Coaching Clinic 2

Posted: 20.07.11 in Coaching Clinic Blog category

Our coaching clinic this week looks at technique. In particular we focus on where to stand on the oche and the follow through.

The Perfect Throw

At the recent UK Open Mark Hylton admirably demonstrated how his throw works for him even though it defies most of the laws of what is deemed to be the best technique. However, coaches need a technique structure to work from that can teach players good habits particularly the many youngsters taking up the sport.

Fault Finder

My colleague Andy Humphrey designed a fault finder chart for our website based on the key areas where things can go wrong during a darts throw. We will examine two areas that are crucial building blocks towards the ideal technique.

Stance First of all we advocate a central position on the oche. The logic behind this advice cannot be disputed as if you are central you do not need to adjust the power of your throw. For example, if you stand to the right of the oche you need to adjust the power of your throw depending whether you need a 10 or an 8.

We have also been amazed at the amount of players who don’t line up in the same spot throw after throw. There are enough challenges thrown up by the dart board without confusing your muscle memory as to how you need to throw the dart for it to find its intended destination. Red Dragon and Winmau have produced a training aid to help get dart players in a central position.

We were so impressed with SightRight we helped out with the promotion of the product. More information and a video of SightRight being used is available here.

However, you remember we said that being central cannot be disputed. Well just like the throw of Mark Hylton there are always exceptions. Some of our clients have made small adjustments to their position on the oche (not Colin Lloyd/Ted Hankey adjustments) for varying reasons that we will discuss another time .

They have discovered that tinkering with their position slightly to the left or right is better for them. Follow Through We have seen jerky follow throughs, ones that veer to the right or left and ones where it appears the brakes in the arms have been slammed on just as the dart is released. Does this sound familiar?

Our BDO playing colleague AJ demonstrates what we endorse as the ideal follow through. After release the hand and arm follow the dart to the target, the action is smooth and you should feel no muscle pain as the arm fully extends. We also like to see players on completion of the follow through be in a position where their hand or fingers are pointing directly at the target they are aiming for.

These are just two areas that in our opinion contribute to the ideal technique. In total our list runs into double figures, with so many parts that could go wrong it is vital you get as many of them as perfect as possible.

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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 on-line 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! Membership is just £25.00 per annum.