One of the most useful things picked up from the library book on bowling was a method of scoring during solo practise. Seems a good thing to do... provide some competition even when playing yourself, and most importantly a good way of measuring progress.
The book suggested simply one point for any bowl within one metre of the jack. Given the emphasis of not playing short woods, seemed strange there was no penalty scoring for this. So I've tweaked the scoring to include minus one point for any bowl short by more than one metre, as well as any landing in the ditch without touching the jack.
The diagram above explains the scoring system. I've also added the playing of alternate lengths (long - medium - short, short - medium - long etc) and playing two woods forehand, two backhand. Also a score of -1 for any bowl in the ditch. Play a total of eighteen ends.
The book suggested simply one point for any bowl within one metre of the jack. Given the emphasis of not playing short woods, seemed strange there was no penalty scoring for this. So I've tweaked the scoring to include minus one point for any bowl short by more than one metre, as well as any landing in the ditch without touching the jack.
The diagram above explains the scoring system. I've also added the playing of alternate lengths (long - medium - short, short - medium - long etc) and playing two woods forehand, two backhand. Also a score of -1 for any bowl in the ditch. Play a total of eighteen ends.

There were patches of hope. On only one end did I score maximum points of +4, with all four bowls within a metre on the 15th end. And the two following ends scored +2 and +3. So no short bowls and a real chance of a good score in a match. But three things shone out...
1. There were far too many short bowls. In fact on the first three ends, as I tried to find a length, all my scores were minus points.
2. Too much inconsistency. I followed up the three positive scoring ends with a final end where all four bowls were short... -4!
3. Thought a long jack was my best type of end. Clearly not, since this scoring revealed I score at least twice as poorly as short or medium ends.
Of course playing against an opponent is totally different and I really benefit when there are more bowls around the jack, giving me a larger target, and more woods to roll up against. So need to be careful I don't radically change things for the worst. But I've clearly now got a target... less short woods and a score of -13 to beat!
My name is Clarke Slemon and I write the blog called greenbowler. I measure my progress by periodically calculating my median distance from the jack on draw shots. This is described in http://greenbowler.blogspot.ca/2013/04/median-of-medians-as-measure-of.html The advantage is that one only needs to measure every third bowl, but you receive a numerical score. The disadvantage is that short bowls are not penalized.
ReplyDeleteI am enjoying your blog.
Hi Clarke. Thanks for the comment. Interesting way of measuring progress, using sampling. What I'm after is not how close I typically draw, but more about how many bowls I get into the target zone. My first aim is defensive... avoiding my opponent winning 3 or 4 bowls in an end. So if I can get a single bowl within 3 feet I've probably achieved that. My second aim is to win the end. So if I get two or more within 3 feet, and especially one or more within 1 foot, I've got a good chance of winning the end.
DeleteNot sure if you've seen the updated solo scoring system... here's the link :
http://bowlingforgold.blogspot.co.uk/2014/05/solo-practise-recalibration.html
Regards, John