Bay Area Dart Enthusiast: BASICS: The Grip

Darts: a game where participants compete with one another by throwing small arrow like devices at a target that is round and has numbers and sections and an inner bull with an outer bull and so on. Darts now refer to the standard game with a specific bristle board design and a set of rules. Rules that are general to the game and rules that govern games like, “501,” “301,” and “Cricket.”

Darts is a traditional pub game that was and is commonly played in the United Kingdom as well as other places in Europe and across the pond here in the America’s.

Wikipedia tells hits history in a terse form, i.e., “The dartboard may have its origins in the cross-section of a tree. An old name for a dartboard is "butt"; the word comes from the French word but, meaning "target". In particular, the Yorkshire and Manchester Log End boards differ from the standard board in that they have no treble, only double and bullseye, the Manchester board being of a smaller diameter, with a playing area of only 25 cm across with double and bull areas measuring just 4 mm. The London Fives board is another variation. This has only 12 equal segments numbered 20, 5, 15, 10, 20, 5, 15, 10, 20, 5, 15, 10 with the doubles and triples being a quarter of an inch wide.”

There have been a variety of darts created over the years but the most common today is the tungsten dart. There are electronic darts but for this blog and for my efforts in tossing darts I remain a steel dart fan and enthusiast. I am recommending a book for novice darters but only because it appealed to me and my studies and rest assured most of the dart books out there are outstanding. In short, find one if this one does not fit your needs and get it. I can tell you when I started to play over twenty years ago, before I laid down my darts in 96, I tossed darts for several years without knowing some very important and critical mechanics, etc., of the dart game. As I take up once again my steel darts I have found a fountain of information to help make the game both enjoyable and competitive. Enjoy, diddle for the middle and let the darts fly!

Wednesday, July 6, 2016

BASICS: The Grip

Blog Article/Post Caveat (Read First Please: Click the Link)

Hold the dart between the thumb, the index finger, and the second finger. The thumb will sit naturally under the darts center of gravity. Using the center of gravity, the weight of the dart is evenly distributed and you will be ‘flighting’ the dart properly and, theoretically, having better control of the dart.

The fingers and thumb should apply pressure to the barrel to establish a firm grip - yet a grip as light as possible - without causing the dart to drop out of your hand. Change the grip to compensate for poor accuracy; by moving the thumb and/or fingers up and down the barrel; and experiment with different flights, shafts, and dart weights, to zero in on a comfortable and satisfactory grip.

Make sure you check the darts after each throw and check your hands for warmth and cleanliness, especially hand oils and sweat.

Bibliography:

Chaplin, Patrick, PhD. “The Official Bar Guide to Darts.” Sterling Publishing. New York. 2010.

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