Coaching the AC Half Roll

Coaching the half roll is a powerful way of helping developing players improve. Not only is it a standard go-to shot for any AC player looking to move forward in a four-ball break but not confident about setting up a rush after running a hoop, it also comes into its own when a good rush is not possible.

There is no one-size-fits-all way of executing a good half roll; much depends on grip, mallet, stance, and other variables. But a reliable starting point is as follows.

• First remind students about the stance for a drive shot. Demonstrate standing as for a normal shot, with shoe tips say a couple of inches behind the striker's ball, mallet vertical at 90 degrees to the ground.
• If they are familiar with their personal drive ratios, ask them to confirm them: normally the striker's ball will travel between a quarter and a third of the distance travelled by the croqueted ball. If they need to put it to the test, now is the time!
• Now explain that you want the striker's ball to travel further - half the distance of the croqueted ball. To do this you are walking forward, so that shoe tips are now either side of where the two balls are touching.
• The mallet handle is now at around 60 degrees from the ground, i.e. the head of the mallet is tilting forward by around 30 degrees.
• Now slide the lower hand half way down the mallet. This should make the body slightly crouched, but give a comfortable position for the shot while keeping the mallet at a good angle.
• Aim the middle of the mallet head to hit slightly down onto the face of the striker's ball.
• Sweep through both balls and consciously follow on through.

This may be a lot for some students to take in all at once, but the principles are simple. You want your own ball to go further than in a normal croquet drive, so move the feet further forward and adjust the hand position accordingly. This gives the mallet a forward slope. Follow through deliberately.

It's good to repeat the demonstration, and ask simple open questions to check understanding. Allow good time for individual practice, with students in a line on the boundary shooting into the lawn. Students may find the half roll hard at first. Give them brisk, positive guidance: be continuously encouraging.

Once students are confident in the shot, they can move on to standing alongside hoop 5, and trying to get their own ball to land near the peg, with the croqueted ball landing near hoop 6. For a more demanding exercise, start at hoop 1 or 2, and try to get the croqueted ball to the hoop diagonally opposite, with the striker's ball again landing near the peg. These ratios work for both full lawns and half lawns.

Students will work out for themselves that they can do split half rolls, so as to set up different directions as well as different relative distances.

John Harris