand alignment, if not correct, allows you to see your errors in your alignment. The method consists of approximately 40 odd errors that the bowler may make or could be corrected on. It has a lesser frequency of fatigue and less iteration to the knees and back. Because you are working in conjunction with body flexion it requires lesser atonement of the muscular system. The method is easy to correct and maintain.

Note:
a. Speed: relates to rapidity of the delivery arm movement to promote the force of the bowl or jack to the required length.

b. Ratio: is the relation between two simular magnitudes in respect to the speed of the forward and backward arm swing in the pendulum action e.g. same speed back same speed forward
TECHNIQUE: Players and coaches at all levels should be concerned with the evaluation of technique, then with its correction along the path of flexion. In order to improve the bowler’s performance, attention must be focused on the identification of critical features of flexion of the body and limbs if natural movement is to be maintained.

BODY PORTION TO BE EVALUATED: Prior to beginning of any analysis the bowler and coach must ascertain first which portion of the body is to be evaluated for natural flexion e.g. the factors of posture or movement from static to dynamic balance covering such areas as the feet, knees, bending forward, shoulders, delivery arm or hand. Two examples of improper flexion and correction are as follows:
The Feet:

a. Static: A bowler being pigeon toed and situated in the stance position would be in an uncomfortable position if instructed to place the feet together and parallel to an alignment. The bowler would be more comfortable standing with the feet 15cm to 20cm apart and both feet pointing inwards to conform to natural flexion.
b. Dynamic: The same bowler during the forward action may find placing the lead foot parallel to an alignment very difficult. Again the bowler would find it more comfortable to place the foot pointing inwards to allow the ankle to rotate on its natural axis for balance.

The Head:

  1. Static: The position of the head relies very much on the body type. Some bowlers aim their bowl or actually look at nothing; others look at an aiming point either on the bank or closer along their delivery line or aiming line. The variables are;

(1) Strength of their vision

(2) Structure of the neck (short or long, thin or muscular)

(3) The upward angle position of the back to the horizontal plane when 70 to 90 percent of the weight is over the lead foot.

b. Dynamic: The head should move to a position where the bowler feels comfortable to focus on an aiming point but if there are visual problems or aching of the neck muscles, it should be adjusted to look at a closer point towards the mat.

Note: The more horizontal the back is placed in the follow-through position the harder it is to bend the neck to see the aiming point. If this is the case, adjust the aiming point closer towards the mat.

NATURAL ADJUSTMENT: In lawn bowls, there are certain principles which determined natural flexion of the body and must be adhered to in all skilled performances for the optimal results to be maintained. Too often tutors, untrained in biomechanics, attempt to modify the natural body position with little or no consideration of the bowler’s physical capacity to adapt or remain in that position. Many bowlers are very much unaware that the body will automatically, after a short, time return to its natural position and when the bowler attempts to readjust again to the unnatural position the performance level will be difficult to recover.
CORRECTION: When things go wrong just regain your composure because in most cases only a subordinate quantity of correction has to be applied in order to solve the delivery action. Much of the recovery will depend on the level of your delivery skill, it may require the delivery of about four bowls. Do not interfere with or try to correct those areas that have re-centred. This correction is done in stages as follows:
Parallel method:

  1. Just concentrate on restricting the eye movement and the adjustment of alignment e.g. ensure the delivery arm swings forward parallel with the delivery line or line of sight. When you feel comfortable with the parallel alignment and not before, and then proceed to next stage only if necessary.
  2. Adjust the ratio of the pendulum arm swing e.g. same speed back same speed forward e.g. if over length reduce the ratio of the back swing, or if it’s short of length increase the ratio of the backswing.

Gyrostatic method:

  1. Restrict the eye movement and concentrate on eye, hand and aiming point alignment and ensure that you see the delivery hand at the completion of the follow-through. When you feel comfortable with the alignment and not before then proceed to next stage only if necessary.
  2. Adjust the ratio of the pendulum arm swing e.g. same speed back same speed forward e.g. if over length reduce the ratio of the back swing, or if it’s short of length increase the ratio of the backswing.

Warning: Irrespective what method is used (Parallel or Gyrostatic); precede one step at a time as described. Should you endeavour to correct the alignment and length both together it will encumber further problems. When dealing with correcting the length, if you increase the ratio by the forward swing you will push the bowl across the front of the head or target.