Dart Etiquette
It’s not a big secret that there are fundamental differences between American Style darts and Pub darts. But, after having had three separate experiences with playing English darts in an English dart setting, it became apparent to me that not only the equipment and the games differ, but the etiquette between dart shooters is somewhat different as well.
Some things almost go without saying, but for the sake of being thorough, here are a few no-brainers for anyone venturing out into the public to shoot darts . . .
- Don’t distract the shooter - and that means everything from being noisy to being in the line of sight, or just too dang close.
- Be prompt when it’s your turn to shoot - it’s not cool to have to constantly track down a teammate or opponent
- Fits of temper
- Intense celebrations - and that includes inappropriate trash talking
Those things are universal. But, there are subtle differences between how the players behave during the different games that you may not realize. Well, I didn’t realize them until I did some playing.
In English Darts, there is a whole list of do’s and don’ts for the scorekeepers. In American Darts, the scorekeeper is more of a bookkeeper. They don’t judge the scoring, they simply record it onto the scoresheet. And as a result, they are usually positioned behind the shooters at a table, writing onto a scoresheet. English scorekeepers stand near the dartboard itself, in plain view of the shooters and onlookers, writing on a scoreboard that hangs on the wall.
SCORING - In an American style game, Player A stands at the line and throws his three darts. Then he’s finished.
He can go directly to his beer (or anywhere else) after he throws the third dart. Player B goes to the board, and calls out the score so that everyone, especially thee scorekeeper, can hear. There is usually a set of hand signals that accompanies the called score, so there is less confusion in a crowded, noisy room. If there’s any doubt about the darts, the players can all walk right up to the board and inspect them.
Pub guys, read this: In American darts, players share the darts, so you do NOT shoot the darts and then go up to retrieve your darts, and then get out of the way for the next shooter. You shoot the darts, and leave them in the board.
If you’re shooting Pub darts, people generally bring their own darts. So, you take the line and shoot your darts. Someone calls out the score and marks it, and then you go pull your own darts. It’s different.
I was shooting pub darts recreationally, and as the beer flowed I slid back into a habit of taking the line, throwing the darts, and finding my barstool. Meanwhile people are looking at me like “what the hell? go get your darts out of the board, will ya?”
Team Celebrations - In an english dart setting, everyone seems to have darts in their hands. So, when a teammate throws a nice inning, they’re returning with a handful of darts. In that setting the high fives do not flow freely. In the most recent pub dart tourney, the hand slapping seemed to be replaced by this gentle fist bumping action.
I’m not sure if that’s standard everywhere, but I do know that in an American dart setting when the shooter does well, returning to the team he’ll get the same sort of greeting that someone who just hit a home run would receive - high fives, handshakes and hand slaps.
Chatter at the line - on this topic I have to say that some traditions are local. Some teams chatter when a teammate is at the line the same way little leaguers chatter when a batter is in the box. You’ll hear all sorts of lines “fill in the reds”, “follow that up”, etc. Some teams treat time at the line as if it were time at the altar, and you can hear a pin drop.
I’m sure I missed some, but those are the things that struck me when I noticed them. Feel free to add any dart etiquette rules in the comments section 
Beginner Practice Routines
We have some fellows who are shooting the dart league for the first time, and they qualify as beginners. Sure, they’ve shot before, somewhere in a past decade. Or, they’ve shot “English” darts, but they haven’t been shooting American darts regularly in some time. And, it shows.
Not that everyone has to be some sort of excellent shooter in order to play in a tavern beer league. They don’t. But these guys want to get back to where they feel like they’re shooting like they used to. And, in trying to get there, the topic of practice routines came up.
Obviously, the more you shoot, the better your chances of getting better. But, darts are like anything else. If you’re working at something, you’ll see results. If you’re playing around and passing time, you’ll spend a lot of time without any actual improvement. And remember, we’re not talking about shining up your game to take on Mark Weurstle, or Darin Young. It’s just a matter of going from maybe one red an inning to sometimes two reds an inning.
