ONE of the most important lessons you can learn if you want to improve your darts is to honestly assess where you are and what type of practice or training you need.
Just playing the same games that professionals play or those suggested by “internet gurus” will only help marginally, and maybe hurt if they are not right for you and your game.
For example, I like to try to encourage players to use the most regular formats in their training. So if you are a casual County/UKDA player you may want to play a lot of best of 7 games, and if you play a lot of open tournaments your most repeated practice game might be a best of 5 game. This applies regardless of whether you play against digital or human opponents.
However, it is equally important to remember that in the same way a runner practices endurance and sprinting exercises, you must stretch and strive to improve your game at each level you advance to.
A breakout pro I worked with a few years ago had a weekly show where he hung out with a few friends who were decent players, but maybe not quite at his level.
They played best of 25 and depending on how many other players were in the group, each player would either take a turn or even play tag team against the “better player.”
Everyone in attendance enjoyed the weekly competition as the trying players were keen to get as many legs as possible from the bigger name, while our aspiring pro was putting in more miles and trying to maintain a very high entry level. Sometimes there were even several libations involved.
This endurance session, as I’ve come to think about it, may not be necessary if you compete in a lot of elite events and win a few mid-major games each time. But if you’re trying to get to the next level or maybe you’re not winning enough games to rack up the miles. You should add a similar ride to your routine.
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AIM180 has trained/mentored many players to success and titles in the PDC and beyond…
A version of this column was originally published in Darts World Magazine 588 (December 2024)
Images: Winmau
Graphics: Dart World
