i've noticed a few people posting about burnout on here and other forums . any my question as a a relative newbie is - this is a common thing round this time of year maybe ? a lot of us are just about at the end of winter which is a long drawn out depressing affair really , the world championships having been on in the new year maybe encouraging people to play more and push themselves too far . lots of new gear at christmas maybe we expected to much from and lots of us swapping all that new gear to try and find something better . do we all need to have a spring cleanout of all the stuff we've accumulated and concentrate on the darts we feel most comfortable with and worry more about stance and technique rather than more gear ??? whats your thoughts ?

If it's UK members it may be that the winter leagues all seem to finish around now with the singles and pairs etc comps coming up in the next few weeks - maybe people are putting in more practice than normal in order to try and finish the season on a high that is causing these burnouts.

Since I started playing again about 30 months or so ago I've not noticed any burnout with myself, but I try not to over-practice anyway. Once my league's comps and presentation night are out of the way mid May I intend to take a break of a couple of weeks this year though just to consider my options for the summer leagues as I'm not yet decided which if any I will enter.

If you do feel you have burnt yourself out though then I would suggest taking a little break to regroup.

As far as your match darts are concerned, you should always use the ones you feel more comfortable with as a matter of course.

I find that you feel burnt out if you are going through a slump. Losing always brings you down specially if you are not throwing to the standard you know is reachable for you.

personally when i started i burned out due to playing 5-6 hours a night for months . i kept knock myself after the initial major week to week improvements which inevitably slowed down , during christmas i didn't have the time and i had a month of . now i play 30 mins or an hour a night . don't know if it the reduced time and pressure or having the right darts but recently i looked into seeing what my stats are coming in at now and i've move up to a frequent 60 3da from the 45 i was stuck on for a long time .

Might be that time of year like Mike says.

5-6 hours a night is far far too much for most people as you are most likely playing until your arms are dropping off and/or you are bored with the session. Neither of these help your game in the long run.

If you are not a pro then around an hour or so, maybe up to 2 hours, should be more than enough practice. Make sure you are doing proper practice as well - don't just throw for the 20's to see how many 180's you can get, work on all aspects of the game such as scoring, finishing, setting up finishes, etc. Even going round the board on the big sections of the numbers is good as you quite often need to hit a big number to get on a double - eg 43 left you need either a single 3 to leave tops or an 11 to leave 32.

Also, if you do go for a couple of hours practice per night have a little break of 10 to 20 minutes in the middle.