How often do you practice?

Kingp35

Just wondering how much practice do you lads put in?

I havent had much time lately so have only been putting in a couple of hours a week. Hope to put in an hour a day starting from next month to try and up my game. I used to put in an hour a day and that was when my game was at it's best. If I don't practice as much my game suffers.

Rebel021

I only started practising again this week bit I was putting in about 3hrs a day,
Over the summer due to various things including the kids being off school
I have had no time but with them back at school I should get at least 2hrs in.
Form has really dropped but I hit a 180 today but my consistency has suffered
due to the lay-off.Need to Replace my points but I am going to wait untill before
christmas as I'm getting the Blade 3 or Pro eclipse board.

nhughes100

Abour 1 Hour a Day

I think it's important to get good focused practice rather then just blind throwing at the 20 for an hour. Get into a routine, loosen up the arm - once you feel warmed up start going for a double for a while. I try and hit it 5 times with 15 darts. I like to play double start 301 if I'm playing on my own and use your head to do the numbers rather then writing them down or electronically. Believe me it helps your counting. Going round the board from 1-20 and finish on the 25 and bull is good too. Try doing this in less then 40 darts, then 35 then 30 and so on. A lot easier then you think.

You can't beat match practice and extended match practice, during the Summer my and a mate from the team went up on Sunday nights and played best of 21 legs several weeks in a row. It was great practice and great to play over the longer format since when there's loads of players around you only get a few legs in a row.

Another good game is to take a number say 41, and finish it in 3 or less, when you do increment the number - 42, 43 and so on. Very good for your finishing.

Rebel021

I like your routine will give it a go
I like 501 sets with going treble 20 for the first leg 19's for the second and 18's for the third as it improves my cover shots.When I lived in Cork my brothers used to play darts all the time so the competitiveness improved my game.Ideally you need a better player than yourself to improve.

dionsiseire

Abour 1 Hour a Day

ive been doing around the clock to start my practice
then i'll practice hitting double 16, then double 8 then doubl 4 then doubl 2 then tops then 18's, once ive hit them all i do it again twice more

i then start on 2 sets of 1001 .vs. level 3 of N01 this gives me a chance to really get into high scoring

after the 2 sets of 1001 i play 2 sets of 501 and then 1 of 301 to finish

if im playing in a tournament soon and im practicing for such i play level 3 with making myself double to start double to finish 301 (whilst level 3 will start just as normal) and then i up N01 to Level 4 which REALLY puts you under pressure, ive only played again level 4 twice and both times it whitewashed me in sets, but in the final set i managed to take 2 legs

thats positive signs for me

i had a tournament on saturday, knocked out in the first round 3-1 despite in those 4 legs hitting 12 tons and 1 ton40

the reason i lost was i missed a 96 and an 81 checkout and whatever number he was on he took out, great match, pity i couldnt win it

MBC

About 5 Hours a Week

I'd say im getting about 3 hours a week only.........would love to be getting more but just havent the time at the moment.

Usual routine:
Round the board singles.
1st to 5 in 170.........must finish in 12 darts.
3 games of 27's.........the doubles game.
1 game of 100 darts at 20's
Best of 3 in 501 against a 50 average.

Usually takes an hour & half

We have recently got a dart board up in me job.........its good crack.........being getting about 20mins a day on there..........learned a new game.........."Cricket"........had heard of it a few times.........not a bad game.

Kingp35

About 5 Hours a Week

MBC wrote: »

.
1 game of 100 darts at 20's

What's this MBC? I have never heard of it. Of course I could be stupid and just don't understand what you're saying.

dionsiseire

Abour 1 Hour a Day

i think he means 100 darts at 20

if you hit 60/100 first time next time try beat 60 and eventually improve your 20's

Kingp35

About 5 Hours a Week

dionsiseire wrote: »

i think he means 100 darts at 20

if you hit 60/100 first time next time try beat 60 and eventually improve your 20's

Ah right I get you, that should have been pretty obvious really

MBC

About 5 Hours a Week

Its a game i got off another forum.