So, here is the practice routine that I was given when I started shooting, and later I’ll post some routines that are more advanced. I won’t be talking about improving any dart throwing technique, just practice routines. To start with . . .
ALL AROUND THE WORLD
Charlie Dusendshine told me to start out by setting a goal for the inning. The goal can be as simple as landing a dart anywhere in the inning and getting a point, or as complex as landing all three in the trips. I’ve never bothered with the trip shooting, but I do recommend being very interested in shooting the reds. So, I set a goal of landing a red.
You start at the first inning, and shoot at it until you hit your goal (for me, it was a red). Then you move to the second inning, and shoot at it until you hit your goal. And on and on until you reach the final inning for which you’d like to practice. For a lot of people that is the ninth inning because that’s how long a regulation “baseball” game of darts lasts. Others keep shooting through the tenth because they like to be familiar with the tenth inning in case the game goes into extra innings.
Other people want to become familiar with the entire dartboard, and shoot all 20 innings.
The great part about this routine is that you can set your own goal. Mine grew from hitting a red, to hitting three points. Then it grew to four points, then two reds (specifically - if i accidentally hit two trips, I’d have to reshoot the inning), and on to five or six an inning.
For anyone just shooting the innings one through nine, I recommend starting at the nine and going backwards as often as you start at the one and go forwards. If you only ever go in one direction, you risk becoming very good at the first few innings, and dropping off when the game draws near a close.
I think that if you’re learning to be good at a certain game of darts (like baseball), this is a good place to start. I’m sure after time you can spice it up with little twists like having to start over if you black out, or using it as a game to play against friends. Perhaps each time you need to reshoot an inning, you toss a dime in the cup. The first player to finish the appropriate amount of innings wins the contents of the cup.
The upside of this practice routine is that it gives you the chance to concentrate on a single inning until you are comfortable enough with it to proceed. That’s so much better than saying something like “i stink at the seven”, then throwing poorly at the seven and moving right on past the problem spot without actually ever improving.
December Updates
Winter is definitely here, and Christmas isn’t going to be far behind. I hope everyone is settling in for a festive holiday season!
Some of the things that have been happening around here lately include . . .
the new Natalie Style Dart Cabinet - one of the local fire companies needed a couple of dart cabinets. And, since the local dart scene has a preference of keeping score on a pegboard, as opposed to scoring wheels that are part of the traditional green tavern dart cabinets, he helped translate a design from an English dart backboard into an American dart cabinet.
The first two pieces came out well, and are in use at the fire company. I asked him to make a few more, so I now have two hand made dart cabinets that are available to new homes. They have solid wood framing, with a lacquered finish so the wood grain shows through. They also have a grey carpeted backing around the board for a pretty striking contrast. Actually, for full information on these two cabinets visit the Natalie Style American Dart Cabinet page.
On the Vintage Dart scene, I found two new sets of darts that would fall in line with what I would consider American Style darts. They have the full wood bodies, but differ slightly from the norm when it comes to flights and weighting. One of the sets was assembled in France, and the other comes from the Innovation Products Company out of Chicago - who probably ceased operations many moons ago.
You can check out the darts by visiting the Marksman Darts (made in France) page, and the Innovation Product’s V Dart which came out of chicago (and oddly, has a wood barrel but plastic flights).
Pool vs Darts
I’ve seen a dozen websites that are Pool ‘n Darts. Jim’s Pool ‘n Darts Emporioum, Pete’s Pool ‘n Darts Warehouse, Yahib Shabodnik’s Pool ‘n Darts Extravaganza.
While it’s true that along with poker, pool and darts are the main games of rec rooms across America, I haven’t seen anyone tackle the differences between the two games. And specifically, give the top 5 reasons that darts are better than pool.
So, I thought I’d do it . . .
