Practice

When we started researching material for Dartbug.com we literally read everything we could find in print and on the web. We knew that we were not experts at darts and certainly not champions. But we did know that there was a lot of information out there about how to practice that was often confusing or in conflict with others. So we decided to take the best of what we found and put together a few tips to help you define and keep a solid practice regemin.

Working the Board:

Simply put this involves practicing hitting every segment of the board. Start with single 1 and work your way up until you have finished. Sounds easy??? As an intermediate darter I found this to be pretty challenging. Hitting the singles is the easy part, but working up through the doubles and on to the triples can be very challenging. But we noticed a marked improvement in our accuracy and our ability to hit what we were shooting at.

How does it work?

Make sure that your dartboard is properly set up. Assure that your throw line is correctly placed. In a recent interview with John Part during his recent visit to Tokyo, he gave us a few suggestions. 1. Choose a time and place to practice where you will not be distracted. 2. If you have 20 minutes or 2 hours use it. Focus and practice. 3. Hit those segments. If you miss one keep working on it until you get it right and move on.

We set up our dartboard, confirmed the placement and got to work. We used a dry erase board to track how many rounds it took to complete each practice section. The numbers were not great. But day to day we could see improvement and could also see days when our concentration was slipping and we did not perform as well as we had before.

Hitting all singles soon became pretty easy. Doubles were difficult but, with time, we found that we were slowly improving. During the next night out playing with friends we found that the practice had paid off. We hit triples and doubles with better frequency and found that in Cricket we had significantly improved our results each round.

Out Shots.

501 is “the” game in darts. It is the game used for competitive play as well as a strong measure of your strategic thinking and your ability to score. Shooting Out Shots are a great way to practice.

How does it work?

We took a standard out chart for steel tip darts and set it up where we could see it. Starting with the easier outs we worked our way through several practicing until we could successfully hit the required targets. If we missed we adjusted the out to the resulting number. This was good practice for thinking about and planning shots while playing. I will admit, this was not at all easy. If you are an advanced player this is great practice and you will find your 501 skills are improving. If you are not as advanced it can be a little challenging and maybe even frustrating. But take our word for it, this method will give your 501 performance a significant boost.

In our case we took an hour and focused on the out chart. For example starting with 101. Our out chart suggested triple 17 single 10 double 20. I shot for the triple 17 and hit a single 17 leaving 84. The chart suggested triple 20 and double 12 to finish. Since I had been practicing my triple 20s I managed to hit the triple leaving 24 (double 12) to finish. Sadly I missed the double leaving 12. My only remaining shot to finish would be a double 6. To my delight I managed to get it.

Since we were very likely to miss some of the required shots, it gave us a practical opportunity to practice, memorize and think about out shots. Since the shots were often dictated by our throwing results, it gave us a real world feel to planning our next shot. The second advantage was that this approach opened the entire board up to us. Each shot was dictated by the requirements of the out chart. It provided a chance to shoot at a wide range of singles, doubles and triples to improve our overall accuracy and confidence in hitting those hard shots.

Time

None of us has as much free time as we would like to have. Finding time to practice is very important if you wish to improve your game. But if you cannot manage a large block of time, it is better to put in 15-20 minutes a day than to practice longer only once a week.

We suggest working darts into your daily routine. I work full time and don’t have much time during the day or in the morning. So both were out for me. After work I am usually thinking about the office, hungry or planning dinner or just tired. But I found this time to be the best to play. And it had the added advantage of allowing me to relax, focus on something new after arriving home and to blend darts into my daily life.

In my case I could only manage about 20mins per day consistently. On short days I tended to select the out shot practice. It offered a good chance to practice a wide range of shots in the short time I had to practice. On days when I had more time, usually weekends or a lucky quiet weekday evening, I extended my practice to an hour. I usually begin by Working the Board and, depending upon my results spend the last part of practice with Out Shots. Mixing the two methods is a great way to keep up your interest and to make your practice time fun.

Some final tips.

Avoid distractions when you are practicing. Don’t practice and do something else at the same time. Focus your mind and your body on darts. Don’t think of a night out with friends at the local dart bar as practice. Take a little time every day if possible. Remember a little time is better than none. Make sure to have a longer practice at least once a week If you can manage it. This will give you a better opportunity to improve your skills.

Few of us will become dart champions but with practice we can step up our level and give our peer players a good challenge when we play at the local dartbar on in our local competitions. Remember to make practice fun. Challenge yourself and reward your successes and improvement. Don’t be too hard on yourself when you don’t perform well or have a slump where you don’t improve. We all have them and we all get over them. Most of all remember why you play darts and have fun. Lastly enjoy yourself and take pride in the progress you make and feel confident that you can and will improve your game.