The Sunnyvale Sun
News
Archive photograph by Jacqueline Ramseyer
She's a Pro: Vivian Berkeley, with vocal assistance from Al Rizzo, demonstrates to the Sunnyvale Lawn Bowls Club how to work with visually-impaired people when teaching them how to lawn bowl.
Visually-impaired can learn lawn bowling
By JASON GOLDMAN-HALL
Lawn bowler Vivian Berkeley will probably never be on the cover of Sports Illustrated, and it's doubtful she'll ever star in a commercial for sugary energy drinks, but her favorite sport has allowed her to travel the world.
"I really truly love this game," Berkeley said. "I guess I have a passion for it."
In lawn bowling, the bowlers roll their bowls--balls with one side flattened so they move in an arc rather than a straight line--toward a target called a jack or a kitty.
And more impressive than the scores of international competitions and medals she has won is that Berkeley has done it all without the aid of her eyes.
Born partially blind and now completely unable to see, Berkeley is not only an ambassador for lawn bowling but also for blind and visually-impaired athletes.
Along with her guide dog and partner in crime Paka, a yellow Labrador that travels with her, Berkeley was in Sunnyvale the week of Nov. 19 to teach local bowlers how to coach blind players.
The English spread the sport of lawn bowling, which they had played as early as the 12th century, to many of their colonies. It is now played regularly in the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the United States.
It's a popular recreational activity in California, especially in places such as San Diego, where young people gather on summer days to watch teams play near the famous Balboa Park.
Locally, the Sunnyvale Lawn Bowls Club plays regularly at Murphy Park, and it was there that Berkeley taught members a new twist on her favorite game.
"A lot of the bowlers here are also coaches, but they don't usually work with the blind or visually impaired," she said.
The visit has actually been in the works for several years, said club spokesman Roger Coleman. The training was part of its efforts to spread the game to every part of the Sunnyvale community.
"This was a fantastic opportunity for us to go about learning how to teach the visually impaired about lawn bowling," he said.
To learn how to teach it, the bowlers had to learn what it was like to play the game without sight. To help them, Berkeley paired the bowlers up and made one person wear white plastic glasses that completely blocked out the visual world around them.
Berkeley said she hopes helping Sunnyvale players coach blind and visually-impaired bowlers, she can encourage the spread of blind lawn bowling in the United States, where there are currently no associations of the kind.
There is an international association for blind lawn bowlers, with members from Australia, England, Canada, Scotland, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Israel, Hong Kong, New Zealand and Wales.
For information about the Sunnyvale Lawn Bowls Club, contact Roger Coleman at 408.734.4140.
