The sport that made her famous may often be referred to as bowls on ice but the selection of Olympic gold medal winning curling skip Rhona Howie as Bowls Scotland's first high performance manager has inevitably proved controversial.

Social media reaction to her appointment was mixed yesterday but made in conjunction with that of John Price, the highly respected former world champion bowler, as high performance coach, she was at pains to stress that her job will not be to teach anyone how to play.

So much so that she does not even feel that the obvious parallels between the sports are significant.

"I don't think there needs to be a huge amount of similarities technically because I'm not delivering the technical side of the game. The performance aspect of sport is what I'm going to be looking at," she explained.

Having spent the last decade or so going through a personal transformation from player to coach in a sport that is still dealing with the demands of effectively being professionalised, she believes the process can be accelerated because of lessons already learned.

"It doesn't matter what sport it is, technical, tactical, all sport has to have that high performance angle and to win medals you need to have that high performance plan in place," said Howie.

Experience tells her some will not be receptive to change since many established champion bowlers, of which Scotland has many, will not want interference in the methods that have taken them to the top of their sport.

"I was involved in a sport where it was new to them and you do get resistance from people say 'uhm, what's this all about?' she pointed out.

"It is about going in and seeing what happens in bowls and seeing how I think it can be improved and putting a performance plan in place that the athletes are happy with.

"I'm not going to go in and steamroller them and say 'you have to do this, this and this'. That is not going to work. Every athlete will have different needs. It will be about how I can put a plan in place for these individual athletes that will benefit them and the group."

Technical work will be the domain of Welshman Price, a popular figure who was well known throughout the sport even before winning the world indoor title when the game was at its televised height in 1990.

Such is Scotland's global standing, given the performance of its players in the intervening quarter of a century, he described the job as the bowls equivalent of managing Barcelona or Real Madrid and also expressed pleasure at the prospect of working with a legendary sporting figure having been among those drawn to curling when Howie delivered the "stone of destiny" at the 2002 Winter Olympics.

"She did exceptionally well, obviously it was a great achievement and it captured the nation didn't it?" he said.

Price sees Howie's arrival from a different sport as bringing advantages.

"Sometimes you can be a little bit tunnel vision thinking bowls all the time. Rhona will have other things she can bring to the party and hopefully we'll work well together moving forward," he observed.

"Hopefully we'll work very closely together and obviously I want to be very close to the players.

"I want them to feel they can come to me if they're not happy with something and I'll be there. I'm not autocratic, I'm democratic. I think everybody has to be pulling in the same direction."

To that end, while Price paid tribute to the job done by previous head coach David Gourlay, the new management has the bowls equivalent of cricket's Kevin Pietersen issue to address.

In focusing on the playing side Gourlay is regarded as having been let down by a lack of support in a failure to address issues which saw the country's best female bowler Lorna Smith omitted, as a result of what was described as team dynamics, from the women's squad that ultimately failed to win a medal at last year's Commonwealth Games while the men were winning three golds.

"At the moment I've got a blank piece of paper coming into the job and any bowler who performs has got a chance with me of being in the shake-up, but obviously it's something we're looking at," said Price.

"I'm very aware of different things that have gone on, but... it's not just about that particular individual, there could be other players out there as well who might be a little bit unlucky to be on the fringes.

He hinted, however, that the forthcoming schedule for the international team makes it all the more important that former South African internationalist Smith's return is accommodated.

"It's all about form coming into major championships and about experience," said Price.

"One of the things you've got to look at is the next two majors are in the Southern Hemisphere so that offers different challenges. It's not just about who maybe is playing well under UK conditions over the next 12 months, but who is going to adapt to foreign conditions as well."