100 Darts at 20
If you hit a Treble you get 3 points
If you hit a double you get 2 points
If you get a single you get 1 point

Here is an example:
1st go i hit a treble and a single and miss with the third dart
Darts Thrown 3 Score 4 (treble = 3, single = 1)

2nd go just a single hit and miss with the other 2
Darts thrown 6 score 5 (previous score 4 + single =1)

3rd go I hit a double only
Darts thrown 9 score 7 (previous score 5 + 2)


A hundred points with 100 darts is the average.

For the first few times doing this id suggest put it on paper, but after a while you should be able to do it in your head.

This game can also be done with 19's, 18's, bulls etc.

Kingp35

About 5 Hours a Week

Sounds like a good game. I need as much practice in hittings 20's as I can get.

Cheers

nhughes100

Abour 1 Hour a Day

Good game, and good with a few other throwers too I'd say, might run it by the team friday night since we've a night off from the league.

Helix

About 2 Hours a Day

im only new but i do an hour a day anyway, sometimes 2

Helix

About 2 Hours a Day

MBC wrote: »

Its a game i got off another forum.

100 Darts at 20
If you hit a Treble you get 3 points
If you hit a double you get 2 points
If you get a single you get 1 point

Here is an example:
1st go i hit a treble and a single and miss with the third dart
Darts Thrown 3 Score 4 (treble = 3, single = 1)

2nd go just a single hit and miss with the other 2
Darts thrown 6 score 5 (previous score 4 + single =1)

3rd go I hit a double only
Darts thrown 9 score 7 (previous score 5 + 2)


A hundred points with 100 darts is the average.

For the first few times doing this id suggest put it on paper, but after a while you should be able to do it in your head.

This game can also be done with 19's, 18's, bulls etc.

this sounds great acutally might give it a shot

Helix

About 2 Hours a Day

gave this a few goes last night, first try was 40 lol

had it up to 68 before i finished up for the night. definite improvement as i went tho

MBC

About 5 Hours a Week

Helix wrote: »

gave this a few goes last night, first try was 40 lol

had it up to 68 before i finished up for the night. definite improvement as i went tho

Good stuff.......keep it up.

MBC

About 5 Hours a Week

nhughes100 wrote: »

Going round the board from 1-20 and finish on the 25 and bull is good too. Try doing this in less then 40 darts, then 35 then 30 and so on. A lot easier then you think.

I tried this round the board in 40 darts...........its a lot harder than it sounds..........got it once out of 3 goes........good game cheers.

nhughes100

Abour 1 Hour a Day

Anything below 60 would be the minimum for this, when you think about it they're big numbers and you should be hitting at least 1 in 3, 25's are usually no problem but them bulls always elude me. I can hit 3 25's but 3 bulls, not a hope! That 20's game is definitely improving my scoring, kicked off last's game with a 140, rattled my opponent and won the first 2 legs handy. Won overall 6-5.

The way I was scoring in the 20's game reflects my 501 game too, I normally start well, tune out a bit - start hitting a few sub 40's, 26's etc then tune back in when I near a finish. Exact same thing happened with 20 scoring, flying with the first 30 or so then a big drift sometimes going 6 or 7 darts without hitting a 20 then made a nice push towards the end catching at treble more often then not. This would point to my problem being concentration I would think.

I've read some good stuff by John Lowe and John Part on concentration. If you're reading the paper or a book, tick a bit of paper with a pencil everytime you find yourself thinking about something else, try it, it's very surprising. To help with the 20's game I kept the scores in my head and kept repeating them to myself but still I came close to forgetting the score once or twice.

A friend was telling me there was an article in one of the Sunday newspapers about Jacko Barry saying he worked 14 hours a day as a driver, came back and had his dinner then hit the practice board for 3-4 hours? Is it me or is this just a bit unbelieveable? I thought he was gone totally professional?

Not into quoting Bobby George too often but he did say, darts is an easy game to play, but a hard game to play well.