ONE of the most important lessons to learn if you are trying to improve your darts is a fair assessment of where you are and what type of practice or training you need.
Simply playing the same games as the professionals do or those suggested by ‘online gurus’ will only help marginally, or perhaps harm, if they are not suitable for where you and your game truly are.
For example, I like to try to encourage players to use their most regular formats within their practice regime. So if you are a regular County/UKDA player you might want to play a lot of best of 7 or if you play a lot of open events perhaps best of 5 might be the most often repeated practice game. This applies whether you are playing against digital or human opponents.
However, it is just as important to remember that, in the same way a runner practices both endurance and sprint drills, you must stretch yourself and try to groove your game at each level you progress to.
A breakthrough professional that I worked with some years ago had a weekly routine where he would meet up with a few friends who were decent players but perhaps not quite at his level.
They would play best of 25 and depending on how many others were in the group they would either each take a turn or even play tag team against the ‘better player’.
All present enjoyed the weekly contest, as the striving players were keen to take as many legs as possible from the bigger name, meanwhile our aspiring pro was putting more ‘miles into his arm’ and grooving a very high base level to keep. There may have even been a few libations at stake on occasion.
This stamina session, as I began to think of it, is not perhaps needed if you are playing multiple elite events and winning several middle length formats games each time. But if you are trying to move up a level or perhaps if you are not winning enough games to get the ‘miles into your legs’. You should add a similar stint to your routine.
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AIM180 has coached/mentored multiple players to success and titles within the PDC and without…
A version of this column was originally published in Darts World Magazine 588 (December 2024)
Images: Winmau
Graphic: Darts World
