Practice in Petanque. Some ideas

Pointing to boule and jack.

In this game you place a boule and jack touching each other at various distances. Start at six metres from the circle and place boule and jack touching square to the circle. Return to the circle and you should be able to see the jack alongside the boule. Now out point the holding boule. What! it is touching, how can I do that? The idea is to point onto the holding boule and get a wick onto the jack. Very difficult to do but this shot may save the day in the summer and be a bonus shot in the cold winter months when shooting is very difficult. The key to this shot is not to be too strong. The perfect shot will push the holding boule around 3 or 4 inches away from the jack and take the jack away from the holding boule with yours. If you play too hard you will move the holding boule a little but your boule may skip over the jack and end up behind the head. Too soft and you will not reach the boule and the holding boule will not only be on, but your boule will be protecting it. Not a total disaster in a game but this is practice and we are trying to hustle the point. Using one boule at a time, throw with backspin and a slightly high lob. The boule thrown may go around 8 feet in the air and land two feet in front of the boule on a normal pitch. The backspin will brake your boule and it should skid forward into the holding boule. If it works put the boule and jack back and return to the circle to throw again. We are not throwing multiple boule in this session just one at a time. Swap the boule you throw so you do not wear just one boule in the exercise. Hold the other boule to get used to holding your boule. Some players leave their boule behind them and only hold the boule they are throwing. Please try at all times to hold all your boule when you are playing. Not only do you know where they are but it does help the game flow. To score in this game is simple. If you out point the boule you score 1 if you do not holding boule scores 1. First to thirteen!

It is not about shooting. This exercise is about belief and adding to your toolbox and you never know when this shot will come in handy!