Dart Throwing Tips
stumbling through youtube today, i came across a video from “the Mirror” in the UK. it was Phil “The Power” Taylor’s Top 5 Tips to Darts Success. and i thought, hey, that’s pretty cool. considering he’s probably the best dart player on the face of the planet.
turns out a bit of it is tongue in cheek. and, even though the announcer speaks English, his accent is so thick i did a lot of rewinding to figure out what he was saying during the first 30 seconds. Phil on the other hand, speaks clearly enough for my ears.
anyway, here’s the video . . .
1. Always Have the Right Gear – which makes sense, especially for English darters where every part of the dart seems to be customisable. the flights, the weights, the barrel shapes, and on and on.
on the American side, the choices are really limited to whether you want to use Widdy’s, Darto’s, or Apex darts. Phil says that it’s all “experimental really”, so experiment with the different darts that are available, and find the one that suits you!
and “equipment” doesn’t end with the dart itself, it also extends to the clothes you wear. i know that some players simply won’t wear sleeved shirts. they cut the sleeves off completely. other won’t wear long sleeves. it doesn’t matter what you prefer, but it might be worth paying attention to for a moment to see if your choice of shirts for the evening has a little something to do with your dart game.
Phil mentions shoes as well. i suppose anything you could wear that might make you more comfortable and stable at the line is worth thinking about.
2. Play the Name Game – ok, this made me chuckle. but, english darts is not the team game that american darts are. i see this in the bar pretty often when a newcomer wants to join in the dart games and someone says, “get team, we’ll shoot” and he looks at them like “what the hell are you talking about, a team?”.
heh, looking through our scoresheets though, it does seem like a lot of shooters have a nickname: Cookie, Biggie, Mutzy, Z, Zig, Trout, Muff, Mall, Zippy, Fatty, Pizza, and the list goes on.
3. Take a Stand – as in “how to stand at the oche” (rhymes with “hockey”).
- put your foot sideways
- lean in
- aim your dart “a little bit like aiming a gun” (he seems to be shy saying that, which makes me chuckle as well. i suppose he’s not from hunting country 
)
- pull back and fire
he doesn’t say much about a “follow through”
4. How to Throw – couldn’t make out all the words, but he says he gets his thoughts directly in line with whatever he’s aiming at. imagine there’s a plum(?) line that comes right across the floor. that’s where he stands, and keep everything level.
5. Feel the Pressure – he says it’s “not easy”.
Well – for better or worse, those are the words from the man himself!
But Wait – There’s More!!
One of the members of the darts forums we’ve set up asked for some tips for throwing American Darts, and he received some of the best dart throwing advice I’ve seen online so be sure to read over RJB’s Tips for Throwing Darts!!
Nationals Prequalifier Results – Online High Score
last week there was a prequalifying event for Nationals held in Emmaus. Games were shot in both the “B” division (which has a 3-man cap of 110 pts) and the “C” division (which has a cap of 90pts per 3-man team).
Winners emerging from the “B” division include 2 teams from Dorko’s Cafe:
1st – Dorko’s II (Dennis Conti, Young Joe Zavarik, Nate Dobek)
2nd – Emmaus Fire Co. #1
3rd – BVFHA
4th – Dorko’s I (Corey Hepler, Doug Troutman, Damien Zigler)
in the “C” division, the following teams are moving on to seeded position in Nationals:
1st – Pine Grove VFW
2nd – Fountain Hill Hose Company
3rd – Emaus Fire Company #3
4th – Coopersburg Fire Company
there are several other pre-qualifiers for Nationals coming up, including Saturday February 2nd in Northhampton PA.
ONLINE DARTS GAME
i received a screenshot from Clyde Myers who tied the best score ever by shooting a 78!!! Congratulations go out to Clyde!
New High Scores – Functional Scoresheets
Those are the two new additions to American Style Darts.com. If you visit the Score Sheets page, you’ll notice two new Excel files added towards the bottom. Those are “automated” scoresheets where scorekeepers only have to enter the value of the last dart shooter’s inning score. All of the addition will be taken care of by the computer.
While taking a laptop into a smokey barroom is a less practical way to keep score than say, the trusty old pencil and paper routine, this is a project that just begged for some attention. And so, it’s now available thanks to Frank Petruskevich. Who knows, building on something like this, twenty years from now our kids could be inputting dart scores on their cell phones and have up-to-the-minute data for their dart league or tournament! We could even have real-time internet reporting from events like States and Nationals someday 
Also, Christian Warren sent in a score for our online game that currently ranks as the second best game ever scored with a 74. Anyone scoring a 65 or better qualifies for posting amoung the high scorers, so keep those screenshots coming in!
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