When in the Throw?

You’re practising a point and your partner says, “Keep your head still.”

You try again, paying more attention to your head. Afterwards, they say it’s still moving.

Before trying harder to hold it still, I’d want to know when they mean. During the backswing? As the boule leaves your hand? After it has gone?

Those are different moments. The instruction hasn’t yet told you which one you’re being asked to change.

Find out which moment they mean

Keeping your head still throughout the throw includes the backswing. Asking for it to be still as the boule leaves your hand says nothing about that earlier movement. You may have understood the first when your partner meant the second.

Ask them to describe it:

“I mean as the boule leaves your hand. That’s when I noticed it move.”

A short video replay can help here. Ask your partner to film a few throws on your phone, with your head and throwing hand in view. Watch the clip together, slowing it down if that helps you see the moment they mean. You can also ask what they think that movement is affecting.

I’d want that conversation first. Seeing your head move is not, by itself, a reason to change your throw.

A few words can change the task

A recent golf putting study looked at this distinction. Twenty-six novices tried two instructions about keeping the clubface square: at the moment it struck the ball, or throughout the swing.

The instruction about impact produced more accurate putts on average. Both instructions concerned the same clubface. The difference was the part of the action they referred to.

It was a small study of immediate performance. It didn’t compare either instruction with putting without an assigned cue, or test what remained another day.

It doesn’t tell us when a pétanque player should concentrate on their head, hand or release. What I take from it is a reason to listen closely to the wording. Two reminders can sound much the same while asking you to do something different.

Keep the shot in the picture

You’ve chosen a landing spot and where you want the boule to finish. Keep checking where it lands and stops while you work on the advice.

You might become better at keeping your head still without getting any closer to playing the point you intended. Equally, a change you’re learning may need time before it helps. Either way, how closely you followed the instruction and what happened to the boule are both worth noticing.

This is why I’d keep the question tied to a particular shot in practice. What is the advice meant to help you do on that shot?

For pointing, that might concern how the boule reaches the landing spot. For shooting, it might concern the contact you want to make. “Better technique” is too broad to tell you what to look for afterwards.

Give the advice a clear meaning

Take a piece of advice you’re unsure how to use. Before your next practice session, put your understanding into a full sentence: what does it refer to, and when in the throw do you mean?

If someone gave you the advice, check that your meaning matches theirs. You may find that they meant one particular moment and you’ve been trying to maintain it through the whole action. You may also find that the longer instruction was exactly what they intended.

If you’re the one giving the advice, ask what the player understood before asking them to try again.

If you practise alone, set your phone up to record a few throws and watch them afterwards. Use the replay to check the part of the throw you mean. If the advice is still unclear, keep that question for your next conversation about it.

Try the clarified reminder on a familiar shot. Compare where your points land and finish, or the contact you make when shooting, with your usual throws. Come back to it another day before deciding what to keep.

A short note in the Pétanque Performance Journal can preserve the clarification: the words you were given, what you understood, and what the boules did when you tried it.

The next time you hear “keep your head still”, you’ll have a better question to ask before changing anything:

“When in the throw do you mean?”

Research

Simpson, T., Cory, L., Queen, C., Owen, R., Saemi, E., & Marchant, D. (2026; published online 2025). Temporal framing of external focus instructions enhances golf putting accuracy in novices. Human Movement Science, 105, 103429. Read the paper.