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.