I am quite a new dart player but a fairly enthusiastic one and put in about two hours a day of practice (Mostly Flight School ) and slowly but surely I have been getting better. Good? Well not so much, but for sure better and not bad at all for a guy who has not played darts for a full year yet.

What I have started doing is after every throw that doesn't stick where I want it to I ask myself WHY it didn't stick to see if I have an idea why (early release, dart tip pointed to one side, didn't pick a spot etc. etc.)

Now my question is will this lead to greater refinement of my game or is it simply over thinking the game?

I would initially say you are over thinking, I bet there are 100's of reasons darts dont always fly to perfection ranging from your hands being cold to you wearing different footwear - but that said, it may well help you to cut out bad habits in the long run and so I would say go for it.

I think you would know within a few days of doing it wether it was having a possitive or negative effect on your all round game.

I would be interested to hear how you get on.

It seems like as long as you are only doing this in solitary practice, and NOT during a game, it can probably be a good thing.

After all, according to George, isn't that what solitary practice should be all about... learning control over the flight path of the dart? And what better way than through constant feedback, postive and negative.

JohnK wrote:

It seems like as long as you are only doing this in solitary practice, and NOT during a game, it can probably be a good thing.

After all, according to George, isn't that what solitary practice should be all about... learning control over the flight path of the dart? And what better way than through constant feedback, postive and negative.

Yeah.. this is a practice thing. My gut instinct tells me it is positive..

davidsproull wrote:

I am quite a new dart player but a fairly enthusiastic one and put in about two hours a day of practice (Mostly Flight School ) and slowly but surely I have been getting better. Good? Well not so much, but for sure better and not bad at all for a guy who has not played darts for a full year yet.

What I have started doing is after every throw that doesn't stick where I want it to I ask myself WHY it didn't stick to see if I have an idea why (early release, dart tip pointed to one side, didn't pick a spot etc. etc.)

Now my question is will this lead to greater refinement of my game or is it simply over thinking the game?

For some people, doing this type of thinking and analysis in practice is a good thing. For other people, they need a coach to do this type of thinking and analysis for them. Everybody is different.

In either case, once you get into a match, put your brain away and play with confidence. Our brains can sometimes become our worst enemy during a match.

habanerojooz wrote:

In either case, once you get into a match, put your brain away and play with confidence. Our brains can sometimes become our worst enemy during a match.

Not being able to "put your brain" away is a definite danger for people like myself who spend a great deal of time during solitary practice analyzing and fine-tuning my stroke. If you're spending hours a day analyzing your throw, it becomes almost automatic and is very difficult to shut off during match time.

To combat that, I have instituted a period of forced "non-thinking" time at the end of each of my practice sessions. It doesn't need to be a lot of time, I do this for about 20-30 minutes at the end of every practice session (sometimes longer if I get into it!). It doesn't really matter what I do either. Sometimes it's a practice 501 match against the computer or online. Sometimes its other practice games or flight school drills. The important thing is that I stop thinking about my stroke and just "grip it and rip it". And I do this EVERY session.

This was very difficult at first, as my mind just didn't want to shut off. But after a couple of months, I found that I could turn the analyzing part of my brain on and off almost at will. This new ability has carried over into my match play, and I have found that recently that the quality of my match darts has become much closer to the quality of my practice darts.

I've been playing for over 20 years. During that time, I've reached several plateaus that I had risen up to, then I'd stay at that level for awhile, then I'd hit another gear and keep climbing up the progression ladder. Throughout my darting career, I have been on a positive upward trend of improvement. I attribute this to my ability coach myself effectively and my belief that I can continue to improve and get better.

Most of us play both roles of coach and player. There is a time when a coach needs to coach and a time when the coach needs to stand back and let the player perform. The biggest determining factor is the player. Only the player knows what works best for them.

Reflecting On The Negative is the title of this thread. I don't understand how to correct a negative unless I think about it and devise as solution to correct it. Thinking about a problem and taking corrective action is an active way of dealing with things.

The alternative is for me to ignore the negatives and hope they go away. Relying on hope to erase my problems is a passive way of dealing with things.

In both my professional job and my darting career, 'hope' is not a strategy.

habanerojooz wrote:

I've been playing for over 20 years. During that time, I've reached several plateaus that I had risen up to, then I'd stay at that level for awhile, then I'd hit another gear and keep climbing up the progression ladder. Throughout my darting career, I have been on a positive upward trend of improvement. I attribute this to my ability coach myself effectively and my belief that I can continue to improve and get better.

Most of us play both roles of coach and player. There is a time when a coach needs to coach and a time when the coach needs to stand back and let the player perform. The biggest determining factor is the player. Only the player knows what works best for them.

Reflecting On The Negative is the title of this thread. I don't understand how to correct a negative unless I think about it and devise as solution to correct it. Thinking about a problem and taking corrective action is an active way of dealing with things.

The alternative is for me to ignore the negatives and hope they go away. Relying on hope to erase my problems is a passive way of dealing with things.

In both my professional job and my darting career, 'hope' is not a strategy.

I think I agree with this, although to be clear this process is more 'feel' oriented that rationally oriented, but of course is not irrational. It's the hope that if I can tell what I am doing wrong I can tell what I'm doing period.

