Aiming to improve

I have had some encouraging results and runs of good form in recent practice sessions, but as any self improver knows when you expand the gap between your 'A' game and your 'B,C or D' games your expectation raises and so does the resulting frustration when things do not go so well. To put it bluntly you start expecting treble 20s and finishing doubles to happen and when they do not is is easy to think "well I was hitting these yesterday why can't I...." or "This is typical, I always get ahead in legs and then blow a good lead." Notice that these sorts of thoughts are irrational because it is unreasonable to expect every dart to land where you want it: everyone misses, sometimes.

To keep a lid on frustration and still make improvements to my game I have had a look at my practice routine and analysed what is working and what is not. The most obvious success has been filming my throw and then gradually fine tuning aspects of my technique. I have solidified my stance, improved my rhythm and identified the features or makeup of a poor throw. I have also defined the most important statistic for my own improvement: the FTS% (follow through success percentage). I have built my practice around routines on 20s, double top, bullseye, double three, double 16 and games of double-start 301 vs the computer. My routine, which is heavy on straight darts does seem to have improved my straight throw. It has also given me a consistent reference point to tinker with other aspects of the throw, such as oche position by small degrees, whilst still being able to return to the same basic throw when needed. By this I mean my arm knows what it feels like to throw straight and if I lose the feel of this through too much experimentation I can reset and get back to it.

My last batch of fts% filmed sessions= 81,58,78,79,87,88,83,90= 80.5 mean. which is a significant improvement on my last stats. The downside of my current practice routine is that I do not move around the board much so in future I need to build in some kind of round the board routine, perhaps incremental so I can keep score and challenge my own PBs. I am also finding it hard to shake of losses against the computer, since I often score better but rarely hit a winning double. Doubles are such a small target to hit and I need to think about a way to practise doubles whilst still rewarding near misses, or darts against the wire so I can build confidence and remain philosophical about the doubles that got away. Traditional doubles routines for example Bob's 27s are built around a greater degree of competence than I possess and so I will often become knocked out straight away and become disheartened when I play them.

Aiming the dart has become a key issue when I practise because I have unfocused my aiming of late to concentrate on the action of the throw, but now I must develop an aiming mechanism if I am to hit doubles at the ends of legs. I also have two competing methods of aiming at present and so need to resolve these into one method: if I am aiming high I sight vaguely with the V shaped crook between the bottom of my thumb and my index finger and if I aim low I line up the flight with the target. In the coming weeks I will concentrate on sighting the target and the dart together (the dart will be blurred of course) and then stare at the target so my follow through arm knows where to aim. I will also try to keep the dart nearer my dominant eye to begin with, to try and make the action more repeatable and consistently accurate.

A milestone in practice

I have just reached a milestone in practice casually playing against the computer at 501. I achieved a 3 dart average of 50.94 over four legs and won 4-0. It is a short sample size I know, but I have never before achieved this level of consistency over a number of legs and my confidence level has never felt so high over more that one or two legs. A 51 average is the standard I hope to attain consistently by the end of my year of dedicated practice and today I had a glimpse of what it is like to throw at 'good pub player' standard for a sustained period.

For the most part I threw my usual combination of promising 60 scores, 85s and tonnes littered with 26, 41 etc. The key difference I found was that my improved follow through action gave me more solid set up and double shots around the board towards the end of legs. I also felt more confident scoring, as if bad darts were not the norm and that I would soon return to hitting 20s if I just concentrated and kept my action consistent.

In practice sessions leading up to today my success % in following through with the throwing hand was: 61,52,86,62,71,62,(65.6 mean).I have also been consistently filming my throw and only made slight changes here and there to see the effect on my action. Results such as my 50.94 average are good to know and build my confidence, but I am certain that % follow through success (%FTS) is the single most important stat that will give me valuable feedback on my progress in my year of determined darting.

When watching videos of my own throw one sure discovery this week has been the importance of a slightly higher throwing arm when aiming. This in turn leads to a draw back that resists sagging downwards in the elbow, which in turn encourages a more whipped follow through in the acceleration phase of my throw. I have also ignored my home made sight right experiment which indicated I should stand on the right, and instead I toe the treble 5 and compromise a right side stance with a more central one which seems to work best for me.

Progress report: working on follow through

This week I have started every practice session the same way by filming and counting the number of successful follow though motions I make with my throwing arm. I noted in my last post that I am erratic when releasing the dart and sometimes my hand jerks in an incomplete follow through. When I watch back footage of my throw I am counting a success as a smooth or near smooth extension of the arm that ends with the palm facing downwards. I may have miscounted my initial baseline reading as this was 52% success rate but stated 36% in my notebook.

This week I have thrown 71%,71%,77%,62%,79% follow through success rate when aiming at the 20 bed which feels like progress, especially since my stance is fairly solid at the moment and looks good on playback. I theorised in a previous post that at least a 76% follow through success would be needed to have real impact on my scoring consistency but now I am starting to think that I could achieve higher, and that it is not too unreasonable to aim for say, 90% . I follow through best with the dart when I aim a little nearer my face with the dart cocked up at an angle slightly (Robert Thornton-ish), and pull back towards my shoulder in an almost Tony O'Shea style of throw. I am also experimenting with sighting the dart using the 'v' shaped groove inbetween my thumb and first finger of my throwing hand, which may help me to avoid falling below the target, a common problem I suffer from.

I have been enjoying this new focus on technique not results in my practice sessions as it has allowed me to chase an achievable target that should ultimately improve my results when I move on to concentrate on specific numbers or doubles. I am yet to reap the rewards when playing legs vs the computer and am currently playing a pub B standard with around a 50% win rate at double start 301, my favourite practice game. I can often get to the finishing double first but then miss 15+ darts at the double which is what hurts my win rate and makes my averages laughable. I believe I will never improve at darts until my technique is solid so I only play a couple of legs per session to stay match fit as it were, and I do not read too deeply into averages or results at the moment. I will continue to film follow through scoring sessions and then move on to film and measure in the same way at another target when my average follow through success is consistently higher.