2008/6/26th

Greetings,
It's been months since I last posted a message here. Not like anyone notices (LOL).

Just yesterday I introduced a friend to Petanque at a great, little park in town. The grass was uneven and although relatively flat in terrain, subtle dips and slopes made for a GREAT introduction for my friend.

He had a nifty technique, which was good for the terrain: Divebomb the boule. Toss it high up, then watch it plop down with minimal roll. It was not as bad as I thought but seemed to have less accuracy than he wanted. He later blended it with more of a bowling technique and his average was quite good.

Then again we're both amateurs in the Petanque world but it's always nice to dream of professional technique.

regards,
Eric B.

Wow, that's a neat technique.

So you give a very high arc, with lots of backspin, and when the boule lands, it doesn't roll too much. Cool. I should try that out.

Jeff.

Hmmm, that high arcing throwing technique does indeed sound quite innovative. I don't believe I've seen it before. Perhaps we should all get on a plane and fly out to Alaska where we can learn about it. And you say it lands with a minimal roll too? That sounds useful!

Brad Plombe
-Captain Obvious Petanque Club

Brad & Jeff,

Yes he did a high arc shot. I came to see later on that this divebomb shot is actually described right here in this great website, I think under the header page or news page! It explains that rough terrain is what calls for that particular shot.

This field's terrain was smooth enough though yesterday that he actually ended up using more of the traditional "throw" to make use of accuracy. But his very first "toss" was just that, tossing it up extremely high and sort of dropping it in. I'm sure a professional would not use this shot(?) in a more even clay terrain.

GREAT fun either way!

regards, Eric Breiby.

Hi Brad,

no, it's not innovative, the French call it 'Haute Portée' and for extreme high balls _Plomber_ (So you know what your name means :-))

Example for such kind of throw see here:
http://www.planetboule.de/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=187

Heiner