I suspect with many things in darts it is the perception of how it will affect you that often carries the most weight. In fact I would say that posting this thread about what I am doing has been more distracting to me than the thing itself.

Not sure if my recent performance is directly connected to doing this but since I started it i am 7 wins out of my last 8.

Last Friday I threw with confidence in the singles matches but as soon as it got to the doubles, I couldn't stop thinking about my grip and throw so they were going everywhere.

Just make sure you don't think about it in gamez

I think darts or more so the attitude towards darts and winning has changed over the past 20 years. My Pap got me into the game some 35 years ago and then players had a set of darts they liked as the choices were limited, they went their own way for finishes and they really enjoyed the game for what it was. My Pap never went on constantly about his 3 dart average when he was practising at home nor did he worry every time he lost that something was wrong, he just lost because the other bloke was better or simply hit his double first. I think in today's game the science of darts has taken over and we all have such high expectations for ourselves. The game of Darts has evolved into more than just a game it's an obsession for some as they strive to emulate Phil Taylor or Adrian Lewis or whoever their favourite player may be. Unless you are a full time player with a tour card and looking to make Darts your profession and have to rely on the winning to put food on your table, I would not over-think the game too much as it is a hobby or pastime that we do to forget the worries of everyday life and our full time jobs. I do believe we can all get better with tweaks and a few changes to our game with different flights and stems etc and practice will certainly help with consistency but for me I find if I don't put the pressure on myself to have to have a 90 plus 3 dart average I can usually end up with one. I have great respect for all things that help people play better but sometimes the more you know the more can go wrong and too much knowledge too quickly is dangerous. I would suggest as a newcomer to the game just slowing down a bit and enjoy the game for what it is. Learn on the job from partners and the people you play against and play with, Darts is a simple game that we make difficult. I am a firm believer that experience is the best way to become a better player so forget about the science for now and just play lots of games against as many different people including women as you can when you win most of those games and become a well rounded player then get your head into the science to fine tune things but the warning I will give you is once you do there is no turning back.

Good luck with it buddy and enjoy your learning.

Stay Special

Kev

Big Gun wrote:

I think darts or more so the attitude towards darts and winning has changed over the past 20 years. My Pap got me into the game some 35 years ago and then players had a set of darts they liked as the choices were limited, they went their own way for finishes and they really enjoyed the game for what it was. My Pap never went on constantly about his 3 dart average when he was practising at home nor did he worry every time he lost that something was wrong, he just lost because the other bloke was better or simply hit his double first. I think in today's game the science of darts has taken over and we all have such high expectations for ourselves. The game of Darts has evolved into more than just a game it's an obsession for some as they strive to emulate Phil Taylor or Adrian Lewis or whoever their favourite player may be. Unless you are a full time player with a tour card and looking to make Darts your profession and have to rely on the winning to put food on your table, I would not over-think the game too much as it is a hobby or pastime that we do to forget the worries of everyday life and our full time jobs. I do believe we can all get better with tweaks and a few changes to our game with different flights and stems etc and practice will certainly help with consistency but for me I find if I don't put the pressure on myself to have to have a 90 plus 3 dart average I can usually end up with one. I have great respect for all things that help people play better but sometimes the more you know the more can go wrong and too much knowledge too quickly is dangerous. I would suggest as a newcomer to the game just slowing down a bit and enjoy the game for what it is. Learn on the job from partners and the people you play against and play with, Darts is a simple game that we make difficult. I am a firm believer that experience is the best way to become a better player so forget about the science for now and just play lots of games against as many different people including women as you can when you win most of those games and become a well rounded player then get your head into the science to fine tune things but the warning I will give you is once you do there is no turning back.

Good luck with it buddy and enjoy your learning.

Stay Special

Kev

A rare occasion where I disagree with you Kev. I also have no specific desire to emulate anyone other than myself, and that would be my future self who is better than my today self. I dont keep track of my three dart average, and other than the one adjustment I have made to my grip I use my natural stroke and do not tweak. Nothing I am doing is about tweaking. You are right that I do put pressure on myself but that comes from first of all having made the decision that instead of backing away from something that I am naturally bad at I would persevere and become at least reasonably competent and the other is being, in my first year of playing darts being the top shooter on my team and that makes me feel sometimes they are relying on me to win. In the end though, for once I want to be good at something.

I really wish I could explain what I am doing as I think people are extrapolating to the wrong extreme. One thing is for certain is I am not saying "What did I do wrong"
simply "Do I know what happened and why?"

I think Rebel summarized it best. There are so many different factors that go into it that you could probably come up with a laundry list for why any dart didn't go exactly where you wanted it to.

I believe that looking into the matter is good because it helps you come up with different ways to experiment with your throw and see what effects different changes have.

However, I advise caution to not get hung up on the "correcting" part. I tried correcting my throw that was "different" to say the least and it botched everything for about a year. I am only finally starting to get back into form.

In summary if you continue to ask do I know what happened and why without getting to involved with the I need to change to fix what happened it will remain a positive approach to your game.

Quote :

However, I advise caution to not get hung up on the "correcting" part. I tried correcting my throw that was "different" to say the least and it botched everything for about a year. I am only finally starting to get back into form.

Yeah I have a friend named Ray and friends say he does this even worse with golf.