Practice Aids

Practice at regulation height and distance, set a goal for every session and write down the results. When conditions stay the same, the habits you build carry straight over to league night.

• Set up correctly: bullseye at 5 ft 8 in (173 cm), throw line at 7 ft 9¼ in (237 cm) for steel tip or 8 ft (244 cm) for soft tip. A Laserdart throw line keeps the mark fixed.
• Warm up with a few easy rounds before starting a drill.
• Pick one or two drills per session instead of jumping around.
• Keep a notebook so you can see progress over weeks, not single nights.
• Stop when your form slips. Tired throws build bad habits.

A few classic drills cover most of the game. Round the Clock builds accuracy, doubles practice builds finishing, and scoring rounds work on your triple 20.

• Round the Clock: hit 1 through 20 in order, then the bull. Make it harder by counting only doubles or triples.
• Doubles practice: pick a double, throw until you hit it, then move to the next one. Count how many darts the full set takes and try to beat that number.
• Scoring rounds: throw a fixed number of turns at the triple 20 and total the score each time.
• Checkout practice: pick a finish from an out chart and play it out in as few darts as you can.

Bob's 27 is a solo doubles practice game. You start with 27 points and work around the board from double 1 to double 20, then the bull, throwing three darts at each target.

• Every double you hit adds its value to your score, so three hits on double 1 add 6. The bull counts 50.
• If all three darts miss, subtract that double's value instead: 2 for double 1, 4 for double 2, and so on.
• The game ends early if your score drops to zero or below.

Because a full miss costs you and every hit pays, a rising final score is a clear sign your finishing is improving. Write it down after each session.

A checkout chart, also called an out chart, lists a suggested finish for every score you might have left, so you are not doing math at the line. In a double-out game the highest possible checkout is 170: triple 20, triple 20, bull.

We carry two sizes. The 14 x 20 in Wall Out Chart hangs by your board, and the 2 x 6 in Pocket Out Chart fits in your case. Each comes in Double Out for steel tip or Single Out for soft tip.

Divide the total points you scored by the number of darts you threw, then multiply by three. Finish a 501 leg in 18 darts and your average for that leg is 501 ÷ 18 × 3 = 83.5.

• Track it over many legs, not one night, to see a real trend.
• First-nine average uses only your first three turns, so it measures scoring before the checkout slows you down.
• Soft tip leagues usually report points per dart (PPD), which is the three-dart average divided by three, and marks per round (MPR) for Cricket.

Keep the numbers in your practice notebook next to your drill scores.

They help players who already group consistently. Aiming at a narrower ring in practice makes the standard ring feel bigger in a match. For steel tip, the Winmau Blade 5 Champions Choice Dual Core has half-width doubles and triples. For soft tip, the Gran Board 132 has a 13.2 in target, the same size as a standard steel tip board, with narrower doubles and triples than a 15.5 in electronic board. Newer players may do better on a standard board until their grouping settles.