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, December 22, 2016

Dart Tricks

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

Not really tricks but processes one would use to achieve the consistent dart throw a person seeks to master the dart arts. I use the term tricks because it tends to resonate with folks and that is important that what I try to provide is a resonance that helps me and other master the ability to throw consistent darts.

Visualization is one of those tricks, processes, that all disciplines use successfully to achieve goals. I use it all the time in other disciplines such as my practice of martial arts and karate, etc. Just google sports and visualization and the list will be endless. 

No, my goal here is to speak to a couple of tricks I am trying out because, at the start, they SEEM proficient in reaching my goal of a consistent-accurate dart toss. The first is to extend my arm completely in the aim at my target phase while the second is to consciously cock my arm for the throw so the dart comes all the way back into a full cocked position, i.e., the dart by my cheek then a third one is to make sure my aiming position is to hold the dart such as the shaft and barrel are vertical with the point directed at the floor. Then I add in the fourth trick to make sure the dart is pointing directly at the target and the entire dart remains in that position throughout the entire throw. 

Now, I don’t expect the reader to gleam the tricks by reading because that is not the point of the article, to teach you the tricks to throwing good darts but it is a way to convey the idea and process using a term that means something to you, dart tricks. I want to convey a means that you can associate with visualization that may provide you a means to achieve your consistent-accurate dart throw. 

You have to find your own dart toss, you have to find those tricks the get you there and you have to do your own practice, practice and practice. It may  be that these three things will lead you down the right path to mastering the dart arts. Also, this type of trick, if it succeeds, is also a physical means that creates a pattern and rhythm that reinforces your perfect dart throw. 

One of the other non-physical tricks I gleamed by playing is that most of the best shooters have a system of patterned moves, etc., they use to throw solid-consistent darts and that is to aim physically, feel the relaxed muscles for a relaxed throw, feeling the movement of a complete throwing arm and so on. You know, the mental gymnastics that triggers the mind to pull up the persons perfect throw.



No comments:

Post a Comment