There are many tips to help you become a better darts player. Starting from how much and how often you practice, to what type of darts equipment you use, there are myriad ways to improve your darts throws. In this post, we will focus on some of the best and often overlooked techniques and tips that can help you hone your throwing skills.
Practice Regularly
In darts, just like in many other sports, quantity is more important than quality, especially in the beginning. You will never be able to become a better darter if you don’t practice enough. In many sports, daily practice is the key to becoming successful. Darts is no exception. There is no standard to how many hours a day you should practice, but the golden rule is to try to play darts as often as you can, ideally daily, if not, at least 3-4 days a week. You can spend as little as 15 – 20 minutes at the oche line. But make that time worth it by focusing on giving your best throws.
Practice with a Purpose
Just throwing darts at the dartboard randomly might sound like a good exercise as it allows you to get used to the stance, arm position, and moves darts implies. However, if you’re way past the level when you are barely learning how to hold and throw darts, you should practice with a purpose. In other words, you need to follow some rules and aim for certain parts of the dartboard when you are training. Otherwise, you are simply aiming for the board itself, which is easy enough even for absolute beginners but won’t help you become more accurate and compete better against other experienced darters.
For this reason, when you practice, you should focus on two distinct skills which are essential in the game of darts: hitting the outs or the high numbers. These are the aspects you also concentrate on when you play darts games such as 501 and 01 which are the games played in official tournaments.
Essentially, you should start with hitting the high numbers and then get to the low numbers and hitting double outs. To improve your target, you should pick one number from the dartboard, to make it easy, a high one, for example, the treble 20. Try to land your dart on that number repeatedly and track the number of times you manage to hit it. Each time you practice, remember how many times you’ve managed to hit the treble 20 during your previous practice and set a higher standard.
Control Your Body
One of the common mistakes darters of all levels make is not being able to control their bodies. When you throw darts, your whole body should be still and you should only move your arm. Your shoulder must stand still. The same goes for the rest of your body. You should not move, bounce, swing, or sway while you’re throwing darts. All these movements will affect your trajectory and lead to inconsistent throws.
To be able to stand still while throwing darts, you need to practice a lot. This way, you will get used to the right posture and you will be able to focus better with each throw.
Use Training Apps and the Proper Equipment
There are dozens of applications you can use to track your darts progress. Many of them are free, so you don’t need to worry about downloading and using them. These apps can help you monitor all the aspects related to your game. They will also provide you recommendations based on your level and progress.
Another essential factor that can make or break your game are the darts tools you use for your practice. Here, we mainly refer to darts, but the dartboard you’re playing on is also extremely important. Quality darts that offer a nice grip, a consistent flight trajectory, don’t come loose during the game, and don’t bounce out of the board are ideal. As for the dartboard, you should use a model that’s made of quality sisal which absorbs the shock caused by the darts and heals after each throw while, in its turn, preventing bounce outs.
At IgnatGames, we offer both types of equipment. Check them out in our catalog and feel free to share your thoughts on what else darters can do to improve their throws.
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