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Practice.
Not a popular word.
It can conjure up excuses like no other. “Oh, I don’t have the time,” or “I can’t practice by myself. It’s just too boring,” or “I never practice, but think how good I could be if I did,” and “I’m good enough. I don’t need to practice.” And the excuses go on.
Any of these sound familiar?
Well, all I have to say is that excuses are just a cop out. Do you ever for a moment think that a Pro basketball, baseball, football player, or Olympian would go to their next game or event without practicing their sport or their techniques? Of course not. So what makes you the prima donna of darts that you don’t need to practice?
Cut the excuses. The reality is, learning anything physical takes practice. Relentless hours of practice. Putting in relentless hours on the dartboard is a requirement for lifting your game to the highest possible level.
If your game hasn’t been up to par, you may want to concentrate on your fundamental form. Are
all your important body parts in line? Are you following through with your throwing arm toward your target? Is your stroke consistent? Do you keep your head or body from
bobbing around? These are some of the questions you can focus on during practice. Use different practice routines to keep practice interesting and to make those relentless hours of practice effective.
Practice troublesome areas of your game.
If you know or feel you have a weakness in your game, this weakness can be a practice opportunity.
Set realistic goals in your practice. An inventor once said, “Strive for excellence not
perfection.” Striving for excellence is a reasonable goal. Looking for perfection is not. No one plays at the level of perfection every time on every shot. Striving for
perfection can frustrate you because sooner or later you will make an error and go off. You can always reasonably strive for excellence in your play.
In your ‘01 games, practice new shots. Practice infrequently used outshots. Practice several
different ways of taking the same outshot. These techniques helps keep you sharp and will build your confidence. Some shots feel like you can make in your sleep, some
shots seem automatic, and some you can make without really trying. However, at some point when you first started to play, those same shots were far from automatic.
By playing a lot you gather more and more shots into that area of your brain and muscle memory that make the shots as good as guaranteed.
You can use common drills or create your own for each practice session. Maybe you may
want to use an unstructured practice. Use whatever it takes to peak your interest to put in those relentless hours.
Then keep everything practice, even if you are playing someone or playing in league or
tournament play. Keep every shot practice, just like at home. Keep it in your comfort zone.
Every shot adds to your experience. You have to keep playing enjoyably. There is a
really big key here, enjoy every game or shot challenge. Keeping it enjoyable keeps you relaxed and throwing at your best.
One thing to definitely practice is the easy shots. You know, in soft-tip, the straight out.
That’s the single number outshot. You know the one. It’s the one where you have one dart in hand, your opponent is on an easy outshot and you hit a double or triple or the
dart hits one of the wedges on either side of the number you are throwing at. If you watch many tournament matches, you’ll be surprised to see how many games are lost by
the ‘easy shot.’ Both the seasoned pro and the new players have missed these shots. This can be very frustrating. You know you’ve made that shot a hundred
times before. When you step up to the throwing line, it looks like a ‘gimme.’ How could you have missed it?
The answer is, almost always, that the miss was caused by a break in concentration. The ‘easy
shot’ didn’t make you focus. Your brian knows that it is a simple shot you can do in your sleep and you end up falling asleep.
This is another way practice hours are helpful. If you practice games, you’ll come up to
those simple, not to worry outshots. When you start missing them, you’ll understand the importance of maintaining your focus and concentration during these seemingly easy
outshots, not taking anything for granted. Through practice, you will learn not to brush off that ‘gimme’ shot.
Putting in those relentless hours will bring you to a point where your power of concentration is a challenge, and that can be one of the most useful things coming out of a practice session. Use those relentless hours of
practice to force yourself to focus on every shot, the easy ones included. Learning to sustain a high level of focus is learning to make your hits count and reaching that
goal of excellence in your dart game.
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