MENTAL, GAME AND PHYSICAL FITNESS
INTRODUCTION
Lawn Bowls Fitness: Coaches and players must have a good understanding of the three different types of fitness required for competitive lawn bowls. These are mental, game and physical fitness which involves; learning to control your mental senses, atonement of the muscular system to the delivery technique and the required physical endurance for long standing periods, often in hot or cold condition, which in all coordinated to a peak allows the require undisturbed flow of high levels of mental concentration.
MENTAL FITNESS
Coordination: This involves your brain fitness, the body’s computer, which requires accurate information and up to the minute feedback from your senses, predominantly the visual, auditory and kinaesthetic senses to successfully coordinate movement and execute the action. The more precise and refined your sensory apparatus is, the better you will play.
Improvement: You can’t do much to improve the sensory channels of your eyesight, hearing or feeling, but what you can do is to reduce or eliminate the distorting interference from internal sensory input to improve the quality of external reception.
Senses: It is often said that we have five senses. In reality we have ten senses! Sight, hearing, smell, taste, and physical and emotional feelings; five external and five internal and these can be experienced as follows;
External: This is the accurate information and up to the minute feedback. Here kinaesthesia e.g. that which refers to the sensation of movement or strain in muscles, tendons and joints, also refers to our sense of feeling e.g. sense of balance, temperature, pressure and touch. Your external senses are automatically transferred to your internal senses for processing the relative information received as follows;
Visual; This is what you actually see in your peripheral vision in front of or around you, and includes colour, light, darkness, movement, smoke, fire etc,
Hearing; The sound of noises and voices you hear around you,
Feeling; This is what your body feels such as pressure; touch, balance, pain, heat, cold and as described above etc,
Taste; This is the action of your taste buds when food enter your mouth e.g. sweet, sour etc,
Smell; This is the aroma you smell around you e.g. food, flowers, smoke etc,
Internal: These are the negative and positive reactions from your external senses which affect your emotions. Most performance problems in bowls can be traced to an inappropriate usage of one or more of the senses, particularly the internal senses because you may be seeing in your mind what you are not actually seeing out in front of you. Improved bowl performance emerges out of understanding the discrete functions of internal and external senses and how they can be employed in the competitive arena of lawn bowls as follows;
Visual; This is what you have interpreted or visualised in your mind e.g. loss of balance, movement within your peripheral vision, consequently, positive or negative internal feelings will react to this,
Hearing; This is what you have heard or imagine you have heard in your mind and consequently your internal feelings will react to this,
Feeling; Here kinaesthesis refers to our reaction to our sense of feeling; such as sense of balance, temperature, pressure, touch and fatigue, as well as emotional feelings, be they negative or positive as follows;
Negative reactions: When not in control of your emotions these are the negative reactions to what you had externally seen, heard, felt, tasted or smelt e.g. lack of confidence, aggressiveness, undecidedness, feared, shocked, angered, rejection, hunger, uncomfortable, stressed, worried, anxiety, nervousness, fatigue, poor performance, blaming others, poor attitude, guilt, flight or fight, plus an allusion of loss of balance etc,
Positive reactions: When in control of your emotions these are the positive reactions to what you had externally seen, heard, felt, tasted or smelt e.g. instant calm, confident, decisiveness, determination to win etc. Note: In this frame of mind in the delivery action, all you are seeing is the eye, hand aiming point alignment and the following physical actions are in automation e.g. balance, timing, power and the delivery action,
Taste; This is the taste your mind remembers and your internal feelings will react to this.
Smell; This is the smell your mind remembers and your internal feelings will react to this.
Understanding: Now it’s very important to distinguish between these external and internal senses, as most performance problems in bowls can be traced to a misunderstanding of the specific roles of these two types of senses, or to an inappropriate usage of one or more of the senses, particularly the internal senses. By understanding the discrete functions of internal and external senses and how they can best be employed in competition, you can improve your performance.
Therapies: The power, as well as limitations, of almost all control therapies is what you believe. Or, more correctly, what you allow yourself to believe.
Belief: How many bowlers do you know who have the capacity to achieve, yet cannot allow themselves to believe they are capable of it? More than likely, you have done so yourself at some time or another. Remember the first time you attempted to ride a scooter or skate board? If you’d just rolled down the drive-way or foot path placing your faith in two axel wheels or four ball-bearing rollers and gravity, chances are you would have gone quite some distance and not fallen off. But what happened? You started to scooter or roll then your belief system told you were incapable of scootering or rolling this well on your first attempted outing, so you landed on your seat, or had to steady yourself. So the limiting factor in learning to control scootering or board riding was not your skill, it was not your athletic prowess, it was your belief.
Your approach: No matter what the undertaking, if you suspend your disbelief, you can succeed. What does this tell you? Just ask your coach or do some research and approach this with an open mind and you will find the answers you are searching for. Believe it, and you will be positively cool, calm and collective in the competitive arena of lawn bowls.
Eye control: One such control of your senses, emotions and concentration is literary controlling the movement of your eyes throughout the entire delivery action from the initial approach to the mat (without looking at your feet or hand and without a thought) through to the end of the follow-through action (note: should you have blinked or looked at your feet or hand during this process you will have lost your mental and physical concentration). This eye control process is done by concentrating hard on your aiming point or aiming line. With practice; this eye control will restrain what you think about (particularly your emotions), what you see, hear, feel, taste and smell, your deliver action, alignment, length and balance will go into automation, and all you need to do is concentrate on is your eye, hand and aiming point alignment, or maintaining the parallel position of your aiming line and arm, in the follow-through action. Most problems of hand eye coordination in bowls are most often a result of internal sensory interference. Once you clean out your misgivings from your own head, coordination and performance will improves greatly.
