Do You Really Want To Be A Top Dart-Player ?

Posted: 03.05.11 in Darts Performance Centre Blog category

The Darts Performance Centre visited the Petersfield Open at the weekend and these are our thoughts on a "typical" grass-roots tournament.

The Petersfield Darts Academy opened their doors to the darting public at the weekend in an attempt to raise funds. The Darts Performance Centre keenly supports the academy. The coaches do a fantastic job introducing darts to the young people of Petersfield and then nurturing them to become good dart players. The Darts Performance Centre sponsored a board and also the highest outshot prize and I went along for the day to see what was going on!

There were three main areas that struck me about this type of tournament. All the areas are of course performance related.

1.         This type of tournament has to be the “bread and butter” of any darts player’s education. My advice to any aspiring BDO or PDC players hoping to reach the top is to get along to as many events of this ilk as you can. This type of match-play is a dart player’s apprenticeship. You learn to play in different environments, different temperatures and to play against an eclectic mix of players, whose mood and temperament vary greatly.  This is where dart players can hone their “street- fighter” temperament, without which you will never ever make it to the top.

2          Beers and Cheers. No not our pal Krispy’s website but the drink of choice for a lot of dart players. We at the Darts Performance Centre take a very pragmatic view of a player having a few beers. Darts is fun, it’s a social game. However, every now and again we administer a metaphoric poke in the ribs when it comes to drinking. On Saturday there were players who were either “gutted” they had been dumped out of the tournament or having reached the latter stages were “reflecting” on why they had not quite made it to the final. “Too much beer” was one player’s assessment of his demise as he swayed around the Petersfield darts hall. Hmmm, so what are you going to do about it?

3          Talking of a street-fighter mentality and how to self-monitor the amount of alcohol you take in over a long day of darts then Tony Broughton is a great example.

I got chatting to him and his manager Shane and followed both of them as Tony made it to the final of the main event and Shane to the quarter finals of the plate. Tony has qualified for the UK Open in Bolton too. However, it’s Shane I turn to for the final point. “I lose concentration Paul” he told me!  A very familiar story we hear often at the Darts Performance Centre. There are a number of areas to help that we recommend. The most efficient (in our opinion) is to have a pre-shot routine. A series of actions you repeat time and time again when throwing your darts. Self-talk is good too, verbal cues, such as, focus, treble or such like to keep your mind on the job.

So to win a grass roots tournament, get some experience, watch what you drink and talk to your-self, cheers!

Paul Gillings is the founder of The Darts Performance Centre