As you begin to focus on developing the fundamental and technical skills involved in good darts, you will need to use your home board to practice these essential skills. The authors were introduced to the game by a friend, coincidentally the editor of the Good Darts Book, and as a result of our ensuing addiction, we hastily nailed up an old, discarded board in the garage.
Throwing darts over the fender of a dysfunctional 1954 Buick and dodging the friendship attempts of the family dog were not conducive to productive practice. We did have hours of fun, however, and our game improved rapidly due to throwing darts at every opportunity for hundreds of hours.
For productive practice, we have suggested setting up a new board in an area of your home that gives you ample room to walk around, keep score, and record your practice sessions. The distance of the line and height of the board should be in exact accordance with ADO specifications. If you plan to enter any tournaments, it is a good idea to use a raised line rather than a mark or piece of tape, so you can get used to your feet being against a solid barrier.
Your practice environment should also include an Out-Chart to help you memorize the preferred shots and combinations for two and three dart finishes. We designed our Good Darts book so you could use the Out-Charts and think about counting strategies. Section V also includes recording forms to help you with productive practice sessions.
The closer the home practice environment approximates the actual places where you throw darts competitively, the more productive your practice sessions will be. We are not recommending that you invite 20 or 30 people to your practice sessions and encourage smoking, drinking, and loud music. However, it is important to remember that darts is a very social game and you rarely get to play in quiet settings.
On some occasions, practice with a friend or family member. Take your Good Darts book along and do some practice sessions in your favorite local dart establishments. We have included an audio tape that can prepare you for productive practice sessions. If you are going to play darts, you will have to learn how to adjust to all types of noise, distractions, and interruptions.
In the first few months, a beginning player can begin to master the fundamental and technical skills involved in throwing Good Darts. As your experience and confidence develop, you may want to enter local tournaments and "Pot Shoots" so you can continue to improve your game in actual competitive situations.
Remember, when you are throwing against an extremely good dart player, you have an opportunity to learn by watching him/her play. A healthy mental attitude about improving your own game includes being kicked around by experienced players. Losing to a top player is beneficial if you learn from the experience, rather than disturbing yourself about not winning.
AVOIDING BURNOUT
The most important aspect of productive practice is making the sessions fun and rewarding: something you look forward to doing. In darts, unlike football and basketball games, the practice sessions do not have to be boring and difficult. The authors still remember "two-a-day" practice sessions in football and "running the lines" practice sessions in basketball. Though these practice sessions were not fun, they were something you had to tolerate if you wanted to play the games.
This is not so with darts! By systematic and regular practice to promote dart improvement, we mean devoting more time to playing darts and having fun. Many of our friends, who started playing darts when we did, have burned out on the game. Their intense approach and style of play quickly resulted in physical and mental fatigue. The best way to avoid burnout, play more darts, and have more fun is to organize your practice sessions so that they are enjoyable and at the same time, helpful to your game. Practice in many settings, not just at home.
You must vary your practice sessions so you are challenged to improve your game. You must also be able to "see" arid "feel" the results of your practice efforts. We have provided most of the things that you will need to design productive practice sessions that will greatly improve your level of play. In Section V, there are recommended practice sessions as well as forms to record and monitor practice results.
If you know specifically what aspect of your game to improve, you can then select a practice routine to help develop the essential skills for improved performance. If you record your results daily, summarize them monthly, and use them to set your next month's goals, you will be able to see your improvements and be rewarded by the positive results.
The psychological concepts of reward and punishment are key ones to consider in avoiding burnout, negative feelings, and frustration with your dart game. A basic law in psychology states that any behavior immediately followed by positive results is reinforced; and thus, this behavior tends to recur. If behaviors are not reinforced, they tend to decrease and gradually disappear. Apply these concepts to dart play.
For example, a beginning player really gets excited about darts and begins to play every day. His/her game improves rapidly. Scoring consistency increases and some brilliant outs are thrown. The player is continually reinforced by positive results. People begin to say, "Good Darts!" He or she becomes thought of as a "good" player. The player begins to expect more and more each week. As performance levels increase, apparent improvements become smaller and smaller.
However, important things come up in the player's life, and less time is spent on playing darts. The player begins to experience "bad darts" and "bad games." People say things like, "You sure don't throw like you used to," or "You are really in a bad slump." The player becomes discouraged, and there
are few external sources of positive reinforcement. Dart throwing behavior becomes negatively reinforced, decreases, and may gradually disappear. Because of these factors, you have to take charge of the quality of your game and insure the fun through self-directed practice.
The value of our "Dart Improvement Program" (Section V) is that it keeps your game on track and continually improving. Give yourself ample time to experiment with, enjoy, and develop the fundamental and technical skills (at least 6 months). If you set your own personal goals at higher levels of play, give yourself the time to learn and develop the psychological and self-mastery skills to improve the finer aspects of your game as you complete our "Dart Improvement Program."