Darts World is delighted to Welcome Anders Östman to ‘The Practice Board’. Anders founded Go Darts Pro and despite being struck by tragedy he has developed the go-to online platform for structuring and improving your practice.
The Go Darts Pro platform features many games and drills to assist in improving all areas of your game and is used by fast developers including the members of Team 360. Over to Anders:
When I started to play darts in the 90’s I’d been a basketball player and coach for several years.
As a basketball coach, I always tried to create fun and challenging drills and training routines for the players to work on specific tasks. When it came to practice shooting, for example, I varied the training with focused high-volume shooting drills from different angles of the basket to practicing shooting under pressure.
So when I took up darts it was natural for me to find ways to improve faster.
The Problem:
One of the things I struggled with the most was hitting the doubles. Especially in a game of 501and when my opponent was on a finish
I practiced a lot of doubles around the board but I felt it lacked pressure. So I added a little twist:
The Game: Doubles Lock
Start throwing 3 darts at D20. If you hit one double your next double is D19 down to D1.
Here’s where I added the pressure aspect to it. If you miss the double with all three darts you need to start over at D20 again.
But there’s also a twist to it. You can lock a double by getting 2 or 3 hits.
So if you’re on D16 for example and hit 2 D16’s, that double is now locked and D15 is your new starting double. If you then hit one D15 with your next throw, one D14 but miss D13 with all three darts, you start over at D15.
If you only hit 1 double on each D20 to D10 for example, you will feel massive pressure at the last dart, needing to hit D9 to avoid starting over again. That’s the pressure you’ll feel in a game of 501 when you need to hit the double with your last dart…
When you manage to hit the D1 the game is finished and you’ll see how many darts you needed to finish the game. When you play this game on a regular basis on GoDartsPro.com you can compare the stats and see how you’re improving but you will also see which doubles you need to practice more. The game is easy to use and even got support for auto-tracking the darts using a Scolia device to make it even easier.
Conclusions:
By playing only 501’s you will of course improve but if you’re interested in trying to improve faster you really should adopt specific practice routines to your daily training.
There are so many aspects that make up a great practice routine, but adding pressure to the training is one of the key elements for efficient practice. That’s also why I believe there’s a need for many different games to choose from.
During my years as a basketball player, my absolute power skill was my shooting. I got that after years of training, shooting from all kinds of angles, distances, under pressure, while moving etc.
Do you want to improve your doubles? You know what to do… and make it count!
Enjoy your darts, Anders.
—–ENDS—–
Words: Anders Östman (godartspro.com are the official Practice Partner of Darts World Magazine)
Images: Game Graphics by GoDartsPro others by Darts World Magazine
Grab your copy of Darts World 581 here while stock lasts:
The Darts World 50 limited edition set is available to order (Here) in your choice of pack/bundle.
Also Available Free: Darts World Extra 7 – Palace Prelude
Darts World Magazine (Issue 581) and our fantastic value bundles:
Subscribe or purchase your copy
