Not all bowls are the same …

New Players: PLEASE DON’T BUY ANY BOWLS UNTIL YOU HAVE SPOKEN TO A COACH & ALSO TRIED OUT A FEW DIFFERENT MODELS & SIZES.

There are 4 main manufacturers of bowls: Taylor, Henselite, Aero & Drakes Pride. They produce a variety of bowls and each bowl is suitable for various conditions and surfaces. Some bowls are more suited to a front-end player, and others to thirds and skips. Also, bowlers may choose different sets of bowls when playing on grass and playing on artificial/carpet surfaces.

Say for example you were playing as a skip, and on your rink 2 teams of 4 were playing. Before you got to bowl, at least 12 bowls have already been delivered before you get your turn. Would you use a tight or swinging bowl if you played regularly as a skip? If 12 bowls are in front of you a tight bowl may not be your best type of bowl to use. Leads on the other hand may choose a tight wood because there is never any more than 3 woods to navigate around.

Also be mindful that you have to use the same set of bowls for the entire game, and you cant change bowls to gain an advantage during a match.

The size of a bowl to choose is determined more by your physicality (00, 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5), and bowls of various sizes, but the same model, will bowl a similar line. Yet, a size 5 bowl delivered with identical ‘weight’ or force to a size 00 will obviously travel a slightly different distance (but not dramatically).

The most popular models of bowls are Drake’s Pride ‘Professional’, Taylor ‘Ace’ & ‘Vector VS’, Henselite ‘Tiger Evo’ and Aero ‘Groove’.

The charts below will show the trajectory of each of the manufacturers’ bowls, you will notice they go from a wide swing to a tighter line.

Also, most bowls will start to ‘turn’ 5/8 of the way up the green, Aero bowls tend to turn 1/2 way up the green.