Shooting six boule in Petanque

Six Shooting

The pinnacle of petanque is the six shot end. You have lost the toss or have lost the last end and your opposition throw the jack and a fairly good boule. You choose to shoot and spot carreau the boule. They point again and beat your boule. Your team shoot and hit the boule with a carreau that spins over to one side on the piste. You are holding two and they point again, out pointing the closest boule. You shoot again and now you have three boule on the piste and all their boule are dead, off the back of the piste. Hearts begin to race in your team as you are halfway through the perfect end. Three more hits will give you a six, a massive score in a close fought game. The opposition do not seem to be ruffled and point again. Another well pointed boule and you team shoot again with another carreau. Suddenly the volume goes up in your team as the excitement starts to bubble over. The opposition get into a huddle and then play the next boule. They shoot and kill the jack. Deflation takes over your team and the opposition give a wry smile.

If they had not seen the danger of a six coming then maybe the volume of your team gave them plenty of warning. Most teams would see it straight away and play accordingly but if you play with a belief and confidence it could be the opposition fall straight into the trap.

So for the practice exercise you will need your team warmed up and ready to go. The jack is placed at 6 metres to start with and slowly moved up in distance as your confidence grows.  You will need a fourth player to help out here as he is the opposition.

He/ she will be stood up the head end with six boule. The session begins with a boule dropped into the head and the teams task is to shot all six boule. At first the boules can be placed as they fall. To make it realistic the boule should always be on so the play becomes as in a real game situation.

It may be the elusive six takes a while to come. Soon after practice the six becomes standard. Once it becomes possible with six boule being hit 2 out of three times the helping player can start to place boule in more and more difficult positions to recreate a defensive boule played by the opposition. The task is still the same. Hit the boule to make the opposition play.

This practise will show if it is possible for your team to shoot six boule an end. For it to become a game plan for your team. You may want to rotate who shoots first, who can hold their nerve at the end but then again if you miss the first boule it is back to a different tactic. Deploy it when you wish. 10 – 8 down is always a good way to come from behind to win the game. In one end the opposition can be taken by surprise but do not use it as a norm. The first end maybe a bit of a giveaway and place teams on the defensive. When it is used can be just as difficult as the task itself. Keep it up your sleeve and above all keep your composure if you miss the fifth or six boule. Watch those back boule to make sure they are really out of play. You do not want to fall foul of a jack movement by the opposition or by an unlucky flick of the jack.