Everything Changes

I was chatting darts with a friend recently and we were having a good laugh about how everything changes with the third dart if the first two land plumb in the treble 20 bed. What started out as smooth rhythmic throw suddenly turns into a jerky fear-filled drawback perhaps catching on the collar of a shirt, with sensitive fingertips no longer sure where they should be on the barrel. Dealing with this maddening feeling of heightened consciousness is one of the great challenges for dart players but perversely this gets a lots worse for students of the game who wish to improve their technique as compared to casual throwers.

When everything changes in your dart throw it is tempting to believe that you have not eliminated enough variables in practice and that tinkering with your throw will fix things in time. I am not entirely sure this is a rational response to the problem, and neither is trying to forget about everything and attempting throwing with mindless freedom. In reality I think the solution lies somewhere in between these two extremes with a slow and systematic building of the throw as well as work on mental health basics such as relaxation and balance of rest and activity in life. You may end up changing your throw one day because you threw badly for example, but this was in fact due to tiredness.

In practice sessions it is useful to methodically and carefully try variations on the throw but only over time and systematically prioritising the aspects which stand to have the most impact on how the darts fly. I have already been doing this in my year of determined darting and if you have read my previous posts you will know I have concentrated on the effect of stance on head/body movement and have been aiming for consistency of follow through. To a lesser extent I have also worked on a method for always aiming the same way and always drawing back to the same point on my body.

Recent filming has revealed I have an intermittent head-bob a little like Robert Thornton's nod he does, only I seem to time mine with the drawback on occasion so I need to eliminate this. I am also sagging the throwing elbow slightly on drawback which can be reduced by limiting how far back I pull the dart and by avoiding pausing on drawback. Elbow sag often leads to an incomplete follow through and wild darts especially on the third dart because of extra tension in the arm. In terms of life/darts balance and mental health things are on the up for me as I have been learning to relax more effectively in my spare time- a factor which has helped me secure convincing wins against old foes who I often get too nervous to play well against. Everything is changing for me at the moment in that I am moving house, so an important settler for me in the new home will be a new permanent oche which I am looking forward to setting up together with a new board and cabinet of course;)

Latest follow through stats are:
20s: 92,95,100,92,100,86,95,95,92,. mean 94.1%FTS which is a PB
bull:90,85,100,86,95,90, mean 91% FTS which is a fairly new stat and a PB also