Congratulations on taking the leap and becoming are darts players. Now it may seem like a long way away before you can regularly hit triple 20, the bull’s eye or a double but trust us it isn’t. With regular practice you could be beating your friends and who know you might be playing pennants or even trying to break into the PDC tour. In this post we have 5 tips for a darts beginner that will hopefully help you get from beginner to competent darts player in no time at all.
1. Practise your darts as often as you can
Practise, Practise, Practise. Now this is probably the most obvious tip however it is also the most overlook. Many new players spend hours trying and testing out new darts, looking at flash darts equipment, finding the right clothes and shoes, anything rather than getting in front of the dartboard. We wouldn’t even be that focused on finding the right darts just yet. Think of the Malcolm Gladwell book Outliers where he suggests that essentially 10,000 hours is needed mastery of a skill. Now you won’t need to put in those amount of hours if you only want to play darts socially however the more time on the dartboard the better your game will become. When practising make sure that it is on a tournament regulations dartboard at the correct dimensions and that you are throwing being an oche that is the correct distance from the board.
2. Don’t focus on getting an awesome set of darts just yet
As a beginner you will be making many mistakes and a lot of your darts will find their way onto the floor, into the cabinet or even into the wall. That’s to be expected and nothing to stress over. As a result of this you don’t want to be forking out a lot of money to be using an awesome set of darts. Find a cheap pair that feels comfortable to throw and start working on getting used to throwing darts, getting used to gripping the darts and finding a throwing action that works for you. There will be plenty of time to upgrade your darts in the meantime keep building your darts craft and getting practise on a dartboard.
Once you can consistently hit a specific number or area of the board and you think it’s time to upgrade to a more professional set of darts then go ahead. Make sure you test your darts out and also buy a back up set in case something happens to your main set. This is where you can see what the professionals are using, try some of these brands out and make the best selection for you that you feel comfortable throwing and is within your price range.
3. Have a lot of spare dart flights and dart stems
As per the above, your darts will be spending a lot of time in a lot of places that aren’t the dartboard. As a result of this you will damage and break a lot of dart flights and a lot of darts stems however given these aren’t expensive it pays to have several spare sets to enable you to keep practising your darts.
You might also want to have a broken dart shaft removal tool handy hand in case your shafts break and it is stuck inside the end of your dart.
An option to that helps keep your flights in your shafts and extends the life of your dart shafts (particularly if you use a plastic shaft) is to use a dart flight punch. The flight punch puts a hole in the bottom of your flight to allow a small shaft ring to fit through this hole to enable a tighter flight stem connection and extend the life of both components.
This video explains the process of using a dart flight punch.
Another option that also extends the life of your flights is a flight protector. These aren’t used by the professionals however they may be of use when you are learning to play darts. We recommend either replacing your flights and stems when they are broken or damaged or if you are confident enough using the dart flight punch.
4. Have a dart sharpener handy
As mentioned above your darts will be spending a lot of time in places other than in the dartboard. This will cause the tips to be blunted and will affect the growth of your darts game. Keep your dart regularly sharpened which will improve your game it will also extend the life of your dartboard.
Dart sharpeners are very cheap and an important accessory for a dart player. You can get a simple stone sharper or a sharpener that you can attach to your key ring. As mentioned in a previous post “your darts should be of reasonable sharpness though not sharp enough at the point to draw blood if you poked your finger with your dart”. As a beginner you will likely need to sharper your darts regularly.
5. Watch as much of the professional dart players
Learn about their training regimes, how do they prepare for tournaments, what training did they do when they first started playing darts. Start learning about the various numbers, doubles, trebles that the professionals throw for when they miss throw or they can’t get their dart into the area they require.
Look at how they approach the game of 501, the number combinations that the aim for, the areas of the board they like to target. Also learn the combinations to finish out in 501. The better you become the more of a routine you will like to build up and nothing kills this quicker than not knowing what darts to target because you don’t know the math or haven’t learnt the darts finishing combinations. The time you invest in this aspect of learning darts, the quicker your game will improve.
These 5 tips for a darts beginner above are just some suggestions to speed up your darts journey and to get you playing competent darts. Darts is a fun and enjoyable game; the better your darts are the more you will enjoy this as will your opponents. Have a read through the other darts technique tips on our site and also tips to purchase the right set of darts for you.
Don’t get discouraged if your darts aren’t progressing as quickly as you like. Remember the path to success isn’t always linear, there will be times where it is two steps forward, one step black. However with regular practise your darts will improve and you will be able to have competitive darts games with your friends and family.