Tips to improve your petanque for new players Tip 4

Top Five things new players to the Petanque game get wrong

Part 4 The jack is the target and the closer the better. WRONG!

Many new players are obsessed with the jack and it tends to rule the early days of playing. However you need to think on your feet when playing experienced players as the jack is the lightest thing in the head and can move very easily on purpose or by mistake. If the jack moves, the scoring area moves with it, of course it does! This means you can move the scoring area to your advantage or disadvantage. If the jack moves close to a dead boule line then the scoring area is reduced and will have a flat line on one side of the zone. This is particularly important if you are playing a boule to a moved jack. Do not be jack obsessed and point to the jack. Look at the scoring area available to you and use it. It depends on whether the opposition have boule left a whole world can open up. Do not worry if the boule looks a long way away from the jack. The key is if it is scoring or not. A boule 6 inches away but over a dead boule line is no use to anyone if the scoring area is 6 feet in diameter.  A close boule is vanity a scoring boule is sanity.

The other major factor if you are playing a team who are shooting everything! Point to a boule for defence rather than the jack as seen in the photo. You boule is indicated in yellow, opposition blue. As all our photos, circle in at the bottom of the photo