Mikko's Megatrain | Darts World Magazine

My late colleague Mikko Laiho joined GoDartsPro back in 2018. Mikko had a background as a proven TV professional-level darts coach working with several of Winmau’s team,.

Mikko was also the creator of the groundbreaking “12 weeks practice program” that delivered simply unbelievable results, that were tracked and proven. Unfortunately, Mikko tragically passed away in 2019.

Mikko often said that ”2 out of 3 is good enough” and created ”Mikko’s Megatrain” where he approached and built upon that thesis. This became one of the games Mikko often used during his coaching sessions.

The Game:

Mikko’s Megatrain has got 20 targets that you need to finish one by one.

To close a target you need to hit it with at least 2 out of 3 darts. For most of the games Mikko created, he also added a twist to make every dart count. So if you missed the 2 first darts in a throw, he added the ”Burn-dart”-rule to make the last dart also count.

So if you hit the target with your last dart only but then also with first dart of the next throw, the target also counts as closed.

The targets are the most important doubles and trebels on the board, and to force you to practice the Treble 20 extra hard, Mikko added it as every second target.

The first target is Treble 20 and once you’ve hit it with 2 out of 3 darts (or using the Burn-dart rule) your next target is Double 20. When that target is closed you’re back on Treble 20.

This game demands your 100% focus and as soon as you feel your focus has dropped, take a step back and pause for a few minutes.

Conclusions:

Mikko Laihos idea about this game was to create a demanding and hard game for intermediate to advanced players. He also used it to test their level of dedication to improve.

As a result, it also taught them that getting better at darts needs intense and focused practice.

Mikko often recommended the players to play this game two times per week or at least 5 times during a three weeks period.

Mikko’s Megatrain is a tough game to play for most of us and many players need around an hour or more to be able to finish the game. We recommend you to take a short break every 20 minutes or so.

To make the game useable for more players I’ve also added a Beginner-mode that only needs 1 hit per target to continue.

Until next time, enjoy your darts. Anders.