Injury, time off and the weight of darts

I woke up the other day with a terrible pain in my right bicep. It hurt so much that I could barely lift my arm above chest height and took a few days to get better. I managed one practice session using light darts and one with my regular darts before man-flu set in and I have been resting up since! I have had to miss a game with friends because of this unfortunate turn of events and I will probably not be able to practise for another day or so whilst my head is so full of snot:(

When my arm was still sore I threw a brief session with light darts it was surprising to me how little difference they contributed to my throw. I am used to the thunk of 23g darts hitting the board but when I picked up my 18g knitting needles I expected to have to make major adjustments. My initial throws were a bit flighty and the darts were entering into the board at all kinds of angles but after a quick change of flights to a larger style the angles became more consistent and I was happily throwing straight at the 20 bed with the lighter arrows. Of course I was terrible when it came time to hit a double but that is not unusual even with my regular darts.

This experience has taught me (or at least reminded me of ) a valuable truth: the next time I desire a new set of darts and imagine they will transform my game and take me to the next level I am going to save that £25 and spend it on something better, because we all throw darts our own unique way and the darts are effectively incidental to the end result. If you want further proof of this go and watch archive footage of Taylor or Barneveld who have both messed around with their darts' style and weight over the years: both players have hit the heights and thrown spanners with their various types of dart and when it comes down to it your state of mind, and your arm have a much greater effect.