Whether you are stepping onto a bowling green for the first time or you have been playing for a season and want to sharpen your game, these practical tips will make an immediate difference. They are drawn from the advice of experienced players and coaches throughout the UK.
Every bowls club has a set of loaner bowls. Use them for your first 6–10 sessions before spending money on your own set. You will develop a much clearer sense of what size and bias suits you — and you may find you prefer a different style to what you initially expected.
The large ring or manufacturer's logo on your bowl must face the direction you want the bowl to curve toward. This seems obvious but experienced players still occasionally deliver a bowl the wrong way round, especially under pressure. Make checking the bias orientation part of your pre-delivery routine.
This is the single most common beginner mistake. If you aim directly at the jack, your brain will try to send the bowl in a straight line — but the bowl curves. Aim at a point on the bank or at the edge of the rink that represents your intended delivery line, and let the bias carry the bowl to the jack.
Release the bowl as close to the green surface as possible — ideally within 5–10cm. A bowl dropped from 30–40cm above the green bounces and loses speed unpredictably. Bend your knees significantly on the forward step.
Your delivery arm should swing freely from the shoulder like a pendulum. Any tension in your forearm, wrist or hand disrupts the release and introduces inconsistency. If your deliveries are erratic, focus on relaxing your grip and letting gravity do the work of the swing.
Most club players have one strong hand and one weak one. This is a significant tactical disadvantage because experienced opponents will force you to your weak side. Dedicate at least 25% of every practice session to your weaker hand. It improves faster than you expect once you commit to it.
Many club players practice almost exclusively on a medium-length jack — roughly 27–30 metres. In match play you will face jacks at every length from 23 metres to 38 metres. Practice the full range regularly so no jack length feels unfamiliar when it matters.
Before stepping onto the mat, walk to the head and look back toward the mat. Identify which bowls are live, which are shot, where your team needs help and which shot gives you the best outcome. Most club players decide their shot while walking back to the mat. Skips and experienced players make this decision before they leave the head.
When a delivery feels slightly off, the natural reaction is to try harder — to push or muscle the bowl with more conscious effort. This almost always makes things worse. If your deliveries are inconsistent, slow down, reduce your effort and go back to a pure pendulum swing. Effort and consistency are inversely related in bowls.
Your first delivery of any session or match gives you critical information about the green's pace and any unusual characteristics. After it comes to rest, note precisely where it finished relative to where you intended it to go. Adjust from that first delivery, not from your expectations. Players who adjust early gain a significant edge over those who take several ends to calibrate.
Many skips respond to the head as they find it — saving shots, moving the jack, driving to disturb. The better approach is to build the head proactively from the first bowl: establishing a back bowl, guarding the jack early, creating angles for later bowls. Reactive skipping is defensive; proactive skipping controls the end.
The back bowl — a bowl placed behind the jack — is one of the most underused tactical tools in club bowls. It gives you a target to trail the jack to, prevents the opposing skip from promoting their bowls through the head, and protects you if the jack gets moved. Always try to establish at least one back bowl in each end.
Experienced players watch which point on the bank their opponent uses as their aiming mark. This tells you exactly where they are trying to deliver, making it easier to guard that line or place a blocker bowl. It also helps you understand what shots they are attempting.