Ok lads, not really thought this post through completely but I have a very rough idea in my head. What I mean is how much do you really want to put into your game?

Are you happy at the level you are at, be that your pub team, super league, county or aspiring pro? This forum is for folk at all levels and we have some great folk posting here for all levels, so I reckon we have the beginner sections sorted with a specific section. If that is where you are...go there and have a look at the section and post your questions loads of folk there to help. See in particular Georges post about flight school it is free and although I've never tried it myself there are loads of postives I've heard.

Now if you are looking to improve and you are hitting regular 15 darts or less, then I reckon you are a good player and the question is how do you up that to hit that in competitions? This is where I think a few of us are at. so using myself as an example I am on the edge of county play, but I need to up my game by about 5 points to solidify my position in the team.

Dart balance at this level is probably done, don't twat about with it too much ( technical term there), look at barney, once he started pissing about with his darts it all went a bit wrong and guess what he goes back to his old ones eventually. So understand that slumps happen to everyone, work thru them and learn from them. Share on here too.

The practice is an issue for many, for me I have struggled with time to practice recently and my game is noticeably worse, but I know I'll get that back, one of the reasons that I struggled to post recently as I cannot have time to post and practice .....but these things happen.

So remember the saying GIGO, garbage in garbage out......good quality practice is better than lots of rubbish practice. Check out the practice routines here.

Lastly enjoy your darts, it is meant to be fun

Mine comes out to about 4 hours a day including weekends. During the week about 2-3 hours and then league play is Thursdays. I have been doing this since Novermber and my numbers all around are improving slowly.

I hope to keep at it and drop down to a lower division in 2 more seasons. Shooting for division 2 and then 1 shortly after.

Just have to keep at it.

I have resigned myself to the fact that I will never get that good because of my iffy joints I just cannot practice enough, but I dont let that stop me enjoying darts in other ways, But if by some miracle I suddenly started to make a big improvement then I would certainly seek out other ways to challenge and improve myself further.

I practise around 30 hours a week, but thats mainly due to me not working atm.
I play league darts Monday nights and Superleague on Thursdays. I aiming to be playing county next year and want to be playing tournaments more regularly than I am atm.
Aiming to be playing on the BDO circuit within the next two years, and plan on giving Q school a shot once I've built up enough competition experience and funds. (Sponsors get in touch!)

So I guess in answer to the question, I take my game fairly seriously, but if it ever gets to the stage where I'm not enjoying the game anymore and treating like a job, then thats the day I stop.

May sound daft but I think I have got worse with more practice, I used to just throw for fun on a Tuesday for a couple of hours before league pool matches and regularly finished in around 21 darts, the odd sub 17 (best 14) leg too.
However since I got a board put up at home around 2 years ago and joined a darts forum to try and improve my game I feel that I have lost my 'natural' ability and tried to train myself to be better, stand better, grip better and ultimately throw better - however I have failed.

I think too much about my throw, my grip and stance, I have all sorts of advice and routines going around my head when I am on the oche and it has killed my game, dont get me wrong, I still enjoy it, just cant do it as well as I used to.

Could be an age thing, but I am still a pup at 37, think the mental side of my game has buried the physical side - however there is a bit of good news.

2-3 pints on match night tend to balance the mental/ physical sides of my game and I can throw awesome (if I say so myself ) but only for 30mins or so then the drink hits and my darts suffer.

I wish there was a way to blank out all this when i am on the oche and just throw instead of thinking how I am stood, making sure im holding the dart the same every visit, keeping my arm straight, but no matter how hard I try I find that at most I can blank it out for a couple of visits at the most before it rears its ugly head again.

But like i say, I still love the game and have absolutely no intentions of giving up.

Wow, I'm not nearly as serious as you guys. I just throw for fun and I like sharp things. I had some surgery about 15 years ago and the nerve damage keeps me from raising my right arm past shoulder level. Kind of hampers my throwing motion. I gave up darts for a long time and just recently returned. Unfortunately, when I do something, I jump in with both feet. Right now, I'm experimenting with stances and throwing motions. If I get in an hour a day, that's a lot. My grandson is coming to visit and we usually throw together. For me it's fun and doing something that Americans aren't traditionally good at.

