Coaching Clinic 38

Posted: 22.09.14 in Coaching Clinic Blog category

As the "new " season kicks off we look at what help you can get to improve your game.

September is here already! Even though darts is a 12 month a year sport now the darts world does quieten down in August. Also September brings out all the grassroots winter league players who abandon darts when the sun comes out. The BDO tables reset for those who dream of being at Lakeside in 2016.

Whether your goals are set on qualification for Lakeside (or the Ally Pally) or triumphing in your local pub league here is a tip for you. Unless you set aside time for practising then your goals will become very hard to achieve. The good news is we know you are practising!

A good friend of The Darts Performance Centre-Aidan Farrelly carried out a survey recently to find out what dart players did about practice. He unearthed the heart-warming statistic that out of the hundreds of players that replied 92% did practise their darts at home. The majority (36%) spent 1-3 hours a week on the board with 22% racking up 7-10 hours per week. We were impressed and inspired.

Other feedback we received was that almost half played against a computer and there was an even mixture between players practising power scoring and doubles. One other interesting fact was that players admitted that they rarely kept their scores (so didn’t really have a clue if they were actually improving) and didn’t have any structure to their practice.

This inspired our idea for our “Practice Makes Progress” campaign to try and encourage dart players to follow a practice plan by providing the kit to help. So here are some ideas to launch your very own Practice Makes Progress campaign.

First of all we set about creating a practice plan book for players to follow. The plan lasts for 8 weeks and there are 5 sessions per week. Each session has easy to follow practice games and an area to keep track of how you did. This way you can compare your scores as each week goes by! Some of our Darts Performance Centre members have had a sneak preview and have used it-Their feedback was very positive.

Another cracking practice tool we have put our hands on recently are a pack of Outshots cards. They look from the outside like a normal deck of cards but the really ace thing about them is they have all the possible two and three dart outshot combinations printed on them. We have come up with what we thing are great practice games that you can play solo or with up to 5 darts mates with the cards! Get a pack and the games booklet comes with it and they will improve your counting and finshing.

Finally, how are you going to find the time to fit in your practice regime? Grab a sheet of A4 paper and write all the seven days of the week and the 24 hours of the day on it. Jot down all your regular commitments-work-kids-darts night and then see what is left.

Can you squeeze in 30 mintues there or an hour there? You can if you are commited. What about getting a board at work? How about reading the outshots cards on the journey in to work?

We hope we inspire you to improve the quality of your practice-Remember, practice with no plan is a plan for no practice! 

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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 acess to our members only darts coaching app! Membership is £25 per year!