Sorry lads but as much as i have tried, and also after trying to watch the dartslive, i for the life of cant get into that game..... I even attempted to play it once, maybe its the fact that i dont like my darts to wobble when in the board, as well as a few others. Just my humble feelings......

You formed an opinion playing it once?

Shorter tips would solve the wobble problem.

Soft tip is a great game and the future IMO. I have played both and like them both. Paddy give it several more goes ya might change your mind.

I was the biggest soft tip hater there ever was. I came from an area where steel tip leagues were dominate. In fact, I had never really played soft tip at all, but I knew I hated it. I used to say all the same cliche things I still hear all the time. I mostly said things about the size of the targets. Who couldn't hit those things? I never thought of the guy I was playing that could hit the huge targets just as well.

I then moved to an area that had soft tip only. I had 2 choices. Quit darts or suck it up and play. I choose the ladder. Glad I did. After several months learning curve I started to get pretty good. At first it was frustrating because i knew I was a better player then the people beating me. I just wasn't used to players firing 6.0+ mpr against me. Strategy had to change a bit.

I had just got back from the NAODT in Vegas 2001 and I thought that was a huge tournament. Plenty of stars from the UK were there. A month later my ex gf took me to the NY State Championships soft tip tourney in Waterloo. I was feeling pretty good and ready to kick some butt. When I walked in the place i was overwhelmed at how big it was. Massive!!! To make a long story short, I had my butt handed to me. Just a 1/2 year earlier I won a steel tip state championship, along with the doubles and mixed trips that same weekend. How could I possibly get beat so bad in softtip??? I was determined to do better once I figured out how to play at a high level.

A few months later I went to a Bullshooter regional and things started to click. Won the men's doubles, men's singles, mixed dubs, and took 2nd in trips. Walked out of there with over $1k in my pocket. I was hooked. I started to hit every soft tip event I could. The money was way better then any steel tip tourney I've been to.

The next year at states I took 4th in singles, won the pro doubles, won both pro mixed doubles, and won the trips. My gf also won the Arachnid Galaxy that same weekend. They also gave away a Harley that weekend. When is the last time you seen that at a steel tip event?

Going back and forth from steel to soft has made me a WAY better player then I ever was. There is a lot more constant pressure in soft tip. Open up with a 9 mark in cricket playing steel tip and you can at least take a deep breath and relax a bit. Do the same thing in soft tip and you can't even blink. When top level players are throwing 6.0+ mpr or better you need to make every dart count. As seen this weekend at Dartslive, top level steel tip players were handed their walking ticket by soft tip players.

Game is no joke at top levels.

I imagine it would be very hard for anyone in the UK and a few other places to take soft tip seriously. Steel tip is ingrained in your culture. Dart players are awarded MBE's and are seen as celebrity's. You can play in any sort of steel tip league you want and even watch it all the time on the tele. Stuff like that doesn't exist AT ALL in the states. We take what we can get.

To me it doesn't matter what game I play. Darts is darts when I'm on the oche. I could move back to Maine and hardly miss soft tip at all. Or I could stay here in NY and continue to love it. As long as I'm able to continue playing at a high level is all that matters.

Well said Winmau. I agree fully darts are darts and I play both, though I play more steel tip than soft, I like both equally well.

Not sure one go at it is enough to give it a fair comparison. Darts is seeing a definite resurgence and this is purely owed to the softip game coming from Asia with the large prize money from the whole Dartslive scene. Not to mention the equipment that is coming out of Japan that is finding it's way to English and American darts (Cosmo and L-Style as an example).

This can only be a win-win for anyone in the game; does not matter steel or soft as you recently had the PDC challenge event, where the best Japanese players were playing steel tip and you have BDO, PDC and American Pro's playing soft tip.

How can this possibly be a bad thing? If it grows our sport gets more people playing, added tournaments and new equipment coming to market, would not everyone want that?

A great post JD take a plus 1 .

While on the subject. The debate should not be about steel versus soft, but rather how can we all grow the game.

Local steel tip venues have a rough go at it as it does not turn the same profit as soft tip does. While I don't like to "pay to play", I see the value in this for the establishments that hold tournaments. After all bars host tournaments and leagues in hopes of generating revenue in drinks and food sold.

I see time and time again that darts players buy minimal drinks and food if any at all; and I've seen folks sneak in their own drink.

What we need to do is show our appreciation to local establishments holding leagues and tournaments and remember to buy the dartboard a beer and show our appreciation. We also need to get the on-lookers invited to give it a go and ask them to a friendly game.

Some really good points here guys.

Here in my home town, the only soft tip boards are in my shed and other peoples shed's. There is no organized soft tip scene here at all.

My interest was sparked by a friend and league opponent Rob Modra. Rob is the best steel tip player in Australia at the moment and is ranked around 30th in the BDO/WDF rankings.

He took up soft tip as there were few challenges here for him. He loves soft tip, but is struggling to beat the Asian and US players while he learns the cricket strategy.

A lot of the Dartslive soft tip players are very handy steel tippers as well. Ilagan has played at Ladbrokes, Paul Lim speaks for himself, Roydan Lam and Scott Mackenzie have both just finished playing in the Asia Pacific Cup here in Australia this last week.

I think there is plenty of room for everyone to be good at both versions of the game.

I went and bought a board on a whim and I love it. I'm hoping my Tuesday night league can get something organized with a soft tip league.