GAME FITNESS
Working on your delivery skill atonement involves the combination of harmonious forward body momentum with power and balance to deliver a biased lawn bowl along an oblique or diagonal aiming line or towards an aiming point to reach or strike the required target, in other words, the biomechanics of the delivery technique should be practiced till it becomes automatic. It should be pointed out at this stage that there are two commonly used techniques, the parallel and the gyrostatic system which are described briefly as follows;
Parallel; it begins with a robotic set parallel and square stance position on the mat, and then moves forward in a parallel motion along the delivery line with a pendulum arm action to culminate with a parallel eye and arm alignment in a follow-through action. Note: during the delivery action if the robotic body movement is out of alignment it will affect the accuracy of the delivered bowl.
Gyrostatic; this begin with an upright relaxed position behind the mat, with the eyes focused on the aiming point, stepping forward to the position on the mat, then after a momentary pause, simultaneously step, bend and swing towards the aiming point with a pendulum arm action to culminate with eye, hand aiming point alignment in a follow-through action. Note: during the delivery as long as the eye, hand aiming point alignment is maintained in the follow-through action, should any other part of the body movement be out of alignment the bowl will still remain on it intended course e.g. as with a ship or aeroplane navigating in hazardous sea or flight weather conditions on a gyrostatic compass it automatically steers back on course.
Note: Many players use a combination of both these techniques and subsequently have periods of poor bowling performances.
PHYSICAL FITNESS
Evolvement: Lawn bowls requires a form of endurance which is quite different to other sports because the bowler must stand on his or her feet for lengthy periods of time in hot or cold weather conditions. Whilst very high levels of energy production are simply not required, it is clear that the ability to play well day after day is more related to good general health, including a well functioning cardiovascular system and good body flexibility. In competitive competition physical fitness must therefore evolve around flexible neck, arm and shoulder coordinated exercises for the delivery action and minor strengthening back and leg exercises for the endurance aspects of the game.
Individualised programme: After the coach, or your own research, has determined the fitness requirements of the level you wish to play and the physiological capacities it becomes possible to prescribe or work out an individualised training programme. It does not take an astute coach or player long to realise that bowlers within sides or teams are all quite different. They have different performance and fitness attributes, different life styles and nutritional preferences and they respond to training and its physical and social environment in their own unique way. It is essential that a training program caters for these individual needs and preferences. In the process of individualising the training prescription, the following factors should be considered;
Capacity: Some bowlers respond to physical training better than other. However, there is no guarantee that the most tolerant trainer is going to be the best performer. The coach or player must carefully monitor the capacity of the player, or himself, to cope and be prepared to adjust the training programme accordingly.
Response: The capacity to respond to training is related to the initial level of fitness and the physiological characteristics of the individual. It is well known that the potential for improvement is grater when the fitness baseline is low.
Recovery: Some bowlers require longer too recover from training or intense competition than others, especially if an event is two games per day and over two, three or four days, this is particularly the case in older bowlers. Coaches should recognise these differences either by reducing the training load or lengthening the time period of the preparatory training programme prior to the event for bowlers who show symptoms of chronic fatigue.
Muscular strain: Muscular strain can take place if both game fitness and physical fitness is not balanced to a happy medium, because one compensates the other in the delivery flexibility and body endurance. Muscular strain is likely to take place in the following areas; back of the neck, shoulders, back muscles, upper and lower arms and legs and feet and hands. A mild form of this is noticeable when bowlers are first learning to play lawn bowls. More experienced bowlers face this problem every now and then.
Balance the need: The coach should aim to develop a balanced profile of attributes in each bowler. The individual case for fitness training must balance up against the need for skill and mental fitness. More particularly, the prescription of fitness training should in programmes offer far grater value than group work where all bowlers do the same training.
Develop: In order to maximise enjoyment of training the coach should try to cater for each bowler’s likes and dislikes. While not encouraging bowlers to continue to work only on their strengths, and ignore their weaknesses, it is important for them to develop a positive attitude and a strong adherence to light flexibility and endurance physical training.
Nutritional: It is clear that nutrition plays an important role in the process of recovery. While it is relatively easy to maintain a balanced diet, it is important for coaches to understand that small deficiencies will not become magnified in low training bowlers. Vegetarians are more susceptible to iron deficiency and consequently sports anaemia. Heavy drinkers of alcohol can develop a shortfall in vitamin B1 which is important in energy production. If these circumstances arise regular dietary counselling is advised
SUMMARY
Whether you are a social or competitive bowler, the food you eat and the fluid you drink makes the difference to your health. The balance of mental, game and physical training to the level you wish to play will contribute greatly to your performance and enjoyment of the game. To emphasise this; bowlers should always remember the higher the level you want to play in the competitive arena, all comes down to the following profound sayings or oracular utterances not requiring much interpretation, this refers to brains, skills and endurance which are as follows;
Brains; “Some people have more brains than skill or endurance”, meaning they think more about things than do something to support it!
Skills: “Some people have more skills than endurance or brains”, meaning they are very skilful but do not use endurance or brains to support it!
Endurance; “Some people have more endurance than brains or skill”, meaning they are more physical and expect their untrained brain and skills to help them out!
Translation; in lawn bowls the combined meaning of the above proverbs simply boil down to;
“To be competitive in the arena of bowls you can’t have one without the other!”