I'm a decent Pub player and a little too old for real competition , play in top league around here and did win Top shooter one season and a Championship. Placed 2nd in the State in 701 comp soft tips this year. Just a little too old me afraid. Love the game though.

Rebel wrote:

I think too much about my throw, my grip and stance, I have all sorts of advice and routines going around my head when I am on the oche and it has killed my game, dont get me wrong, I still enjoy it, just cant do it as well as I used to.

How interesting.

This is exactly how I feel about my game at the moment.
I used to be one of the top under 18's in Australia until I moved to the uk and developed the dreaded dartitis thing.
Ever since then, I've never been able to require my true ability.
So I had to relearn everything and at the moment I'm less then 66 percent of what I was.
Before I never thought about anything, I just stepped up and let my natural aim take control.
Now I'm constantly having to think about every single movement just before I release the dart, maybe this could the result of my downfall.

Starting tomorrow, I'm just going to step with a clear mind and see what happens.
It couldn't be much worse then my current performances.

Anyway, I try and practice for at least 2 hours a day.
I ride my bike allot to keep fit and I try to to stick with a good diet.

Starting Superleague and Youth County in September, so my aim is to win as much as I can in that.

In the long run, I plan on mastering the game to achieve professional status and who knows after that.

X2v good post. Did you try the tennis ball trick re dartitis? I've got some training in these sort of things. The more you practic a movement the more your body learns ( it is called proprioceptive learning) this isn't you mind really learning it is basically your body telling your mind that a certain position results in a certain outcome...not sure if this is making sense....but if you "act" sad when you feel OK you will start to "feel" sad, this is your body impacting on our mind. In terms of dartitis, once you "learn" it....you must relearn it...most folk take time off and the bodyfogets over time...but you can speed up the process by "relearning" throw a tennis ball against a wall.... Just lie, the great escape Steve McQueen character. This was you are throwing but it is not like a darts release...so your body has to adapt. Do this regularly for day after day and it may help with dartitis.

i've only been playing since september so i'm still relatively new to the darts scene. i'm a league player and i've got myself down to a decent average of about 24-26 darts but am always improving. at the moment i'm just having fun and haven't been taking it too serious. i'm aiming to eventually play more competitively, but it just isn't that popular of a sport here. a buddy of mine, who is probably one of the top 10 dart players in canada, moved here from scotland and he can't even be bothered to practice as theres no reason for him to. (his thoughts not mine)


luckily i got to play in our provincial tournament that required regional qualifiers for. one of our players couldn't make it so they asked me if i'd step in for him. it was a great eye opener and is currently giving me something to shoot for when the qualifiers start up again in the fall, as i'd like to make it down next year on my own. tournaments here are few and far between and usually are of 2 standards (the for fun/beginner crowd or the advanced/expert crowd) which makes it tough for people who are somewhere in the middle like me. plus the bigger tournaments that bring out the big boys are usually a minimum 6 hour round trip drive away and require a hotel, which is a big turn off when you know you aren't up to their standard yet.

In less then a month I have been playing darts for 1 year..

I want to go pro sometime in the future.. (If I ever could, Love the damn sport)

I just practice around 30mins/day.. It would have been more if I had anyone to play with..

Starting to think this is hurting my game... I really want to compete agains someone.. need to..

Glen should move into my house.. or my man Bo.....

Donkey....see my team challenge post and if you fancy a visit to Shetland, then come over for some serious darts practice and competitions my friend

for me, darts is therapy. Its something that i need to do to clear my mind of all the pollution that i accumulate throughout the day. Between all the mental fatigue of juggling work, a wife, three kids, bills, etc. and just generally being stretched out with "fix this, go here, do that, i need this" there are only 2 times a day that i completely have to myself with no interuptions. The first is when i take my morning crap usually around 5 am. the second is the hour and a half i get every night once my boys are in bed and my daughter is in tweeter land and my wife is watching tv. That is when zen happens. Just me, my arrows, and a board.

i have no aspirations to be the next world champ or even the best in the bar. Winning competitively has no real value for me. I enjoy laying the smack down on my brother when we play but honestly, i dont really care if he beats me, i just like spending time with him.

i practice alone and normally start around 9:30 every night. There are days when i intentionally dont practice. If feel like im in a rut and am not making progress i will cut practice short but only after i've ended on a positive note-be that a high finish or good score. I try to leave myself wanting so that im eager to return to the oche later.

