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!

Thursday, September 15, 2016

GAME: Psych Tricks in Darts

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

I remember the last time I played in any tournament a person, who played really well too boot, tried to psych out his opponents through his body language but mostly by the things he would say around those he played. I often wondered why, is it just because winning was so darn important to him he felt he had to use whatever method he could to win, Win, WIN!

What it meant to me, later because I tried that for a while too, was I had a lack of confidence in my abilities in darts that I would resort to such tactics to win. It meant that when I would or did win by such means, I won not by my ability but by using tricks. Compliance professionals abound in this world whose goals are always to get something from others often to their benefit financial and sometimes to their benefit of other resources. 

In a perfect world two darters will step up to the ocky line, throw their throws and win on dart skills without resorting to tricks or games of psych-means. This may sound a bit naive but to me, winning a dart game and tournament means winning on my skills throwing darts and playing the strategies and tactics of the game to achieve that goal while using other means is just not how I wish to go. 

It is like a world class darter playing against  a relatively inexperienced darter going for massive points in cricket to not just win but to win by such a margin that the inexperienced player is beaten down both mentally as well as proficiency in the dart arts. Yes, I know they frown on that but it does happen often in a malicious mean self-serving, to the player doing it, way that it can be a detriment to the game and gamesmanship itself. 

I assume it is a lack of self-esteem and a means to make the person feel good about themselves at the expense of others - I call them bullies. Make your dart arts yours first and foremost, make your proficiency and expertise about your skills in throwing and don’t resort to bully tactics because that is, in my view, the wrong way to win. 

If I were to one day win a world class level tournament, I would hope, want and expect that win to come from within me and against another darter of equal or greater skills without resorting to some trick to win. For me, it is about honor and sportsmanship and gamesmanship and to win outside that would be to lessen myself and my dart arts. 

Let me try to explain it this way, “Ruthlessness,” there is a ruthlessness necessary to get and hold a world level professionalism and proficiency. One is to use whatever means necessary and the other is to use those inherent skills of the professional to reach the same level. Using my marital background as an example: “I will be ruthless in the methodologies I implement in a self-defense situation; I will be ruthless at the force levels appropriate to achieve those goals; I will be ruthless in stopping a predatory attack; I will be ruthless in this while maintaining honor and dignity. I will NOT be ruthless to the point where I violate the social constructs of the legal and moral laws, requirements and social conditions necessary for society and societies/group survival. I will cause no grave harm or death unless justified in the arena of conflict and violence as directed, dictated and mandated by society and the various groups that make up our way of life. 

In the Dart Arts: I will be ruthless in my training; I will be ruthless in my practice; I will be ruthless in throwing darts in every game and in every tournament; I will NOT sacrifice my honor or my dignity or my social position in society or the game or the dart arts to win; I will win in a way that is appropriate and beneficial to me, my opponent, and to the dart arts and dart game. 

Game ONNNNN!



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