The Darts Experiment - The Schedule Team Kasbah First Received

Posted: 28.02.11 in Darts Experiment Blog category

The Clash ! Sports science meets the pub team. This blog will follow our darts experiment with local league club, Team Kasbah and their journey of dart playing improvement with the Darts Performance Centre.

The Darts Experiment Blog 1

To kick off our series of blogs about the Darts Experiment and Team Kasbah here is the document that was presented to all of the players when we first all met to give them an idea of what we were going to do. Even after reading it they still agreed to take part...Since that meeting they have not been given access to the site and our only contact has been to arrange the dates for us to get started, which is today! But more of that later:Here is the brief for the The Darts Experiment:

The Scheme

To coach a darts team in the methods of the Darts Performance Centre and measure any improvements from a quantitative (statistics, averages) and qualitative (how you feel, more confident etc) perspective after the experiment is over. The team would need to attend seven weekly coaching sessions.It is hoped that the participants would also play in the team’s competitive matches.

How Are We Going To Do It?

All team members will be signed up to the Darts Performance website which is a self-help darts site that gives improvement advice in various aspects of darts play. The plan is to go through each of these areas with the assistance from various `experts` in different areas. However, players will be encouraged to monitor their progress and use the site to build up different skills and improve on their own too.  It is hoped that the order we work through the areas will help clients signed up to the site to guide them as to what order they should approach things.

Content/Website Advice Areas

The experiment will run for six weeks (and one week for an `induction` talk), and will cover:

·         Goal-Setting – setting some targets and working on a strategy to fulfil your targets/goals

·         Coaching - Video Analysis/ Throwing Technique, Eye-Line

·         Performance Analysis - Statistical Analysis

·         Sports Science –Pre-throw routine, Relaxation, Self-Talk

·         Practice – Session plans, practice games

·         Nutrition – hydration, diet and fitness

The Schedule (subject to change)

Week 1 - Induction

The first week would be a chance to meet everyone and run through more specifically what we are going to do, and take the initial statistics. The matches used for taking the statistics will be filmed for throw and technique analysis.

Week 2 – Goal Setting-Technique Analysis – Individual or Pairs Session

This may be better to do as individual or two player sessions as the work is quite a lot of one on one work. It may be useful, however, for a player to have a team-mate there as well for the goal setting session and feedback on the analysis. It may also be a good for team building.

Week 3 – Sport Science, Nutrition and Coaching

Guest speakers/coaches,  sports psychologist lecture and a player to guide you on your darts, flights and some technique coaching.

Week 4 – Top Secret Session

Group training session to test out a ground breaking `theory` we have been working on.  We want to keep this just amongst ourselves for the time being.

Week 5 – Checkout Coaching Session

Group training session focusing on checkouts and putting into practice some of the methods that you would have learnt by this point (fingers crossed  )

Week 6 – Final Session – Group Session

Final coaching session, topic to follow. We will decide closer the time what areas the team wish to focus on.

Week 7 – Appraisal – Group Session

We will `reflect` on the previous weeks, take the `averages` again and carry out some interviews from some feedback from everyone who has taken part.

The schedule is to give you an idea of what we have planed. It will depend on who and when we can get guests along and also how each week goes. This is a new experience for all of us, so any feedback from the team will be very welcome and the sessions can be shaped around what we all feel we need to focus on.

We want this also to be fun for everyone. We are serious about trying to assist in making improvements to your game and we hope you are going to take our ideas seriously and work on our suggestions. However, darts is fun and the best learning environment is a happy and relaxed environment, so that is our main aim.