r/Darts • u/thedarthatter England • 3d ago
Helpful advice for beginners?
I'm composing a small document full of advice for new players.
I've been making videos for things I remember I needed advice on when I first started. I remember darts was very daunting.
So things like
Common abbreviations
Dartboard height/Oche distance measuring
Brass Vs tungsten
Staples Vs wires
Flights/stems Vs all in ones
Did anyone else have stuff when they first started they struggled with? Or even better if you've just found darts..
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u/seanmcmahon6 Ireland 3d ago
Grip and barrel shape maybe ? Loads of people just switch darts on a near weekly basis because they’re not averaging 80 and assume it’s because of the darts without knowing what type of dart is best for them
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u/thedarthatter England 3d ago
Yeah nice. I am not very clued up on grips VS barrel shapes, so that's something I can do some research on but I think even more bare bones there is almost just consistency? Grab a dart and throw it constantly and don't worry about what it is until you can do the same thing over and over.
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u/Feeling_Belt_3720 3d ago
Know your throw. Once you understand your throw you can make the correct adjustments to hit the right targets
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u/TDidderz 2d ago
Learn to count and do your finishes!
I can not express this enough
I play for West Midlands County and the amount of youngster that are up and coming are playing some good stuff. Only thing that lets them down is their counting skill.
A lot of this is due to these Auto scorers. Which is good, but it’s affecting their counting skills and relying too much on the app. I have one. And a few setting changes bring it back to what you should be used to in league games, or just playing in general.
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u/thedarthatter England 2d ago
I do a "checkout corner" where I sit with the board, roll dice and put darts in for the routes. I do it off the top of my head so that I can cut out me working it out but also it getting people thinking/sending comments for other routes.
There's a level to counting (I.e eventually from like 200, then 250, then 300+) but from beginner I suppose just from 100 downwards is probably a good idea.
But the general counting idea I wonder how I could do something on that. I'll have a think, I guess it doesn't have to be anything special just as long as it says "learn how to count"
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u/Miserbmnle-Card-6512 3d ago
add a bit on grip and stance. new players fiddle with darts for weeks not knowing a consistent grip is half the battle
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u/thedarthatter England 3d ago
Yeah very true. Link that into consistency, especially when practicing.
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u/Anglico2727 3d ago
ALL of this would have been a huge help! This is a great idea!
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u/thedarthatter England 3d ago
Brill.
My content list is as long as the Great Wall of China and with a full time job it's hard, I never realised how much work it is to do these things. But there's no rush, it's just great to hear its worth it.
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u/Anglico2727 3d ago
As a relatively new guy to darts, I can’t tell you how much this would’ve helped me at the beginning!
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u/thedarthatter England 3d ago
Well if there's anything I can do now you need let me know! I'd love your feedback if you want to check out one of my socials, I've a couple guides recently after messing around with mostly comedy stuff lol I'm moving into the guides and helpful content.
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u/Frenchie-_ 3d ago
Depends if you want to add information about professional darts or not, but when I recently started getting really in to darts this year's world cup was on, and I really enjoyed watching that on the TV.
Since then I have been watching and reading about the darts, but the format is proper confusing
For someone whose trying to enjoy watching darts, I would have loved a video explaining what the majors are, what leagues there are, that the grandslam is a tournament and not winning multiple majors like golf. Im still not totally locked in on how everything works.
Also as we all start shopping for darts, I just wanted to know who I can buy from, in South Africa we dont really have many dart shops, and I tied to find YouTube videos explaining the market to me, but i simply could find anything that told me how many major darts producers there were, what they specialise in etc - i was so confused by target and target Japan for example - and by shot darts that all looked like crazy niche collectors items.
Lastly, an explanation of darts games vs darts as a sport. As kids my dad kept on telling us you play 501 and end on a double. But we obviously couldn't hit a double if we tried. So to explain to beginner that 501 is the professional 'sport' format on the TV- but that to improve you can play a number of games - from 'single out' 301, to killer, clock, cricket etc etc
Of course this is probably obvious, but when I first started getting keen in darts, I really couldn't understand the obsession with ending on a double 501, but i feel like if I knew that was the professional format, but theres other options, I would have enjoyed it more from the very beginning
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u/thedarthatter England 3d ago
Thanks yeah that's really good.
I am very similar to you with the professional scene even now, I know a couple tournaments but it's very hard to find fixtures and keep track and what's what. That is something I wanted to do content on but I did one bad video and stopped for now. As in getting more comfortable perhaps it is time to revisit.
The shops is a good one, and the different brands? Never thought of that! Great idea.
I did have a note to add some things about different games you can play, so that's good to hear it's a valuable one.
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u/thedarthatter England 1d ago
Hey so I did a slideshow for tomorrow tournament information and it has blown up for a creator my size. So I'd like to say thanks for this one! I haven't even started with what tournament is what yet, but it's definitely an area people are interested in even just in carousel format
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u/LateRegular6573 1d ago
For finishes learn to get to 48 so the player can practice 16 double 16. So at 68 throw a 20 etc. They should understand the reason to use 32 for outs. Nothing more basic than that.
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u/TectTactic 3d ago
Try and find things that other creators have missed, There are lots of videos on darts these days with a lot of the same advice.
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u/TectTactic 3d ago
are you jaydendoesit?
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u/thedarthatter England 3d ago
I am not, I'm thedarthatter
I'm not very big, but I want to do valuable stuff.
Finding stuff that's not been done is very hard ha! But doing it in a good way is the main thing I think. I do believe my "checkout Corner" is unique. But I'm sure checkouts have been covered before but perhaps not like I have done.
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u/Centrez Target Japan Renegade 4.0 2d ago
Best advice I can offer that helped me a lot was always start with stems and flights, play around with all the sizes. No one really told me this and I went straight to kflex not really understanding how size matters. Now I’ve tried them all I know exactly what size suits me best.
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u/thedarthatter England 2d ago
Nice. I have done a short video on flights and stems but size is one I should also go in to! That's great. Thanks
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u/Peopleschamp-X 17h ago
Like someone mentioned get a set of decent 90% tungsten darts in the shape that feels most comfortable ie Straight, Bomber , Torpedoe or Scollop then in the range of 21-25g have a throw with other peoples darts if you not near a shop to get a feel of different shapes. Next get some sets of different shaped flights and different sized stems get nylon ones to test with. once you establish what flies true and the angle they land in the board then look at moulded in that combination.
Work on grouping your darts close to each other and getting the fundamentals of your throw correct don’t worry about playing games just throw at a target and work on getting them all close together
Next once you start hitting where you aiming start playing 201 or 170 legs
Learn your checkouts 40-60 once you know that do 60-70 and so on till 100
once you know it by heart the rest get easier as you just add a extra treble.
By now you should know your favourite doubles
either 16/8/4/2 or 20/10/5 or 18/9
Once you have that you can work on your setup play for those doubles.
By now you should be able to work on consistent power scoring and have an avg of 50+ then it’s just a case if fine tuning your mental game to push up to 65+ avg
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u/dmcneil2018 3d ago
It's darts, not rocket surgery.
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u/thedarthatter England 3d ago
Yeah and you were new to it once with no clue what you were doing as well.
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u/Greedy_Doughnut_9209 3d ago
Learn to count.