Progress for me comes in waves, and just like my scoring can be streaky at times. My goal is to minimize the gap between those streaks and waves. Im currently cresting at the moment and can feel my evolution for the better. My scoring, outs, grouping, focus, and attacking are coming together like a jigsaw. Im confident with a variety of barrel designs and lately have seen the gap between my streaks dwindle. a month ago i was averaging around 17 ppd with high spots around the 22-23 mark. Now im averaging around 21 ppd and hitting highs around25-26 ppd.

i welcome the improvements and am confident that it will only get better in steps. Ultimately for me the greatest reward i can achieve is introducing the game to others.
-rum

I practice every day for at least two hours, unless my shoulder feels very sore and needs a rest. I do it mainly to de-stress. It's somewhat of a form of meditation for me. It puts me in a calm state, and I throw better in that mode.

I'd probably join a tourney when I feel I'm ready (which could be years). But right now, it's practice, practice, practice. And I don't get bored doing it.

I spend a few hours per day practicing, but that's because I'm at work with no customers and nothing much else to do once I've cleaned and tidied the place. The days I'm not working I'm usually out with a couple of the lads from the team playing a few games.

I've very competitive by nature and want to Win at everything I do, I've always been like that. Therefore, I like to play against people that are better than me which then pushes me to improve. I can measure my improvement by the amount sub 18 dart legs I can hit now compared to a year ago and the amount of Ton+ checkouts I hit and also the 180's which I seem to hit at least 1 every session now.

My improvement saw me Win the most 180's and the least number of darts (33 on 3 occasions ) in our 1001 League this Season. It's also seen me sat on a 5-3 record in our local Premier League competition against some of the best players in the region including players who have gone for the PDC Q-School.

For me, I want to be the best I can be and to be that it means practice and practice often.

Loving the posts lads. I can see where most of you are coming from.

Rum - I get exactly what you mean, for me it is very like that too....when you are concentrating on darts...nothing else matters at that point in time and it keeps you sane.

The Cutter - Yep similar I get that too.....enter cmpetitions though and get the social isdeof darts going too....it is worth it and a nice side to our sport

Chris - You're the sort of man that this thread was aimed at....driven with an attitude to be the best. Playing better players is key and learnign your trade at comps...no short cut for it.

What are you all using as practice? N01 is a great free app that you can set levels to play against and I really think it is the best piece of practice software there is.

I use N01 and the new dart trainer app for when I have my tablet.

My wife will come home all stressed from work and ask me why I am always relaxed and not crazy after work. Tell her as soon as it's just me and the dartboard everything bad that happened at work disappears and it just relaxes me.

BeforeI had a board at my house I practiced two nights a week and played 1. So, I would say that I put in about 12-15 hours a week. Now, that I have a board in my house I play more in the range of 20 hours a week. 5 of that being league night.

I have no aspirations of going pro. I would like to advance in my local pub league but I am more concerned with maintaining my love for the game. I used to have a very unconventional throw that worked for me more or less. I was playing on a higher division team and finishing my seasons with a win/loss of 50%. While playing against a top division team one of the players critiqued my throw. So, during an off season I decided I should change it to improve myself. Everything went bottom up for me. I lost my natural throw, I lost my love for the game, and confidence was a word that no longer existed in my vocabulary.

It has taken me a long time to get back to where I am able to throw the dart and hit the board. I am back to loving the game. The only thing left that I need is to get my confidence back and that should be easy enough to do once I find the throw that gives me the consistency I am trying to obtain.

So, in short I take the game seriously enough to want to do well but I have no aspirations of rising to any form of pro level.

