Pétanque training and drills.
Practical ways to train with more purpose, understand your own throw and carry more of your practice into a game. For players practising on their own, and for the person running the club night.
The Pétanque Performance Journal gives you a guided six-week route through practice. The drills and articles below sit alongside it, helping you explore each theme in more depth and take the ideas onto the terrain.
How to practise pétanque with more purpose.
- Why doesn’t practising alone always stick?
- What turns throwing boules into purposeful practice?
- How do you build a drill that teaches you something?
- When should you make it harder?
- How do you know whether it is working?
Running a club session.
Week 01 is free and complete: one evening at 20, 45 or 90 minutes, with four sheets to print. What holds it from one week to the next is the journal, one per player; the plans for weeks 02 to 06 are created with your club.
- How do you run a training night without writing a new plan every week?
- What fits in twenty minutes before the games start?
- What does the observer actually look for?
Browse the training library
Browse the six journal themes, or choose a drill, deeper dive or research note.
Not sure what a word means? Read the glossary →
- Drill
Where Do You Want the Boule to Finish?
A doubles match changed how I think about where a point should finish. What happened, and a pétanque drill to try it yourself.
- Research
Where Do Better Players Look?
Two 2026 eye-tracking studies found experts looking at less, not longer. What that means for pétanque training, and why it is not a technique yet.
- Drill
One Boule, One Chance
A solo pétanque drill. Three pictures, one boule at each, then change them. Read, choose, commit, throw and move on without a repeat throw.
- Drill
The Landing Spot
A solo pétanque drill that separates the landing you intended, the one you think you made, the one you made, and what the terrain did next.
- Drill
The Late Release Drill
A solo pétanque drill: throw over a reference point in the air at half speed, then at your own rhythm, and find out what carried across.
- Deeper dive
Why the Journal Only Asks for Your Best Shots
Why a pétanque training journal asks for three best shots and how each one felt, and what this year's research says about replaying the right ones.
- Deeper dive
The Boule That's Still in the Frame
A pétanque training piece on the shot you just missed: where it goes when the boule stops, why a good boule does the same, and what your team is for.
- Deeper dive
When Do You Stop Looking?
Your eyes stop travelling when the picture is complete. What belongs in it, and a pétanque practice drill for closing it before you throw.
- Deeper dive
Week 5: Trust. What Do You Trust When the Boule Matters?
A practical pétanque training guide to building honest confidence, recovering after a miss and trusting the next boule under pressure.
- Research
What Does Your Body Do After a Miss?
A practical between-boules routine for recovering your attention, communication and intent after a miss.
- Deeper dive
Give the Body Something to Learn
Why a coaching cue only becomes useful once it points back to something you have actually felt in the throw.
- Deeper dive
Week 4: Play - Does Your Throw Arrive When the Game Changes?
Practice gives you another boule. Week 4 asks what remains of your routine when the score tightens and the first attempt has to count.
- Research
Give the Drill a Target Before You Throw
How a clear, achievable target and useful feedback can turn a vague pétanque drill into information you can retain.
- Drill
Make the Miss Useful
A simple pétanque training drill to test whether your seven-metre practice still holds up when the distance or shot changes.
- Deeper dive
Week 3: Arc - The Throw Carries the Picture You Prepared
A missed boule can follow you into the next throw. Week 3 explores the picture you prepare before stepping into the circle.
- Deeper dive
The Throw That Comes Back
How to make a pétanque technique change last: four practical checks to help a better throw return on different terrain and under pressure.
- Deeper dive
Week 2: Slowness. Slow Enough to Notice, Normal Enough to Play
A deeper review of Week 2 Slow Arm practice: how slowing the throw helps you feel more, judge less, and return to normal speed.
- Deeper dive
Week 1: A deeper dive into Awareness
A deeper dive into Awareness, Week 1 of the Pétanque Performance Journal: how attention shapes practice, from a single throw to a whole game.
- Featured · Drill
The Witness Drill
Six boules at half speed, with a five-second pause to replay each one. The Week 01 drill: see your gesture without trying to change it.
- Deeper dive
Awareness
A long hard throw, two books at the right time, and the small cue that taught me to feel the finish.
Put the ideas into practice
The articles give you more room to explore the ideas. The Pétanque Performance Journal turns them into a guided six-week practice routine, with prompts to help you notice what stayed, what broke down and what to try next.
Prefer to try one drill first?
Get the one-page printable version for your next practice session.
No spam. More drills only when one is ready. Unsubscribe anytime.