Reason #5 : It Takes Less Room - A friend of mine has the ultimate man cave, complete with 8 person bar, televisions, bar sink, kegmeister, refrigerator, etc. Swap that dartboard out for a pool table, and you’ll be left with the tv’s. It’s no fun having a rec room where you have to stand.
And the same holds true for a lot of entertainment areas, after all a basic small bar-sized pool table takes up about 11ft x 14ft if you don’t want to poke holes in the walls.
Dartboards don’t hog up the floor space like a pool table does.
Reason #4 : It’s Quieter - Once the kids go to bed, smacking a rack of eightball for the break disturbs the peace and tranquility of the night.
In my house I can play darts ’till dawn, but the billiards stop when folks put on their pajamas.
Reason #3 : Dartboards Are Lighter - Did you ever carry a pool table up two flights of steps into the attic bedroom? Probably not. You can put a dartboard anywhere you want in a house. Not so with the pool tables.
Reason #2 : You don’t need quarters to play American Darts - I’ve never seen a corner tavern pool table that was free all the time, and I’ve never seen an American dartboard where you ever paid a dime to the owner to use.
Of course electronic darts are a different story, so my advice is to play American darts. 
Reason # 1 : It’s just plain silly to poke a potato with a pool cue between shots.
Should the inside of the widdy or darto dartboard be loose like that??
That’s a question I’ve gotten a few (not too many, mind you) times by now. And, with dart season starting again, and new darters taking up the game, I’m sure to hear it a few more times than usual over the upcoming months.
So, I thought I’d address how an american dartboard (widdy or darto) is put together, and show some examples of how they work and wear.
Two Pieces:
The first thing to note is that there are two distinct pieces to a dartboard. There is the outer “frame”, and an inner “shooting circle”. Better dartboards are designed so that you can rotate the inner shooting circle. That’s because we often shoot the same innings over and over, and if left to mother nature, the dartboard would wear out in the popular innings with the unpopular innings still being almost untouched.
Here’s a picture of a board that we recently rotated . . .
As you can see, there is heavy wear in the 15, the 17, and the 19. those areas used to be the 2, 3, and 7 (popular innings to shoot). So, by being able to rotate the inner section of the board, we can add a lot of life to it.
If the inner section of the board is not sufficiently loose, rotating it is a bother, and requires some honest muscle work. I’ve had boards that were too stubborn to rotate, so I’ve had to actually take them apart, rotate the inner circle, then put them back together. Here’s a video of one of those adventures . . .
So, the answer to the question of “should it be loose” is yes. It should be somewhat loose.
Of course, if anything has ever been too tight, it’s been too loose as well. When I feel there’s too much give in the dartboard when the darts hit it, I’ll add some shims in between the inner scoring section and the frame to eliminate any “wobble” that might exist.
In taverns I’ve seen players just insert a matchbook and keep on shooting. I use small thin pieces of wood because they look nicer. But, anything that I can insert to stop the wobble, and pull out easily when I want to rotate the board is fine. It’s not like a dart hits the board with much force, so I don’t have to do anything too elaborate.
And obviously, if you can knock the inner section out of the frame by throwing a dart at it, that’s TOO LOOSE.
August website updates
About the time that footballs begin to fill the air on the high school practice fields, you can almost smell the darts in the air. Leagues are putting out sign up sheets, tournament directors are filling in calendar spots on Saturdays in the fall, and recreational players are saying things like “i haven’t picked these up in a while, let’s see if i still have it”
For anyone putting together a league or tournament, let me remind you that the dart forums will be up and running full speed shortly, so posting your information there is a good idea.
During the long days of summer, I took some time to surf the web and managed to come across some pictures of more vintage wooden darts and some boards from the 40’s. I’ve added some of the picts to the vintage darts page, and opened a new page dedicated to Deco - the Dart Equipment company that worked out of Philadelphia for decades.
We’ve also added Darto Dartboards to the line of products available, and I fixed some of the images on the scoresheets page that got out of line when we moved to our new computer host.
I hope that everyone has been having a great summer, and look forward to seeing people at the line starting next month!