Great post lefty. The forum can help you. Enjoy the game and plan where you want to get to

I'm just having fun. I do keep track of my throws and all. I try to throw for 15 or so minutes a night, try out the weekly challenges here just to try and get better, and it does work. But I'm doing this all for fun. Thanks to this board, I graduated from $5 darts to the $20-$30 ones (dreading the day I convince myself to try out a set of $80 ones...). I keep buying different shafts to try other things out and I still buy all the "pretty" flights. When it all boils down, I look at darts as a social sport for me to have fun with. Now, ask me about playing hockey, that I take seriously, but that's a whole other conversation...

coryroth wrote:

I'm just having fun. I do keep track of my throws and all. I try to throw for 15 or so minutes a night, try out the weekly challenges here just to try and get better, and it does work. But I'm doing this all for fun. Thanks to this board, I graduated from $5 darts to the $20-$30 ones (dreading the day I convince myself to try out a set of $80 ones...). I keep buying different shafts to try other things out and I still buy all the "pretty" flights. When it all boils down, I look at darts as a social sport for me to have fun with. Now, ask me about playing hockey, that I take seriously, but that's a whole other conversation...

Thats pretty much where I am too Cory, but I like to collect darts too, I am sure though that I would get more serious if I had an inkling I could be a good player, but I have been trying to improve for some time and only had marginal gains, so I know my place and I'm happy with it!

im usually about 22avg per dart so not brilliant but im getting better and have hit big avgs before and had a few 10 darters but never a 9....

im learning though and my aim is to go as far as i can lol

I play/practise at least a couple of hrs a day. I play 3 nights a week, one league is serious singles, the other 2 are 3 man team play, one is good.. the other is a mistake that I wish I could gracefully leave. I don't like to commit to something then quit part way thru, but I rarely enjoy playing in that league.

My goal is simply to be as good as I can. I will never be the best but I'm sure I will be a respectable player that can challenge the best (on a good day for me..bad day for them ). I try to play some of the best throwers around here as I figure thats one way to progress and judge my progress. I have entered every tournament I could.

For me, the main problem is due to where I live there is no proper competition...I have been playing a few years and usually average about 25.0 per dart....if I lived in the states or the UK i feel that my game could take the next step....but as it stands practising alone for 2 hours a day roughly and playing once a week for fun against....a mixed opposition, it is becoming a bit stagnant....still even though I may never get as good as I want to, I still love playing whenever possible!!

you need to do something Obsidian to get people into it, ask the local bars/pubs if they mind helping or youth clubs etc, I am sure someone will be intrigued enough to give it a try and before long they will be hooked.

You know I agree totally...the main problem here is the lack of availability to buy darts, boards etc. I am visiting the UK in december to attend a darts exhibition and I am planning to buy a few boards and sets of darts and donate them to my local Russian Billiards club. They have lots of young billiards players there every day and they guy that runs it said he would be happy to put up a few boards. Hopefully while the guys are waiting for a table to be free they will pick up some darts and have a go and fall in love like I did!! Another thought is at my local where I convinced them to put up a board and eventually got a darts night going every week, I could possibly arrange an exhibition there, probably Anastasia....she speaks the language and nothing like a pretty girl as a hook to get people to show up and hopefully come back on following Friday nights to play afterwards

Great idea !

Me, I consider myself a serious player. I have sat around a 21-22 ave/dart for the last 3 years or so and just cant seem to take that next step to the 24-25 ave/dart level.

I play league 3 nights a week and every 2nd Thursday in a social league, so I dont get a lot of time to practice like I want to.

I know I will probably not go any further than playing for my state ( that is my dream, but I need to be a 25 ave for that level.)

So when I get time to practice, I try for quality over quantity.

Obsidian wrote:

You know I agree totally...the main problem here is the lack of availability to buy darts, boards etc. I am visiting the UK in december to attend a darts exhibition and I am planning to buy a few boards and sets of darts and donate them to my local Russian Billiards club. They have lots of young billiards players there every day and they guy that runs it said he would be happy to put up a few boards. Hopefully while the guys are waiting for a table to be free they will pick up some darts and have a go and fall in love like I did!! Another thought is at my local where I convinced them to put up a board and eventually got a darts night going every week, I could possibly arrange an exhibition there, probably Anastasia....she speaks the language and nothing like a pretty girl as a hook to get people to show up and hopefully come back on following Friday nights to play afterwards

Sounds like a good plan, why not contact Unicorn and ask if they are willing to help?

I just want a 60 avg

Been stagnent at around 50-55 for a year. Just cant get any better