Take Aim

Posted: 19.05.11 in Darts Performance Centre Blog category

Are confused why you cannot get the consistency you crave with your darts? We may have a solution and a simple 10 second test can set on the road to putting it right!

Accuracy

To throw accurate darts you need to ensure that you are aiming your dart with your dominant eye. Archery and pistol shooters have known the benefits of this for years. Dart players do normally take aim naturally with their dominant eye but we have been surprised about the amount of players who had not ever checked.

What is Eye Dominance?

First of all 97% of people have a dominant eye. The main role of your dominant eye is to give your brain accurate positional information of whatever you have set your sight on, obviously crucial for a sport like darts!  Some good news also is that generally if you are right handed your dominant eye is your right and left handed it is your left eye. This means you should be using the correct eye even if you are totally oblivious to dominant eyes and the like. However, we have been amazed at the quantity of players who are the opposite, right handed and left eye dominant and of course vice versa.

So how do you find out which is your dominant eye?

 Watch Gary on the video taking the eye test or follow the written instructions here.

or try this test:

The Result

If your hands have landed on your right eye and you are right handed (or vice versa) hurrah, you can relax and try and figure out another reason why your darts drift into the one or the five. On the other hand if you have now discovered you are “cross dominant”, don’t panic, you are not alone!

Darts Performance Centre Study

We carried out a study with three members of The Darts Performance Centre who also discoved they had not been using their dominant eye-the study is available to members on our website.This is some of the feedback we had from them about their throws before they realised this, it may sound familiar to you:

• I feel like I'm throwing across my body .There is a tendency to push the dart into the 1's segment and then with not enough wrist action I'm then hitting the 5's segment.
• I assumed the best position was to have your shoulder in line with the target, but constantly struggled with getting my darts all in the same bed let alone in the treble.
• I have changed darts, stems, flights & grip but nothing worked.
•  I have found that on the throws that seem to hit their desired target my flight always brushes my left cheek, therefore obviously lining up under my left.

The Way Forward

We do have some suggestions that have come mainly from the three “guinea pigs” who took part in the original study. However, there is not one definitive solution and a short period of trying to figure out what is best for you does seem advisable.

We will publish the suggestions that came from our study next Friday-27 May, as well as how, a few months on, the players are getting on with their new technique. In the meantime get on the practice board and if you would like to report back we would love to hear from you.

Paul Gillings - paul@dartsperformancecentre.com. Membership to the Darts Performance Centre is £25.00 per annum and is home to coaching, sports psychology and practice ideas solely for dart players.

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