I have a question to put out there, its eyes to dart to board. Can your eyes focus clear on the dart in the hand and at the board at the same time?
My promblem is that my eyes carnt. At the moment I see the board clear but the dart in the hand is a blur, I will be visiting a eye doctor next month and would like be able to have a bit of an idea. My eyes are changing an so is my game.( not for the good).

Your eyes cannot focus on near and far objects at the same time.

But Im no DOC

DG is right, you cant focus at two different distances at the same time.

Aussie Kev wrote:

I have a question to put out there, its eyes to dart to board. Can your eyes focus clear on the dart in the hand and at the board at the same time?
My promblem is that my eyes carnt. At the moment I see the board clear but the dart in the hand is a blur, I will be visiting a eye doctor next month and would like be able to have a bit of an idea. My eyes are changing an so is my game.( not for the good).

A similar question was asked during a snooker comp on tv a while back and I think it can help answer this.

What is the last thing you look at when taking a shot in snooker? Do you look at the white? The object ball? Or try and look at both?


The answer was you can't look at both. The brain is incapable of focusing on both. So do you look at the cue ball or object ball? Apparently the way to do it was look at the cue ball then the target...do this a few times then finally strike the cue ball while looking at the target ball.

In darts I personally pay no attention to the dart in hand and only focus on the target but if you look at both then I would suggest that the aimed target should be the last thing you look at before realising the dart.

I don't attempt to look at the dart at all, just the target

Nope don't believe you can focus on both at the same time. I look back a forth within a microsec but when I release my dart am definetley looking at the target. I did go to my eye doc an had glasses made that gave me perfect vision from 8 ft. That changed every thing. My doc a great guy and told me just to use when shooting darts lol.
Welcome again BTW. With my glasses on I draw the dart up to my eye (thats when I see the dart) after that its all target .

When I tried focusing on both at the same time I realized my dart game when down the can. You really shouldn't be able to truly focus on both at the same time just because of the difference in distance.

Personally I find I do far better when I focus on my target at the board and feel the dart in my draw and throw

I only look at the target as I hold my dart up at my forehead to throw, so I dont see my dart.

getagrip wrote:

DG is right, you cant focus at two different distances at the same time.

interesting fact....pigeons can focus on two things at once. they have two focal points on their retina's....makes sense as they can see what they are eating and any preditor coming at same time......hence the fact it is really difficult to run down a pigeon in a car!!!!

it doesn't have anything to do with darts, but my education comes in handy...sometimes

Bovrilheid wrote:

getagrip wrote:

DG is right, you cant focus at two different distances at the same time.

interesting fact....pigeons can focus on two things at once. they have two focal points on their retina's....makes sense as they can see what they are eating and any preditor coming at same time......hence the fact it is really difficult to run down a pigeon in a car!!!!

it doesn't have anything to do with darts, but my education comes in handy...sometimes

Interesting fact bov...but I can't help but imagine you trying to run over pigeons

leave da pigeons for the Hawks.

AH HAH! I knew Phil Taylor was part pideon

Why would you need to look at the dart in your hand anyway?

Just tried it....... it made me dizzy

During practice, I sometimes look at the dart and watch how it flies. This information provides very valuable feedback which helps me tweak elements in my stroke and release.

This is similar to a golfer watching the flight pattern of his ball and making stroke adjustments based upon what he sees and feels.

This recommendation is for the intermediate to advance players. The beginning players are still mastering their stroke and trying this type of suggestion will only complicate things.

I look at me target only - occasionally will look at how my dart flies but that's at home and only 1-2 times to check for spin and wobble.

phil taylor said in an interview that you should look down though the dart like sighting a gun. i used to do this which is why i preferred silver points to give more contrast to the board . i wouldn't focus on the dart though as it is impossible to focus near and far ,but i'd stare through the point to my target. though after reading someone advise on here (can't remember who at the moment ) that you wouldn't look at a ball or similar that you were throwing , you'd just look at the target . i started doing that and have improved.

I think Donnys idea is useful to gauge any faults in your darts flight. I can see my dart travelling through the air after I throw it and I do notice things sometimes, such as fishtailing or other wobbling. I am sure sometimes it looks like my darts curve to the left, could be an illusion I dont know. But when I throw a good dart it definitely flies better and in a smoother flight path.

Another thing I do is I often practice without my glasses.

This allows me to think and work more on my stroke and release. In this type of practice, I'm engaging my sense and feel for proper mechanics, without the immediate visual feedback on whether I've actually hit the target (i.e. triples or doubles).

Once I get to the board to pull my darts, I can tell for sure whether or not I hit my double or whether I hit a Ton, Ton40, or Ton80.

Visually focusing on the target is a must. But focusing on the target is not going to make the dart fly into the target. Once you visually lock in on the target, your stroke and release are the primary determinants on whether you hit your target or not.

By practicing without my glasses, the element of visual focus is somewhat impaired and this causes my other senses to kick in...which translates into a keener feel and sense of a proper stroke and release that yields good results (i.e. hitting the target) vs. a bad stroke and release that yields a missed target.

ah thats interesting, I may try playing without my glasses and see how it goes.

Another thing to take into consideration is which of your eyes is the dominant one, i am right handed but left eye dominant. I played darts for years but never found this out only when i took up archery that it was pointed out to me.
In archery many players ware an eyepatch for the offending eye, imagine that at the lakeside

yep I am right handed and left eye dominant too, my right eye is pretty hopeless really but it is there to give me a slight double vision, I could close my right eye but that feels just as weird.

never look at my dart just where i want it to land ... works sometimes lol ;)

themonps3 wrote:

never look at my dart just where i want it to land ... works sometimes lol ;)

I know what you mean