dont know why i do it but i've noticed its habit now. when i get to the oche i place my feet and take a deep breath while drawing an imaginary line with my eyes from my lead foot up to the target. When i find my target i start the exhale and throw all 3 darts while breathing out. Sound crazy? ANybody else have little quirks like this?

It's anything but crazy Michael. I got a few quirks but I'll need a day or two to think about it. I know my first shots of the day include a deep breath and a self reminder to stand up straight. Then I go over everything in my mind, throw and go get my 39s or my 79s if I stood up straight enough. I personally think it's very proper to have a quirk or two to remind ourselves what our goal is.

Good thought.

I don't know if it's a quirk or not but I have a little four note tune that goes on in my head along with my throw. Aim, draw, pause, whoosh. (Yes, those are the words that go along with the tune).

And I've noticed lately that I unnecessarily look harder at near misses. You know when you hit the wire of the treble how you sort of drop your head down to have a look to see if it's in? I do that on fairly obviously missed singles for some reason. Not sure why...

Never thought about my breathing much, but it's on the list of things to think about that will ruin my throw for a month at some point in the future.

I understand what you mean

When I line up at the oche I take a deep breath, and with the first dart I exhale a little, and the second I exhale a little more, and with the third dart I have exhaled the deep breath But the fun part is that I dont even know that I do so when I play, I just realized it when I was practicing

Hmmm I don't think at the oche. I guess that's why got me butt kicked last night lol.

If that technique works for you then fair play but personally i see it as over-thinking. Eric Bristow occasionally asked his opponents before the match started if they inhaled or exhaled during their throw and some found it to be very difficult to concentrate because they simply didn`t know and started over-thinking.

Bigshow wrote:

If that technique works for you then fair play but personally i see it as over-thinking. Eric Bristow occasionally asked his opponents before the match started if they inhaled or exhaled during their throw and some found it to be very difficult to concentrate because they simply didn`t know and started over-thinking.

I read about this one, too, and didn't think about my breathing pattern before. When I became conscious about it, my throws became erratic. So what I do now is to breathe slowly and throw on the exhale, which has become a semi-conscious effort than a conscious one. The less movement, the better.

Ive often heard that darts is not a thinking mans game. However if ya don't know your outs and try playing American Cricket without thinking your in deep do-do.