Cabinets Shipping - Silver Bullet
To begin with, the dart cabinets have started rolling off of the workbenches, and have begun to make their way to their new owners. So, if you’ve been waiting for your dart cabinet to arrive, the days are upon us, and it should be at your door shortly.
Silver Bullet 16th Annual
Over the weekend I had the chance to attend the 16th annual running of the Silver Bullet dart tournament. It’s great to see that the tournament scene is healthy enough to support an event for that long of a time. Sixteen years ago Ross Perot was running for president, and they were shooting darts at the Sivler Bullet tourney.
There were some big names in attendance, including Darrin Young and the ever-accurate Mark Wuerstle. Well, it being the finals, it makes sense that some great darts were being shot. In the end, the tournament boiled down to Dorko’s vs the Raven’s Nest.
The Raven’s Nest took first place . . .
The picture was from a cell phone, so it’s a little fuzzy. Still, it’s great to have a snapshot. A couple of the faces in the scene are probably very familiar to tournament shooters with Mark Wuerstle on the left and Keith Bauer on the right.
Taking second place were Joe Swatsky, Kirk Wimble, and Ed Dormer from Dorko’s Cafe.
Classic American Dart Cabinets
There is more than usual to report in the world of American Style darting. First off, the big dart tournament of the year, the PA State Dart tournament finished, with Haganey’s Aces #2 taking the title!
I’ve updated the PA State Dart Tournament page, so you can go visit and see who was involved and how everyone else who made it to the Finals fared.
The other big tournament of the year - Nationals - also concluded. The National dart tournament has a set of different classes that shooters are grouped into according to their averages. There are A, B, and C divisions for teams, and this year there was a Singles tournament that had 4 divisions. I’ve updated the National American Dart Tournament page to show the winners of these events.
Now, onto something that I’ve been getting a lot of emails about recently . . . those Green Dart Cabinets that hold an American dart board. We’ve all seen them in bars everywhere, and depeding on your age, they have the ability to bring back some memories.
They are a pretty unique item. No one shows up to work every Monday and starts making these cabinets. Instead, they are created during one of what I think are two production runs throughout the year. So basically, they clear the workbenches and say “We’re going to make cabinets today fellas”, and then that’s what they do.
And when they’re done, those are the cabinets that will be sold for the next few months. When they sell out, there are no more until the next production run.
Here’s the big news . . .
They are doing a production run at the start of April, so now is the time to speak up if you’re interested in owning one of these pieces!!!
They come in the traditional Green, and the “modern” Oak color. The cost is $149 + shipping (they ship out of Philadelphia, and so far the charges have been coming in at $25).
If you’re interested in one, we’ll be taking orders that will be fulfilled during this next production run, so we have until probably the first week of April to get them submitted. You can order from the Classic American Dart Cabinet page (near the bottom), or by emailing me at “webmaster AT americanstyledarts.com”.
Widdy-Apex-Darto Sampler Packs
Phil Taylor’s tip about experimenting to find the right dart equipment for you struck a chord. How is the average darter going to try out Darto darts, Widdy’s and Apex darts to see which one fits him best?
You can buy a dozen of each type of dart, but that’s just shouldn’t be the best solution available! A better way would to buy a box of a dozen darts that contained a few Apex, and few Widdys and a few Dartos.
Now, you can. We’ve put together a dart “sampler pack”.
It includes Four Widdy’s, Four Apex darts, and Four Dartos. So, you can test out each manufacturer, and decide which one is best for you. And if a dart gets burred during testing, that’s ok, you’ll have a backup in the box. (Considering we only throw three darts at an inning, but there are four darts from each maker in the box).
I know, there are only three of each in the picture, but you’ll get four of each when you order.
They are available through our Dart Catalog Page.
I think this is also a great solution for home dart setups, bars and taverns who have demand for different style darts, gifts for darters when you’re not sure which brand to buy, and people just setting up a dartboard for the first time.
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!!
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