Coaching Clinic 70

Posted: 13.02.18 in Coaching Clinic Blog category

We are back with our darts coaching blog!

Our last coaching blog post was back in October! This article was written for the December issue of Darts World hence the reflection on 2017 and mention of the Ally Pally and The Lakeside! But the advice is still current so please read it and we hope to be back to our monthly updates from now on!

December is here! Another darting year nearly over and what an incredible one it has been for us at The Darts Performance Centre and we still have sponsored players ready to take on the best at The Alexandra Palace and The Lakeside!

Our coaching service has also gained momentum this year and mainly via word of mouth recommendations we have seen and helped a good number of players. One area we do get asked about a lot and at the moment is out of our darting brief is dartitis. It was brought to the attention of the masses with Berry van Peer battling through the Grand Slam and actually qualifying for the knockout stage!

We have recently had two stories of players who have beaten the dreaded curse and hopefully their stories (along with Berry) will inspire anyone that is struggling at the moment. First of all, a good friend of the DPC, Darren, overcame his dartitis via coaching his daughter. She was keen to take up the sport and Darren got her started and through demonstrating how to throw and concentrating on her his dartitis went!

Robert got in touch after I had been on Twitter discussing Berry! He used Mervyn King as inspiration who cured himself by removing his finger from the tip of the dart and gave his dart a spin before throwing. Robert simply used a similar technique change and moved his finger off the tip of the dart and bingo, darts was a “simple” game for him once more!

Although these examples appear random I think the key message is dartitis can be beaten, so don’t ever give up hope!

A very old friend of the DPC, Aidan Farrelly, he of the Throw Like A Pro blogs got in touch recently. He was asked by a relatively new player how to overcome nerves and get more consistent for the pub team he played for:

Aidan suggested this:

I've been right where you are in terms of nerves! But already you are well on theway to overcoming them, by gaining as much match practice as you can. This is what helped me overcome my nerves. And as much as possible, not taking it too seriously or concentrating too hard.

You need to replicate your practice when playing matches. When you're practising, you're not nervous or anxious, you're relaxed and enjoying it. Which means your arm and body are more relaxed and you score better. The same applies for matches, you need to be relaxed.

So, resign yourself to this; you'll win some, and you'll lose some. You'll hit doubles, you'll miss doubles. Your opponent will play better or worse than you. It's all going to happen. Relax into it, focus on your target but keep the body relaxed.

What's the worst that can happen?

Some great advice there from Aidan and both the dartitis issues as well as the battle to overcome nerves all come back to what is happening in our heads.  You will play some fantastic opponents during your darts journey but the toughest one to beat is your own mind.

Photo courtesy of freedigitalphotos.net/ Master isolated images.

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The Darts Performance Centre is a resource to assist dart players of all standards play better darts. The site is arranged as an online coaching manual.

There is advice on technique, nerves, psychology, goal setting, practice games, an area to log your statistics and an interactive area where your darting questions are answered by two sports scientists, one with 30 years dart playing experience.

You also get an invite to our free but exclusive members only events and access to our members only darts coaching app! Membership is £25 per year!