There was no Vault night for me this week. After last time out, that was the plan all along.
It’s tempting to treat every missed week as a step backwards. But that’s not how I see my progression working at all. Dragging myself to the oche when my head isn’t in it isn’t protecting my progress, it’s eroding it. This week off wasn’t losing ground, it was a matter of making sure there’s ground left to stand on when I come back.
That’s easier to accept in theory than in the moment. The itch to throw is always real, and so is the guilty feeling of watching everyone else’s Vault scores roll in while you sit out. But burnout doesn’t announce itself, it creeps in. And the only real defence is catching it early enough to step back before it decides for you.
So what does my comeback after this week out actually look like? Not straight back into legs of 501, but starting from scratch, maybe reminiscent of how it looked when I first picked up a dart.
Check Out The DEDICATED DartsWorld Amateur Web Area
121 is the first port of call for me. Simple and repeatable, something I can almost switch off my mind to play, especially when I have the luxury of being a good counter.
Bob’s 27 forces you back onto the doubles, the part of the game that sometimes I neglect when I’m playing well and ultimately the part that decides matches.
And the JDC Challenge adds enough structure and variety to make my practice feel like practice again, rather than just throwing them at the board for the sake of it. Aiming at those numbers between 10-20 is crucial for me, so I can almost imagine myself needing to hit that treble or double for Shanghai, but in a match scenario.
DARTS PLAYER MERCHANDISE AND COLLECTABLES AT OUR DARTSWORLD STORE!
None of it needs to be glamorous, and the point of the reset isn’t to come back sharper than I left, but more to come back wanting to be there at all. Recently I’ve found myself losing the enjoyment of going to an event or practicing at home, and I’ve come to realise that was being lost when I was pushing through that bad run instead of stepping away.
Images: DartsWorld and ADC
