In the Money

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

Last nights local game turned out pretty good for me, I was in the money as they say, i.e., I finished well enough to get some mony - $7 ;-) Now, you might be thinking (and laughing your keister off to boot), seven bucks, are you serious? Yea, it isn’t the amount that matters to me but that I improved my game and got to the finals where I placed. 

Since my darts have been gone for well over twenty years, since I have not been back in the game at the local level just as long and since this is only my fourth outing at a local doubles blind draw I feel pretty good about the improvement of my dart arts.

My first three outings showed consistent moderate improvement. My fourth outing was a dump, I won only one game and that was mostly due to my partner in that game. Then, last night, I had a hit and miss set of games with most excellent partners but I hit some decent darts to carry my weight - mostly. 

At first, warming up before the night of darts began, I played 301 with another darter and my shots were crap. She’s a good player but regardless, my darts pretty much sucked and got worse up to the last five minutes before the games began. I had five minutes to get some semblance of my throw back on. 

Game ON! Started off a bit rough then I got in some decent darts. Can’t remember when, but I hit a few three dart higher scores, for me they were higher, where at least twice I hit 100 points or a bit more. Felt really good. 

The best part of the night, while practicing a bit before pairing up for the finals, a solid darter sitting behind me spoke up and complemented me on my form and such. He did say that I had this tendency to cut off my throw, not following through. Yes, a very bad habit from the old days that I am trying to overcome. He also had some cool advice on overcoming and reprogramming my throw for more consistency in the follow through. 

Ball up a piece of paper and throw it at the wall from the proper distance. The lightness of the paper makes it hard to reach and hit the wall solid, solid as balled up paper can, unless you follow through. I practice on a dart board but at work this could be great for practice during my two daily breaks and my lunch hour - very cool and very nice of him to chime it and help me and my game out. 

When the final rounds began I was a bit pumped and made some decent and beneficial throws to carry, support and win the round that put us in the money, so to speak ;-). Really decent improved night of darts, makes for a positive reinforcement toward continued improvement and makes for something positive to work on in practice. 

Game On, the Boot!!!

Hat tip (Ritsu-rei) to <Ray, my partner at the Paddock Bowl Local Dart Tourney ;-) > as the inspiration for this post.