Another season is done.  Pulled out a victory against Cke Mix, our sister team from Bless U, 23-13.

Next week is the first round of the playoffs.  Unfortuneately. I will be in the USA so here’s hoping the Blue Bulls are still alive when I return.

Tonight I also committed to play for the Rubbies next season.  Scott and Craig are returning to Canada, and I will be returning to my home bar, Dolce  Vita.  As I said tonight, I’m a Blue Bull through our victory in the tourney.  But I’m also looking forward to to being a Rubbie next year….

 Peace out.

Well, Guzzlers from Geckos took us down tonight 21-16.  I guess you’d call that a spanking.  I managed a 7-5 showing, but it coulda, shoulda been 10-2.  Well, that’s the way the dart flies sometimes. 

Let me introduce you to the Blue Bulls from Bless U PUb:

L to R: Scott, Seung Youb, Koichi, Yours Truly, and Ali.

We win, we lose, we have fun.  That’s what it’s all about.

Perhaps a new feature for the LTG faithful.  Not that I’m qualified to answer, but I have gotten a couple of informal inquiries, so I will take a crack at responding.

The first wasn’t exactly posed to me directly, but rather as a Google search of “how to overcome doubts when facing the final game in darts” which led the requester to one of my dart posts.  I don’t think that particular post was responsive to the question however.  So, here goes:

In my view, darts is one part mechanics, one part strategy, and one part mental.  I wouldn’t go so far as to say they are equal parts, but they are equally important in that your game will suffer significantly if you are weak in any one of them.

This question on overcoming doubts relates to the mental portion of the game, which coincidentally may be the weakest aspect of my play.  Which means I’ve thought about it a lot, but just have not found any completely satisfactory solutions.  This is what I strive for:

1. Play the board, not your opponent.  In league or tournament play you will inevitably encounter a player who is statistically superior.  They can be beat of course, but you have to be on your game.  Ultimately, it doesn’t matter who you are playing because it comes down to you and the board.  Simply stated, while you can’t control your opponents throws, you can control your darts.  It’s you against the board, so play your game, your way.

2. Stay focused.  So what if your opponent comes out with a 7-mark or high ton to start the game, there’s a long way to go and a lot of numbers left to work with.  If you get shook, or strive for perfection on every throw, you increase the odds of failure.  Steady beats flashy, at least most of the time.

3.  Think positive.  Easier said than done to be sure.  But it is my observation that when you go to oche you should be thinking “I’m going to hit this” rather than “I can’t miss this”.  Visualize success, not the consequences of failure.  And don’t let the bad dart you just threw impact the darts in hand.  Too often one miss turns into three because that first dart gets in your head and starts the self-fulfilling negative thought processes.

4. Don’t let up.  I find I tend to play better from behind.  It seems when I have a lead I relax or deviate from playing solid fundamentals.  Keep the killer instinct from the first dart to the out.

5. Relax.  At least in Pub play, it’s important to have fun.  When you are having fun, you tend to be relaxed.  I frequently throw my best darts in practice or pick-up games.  In league play, I put pressure on myself (e.g. don’t let the team down) which tends to make me tense and tight which affects accuracy.  Take some deep breaths at the oche, block out distractions (internal and external) and let the dart fly.  Hit or miss, that’s the best you can do.  And there’s always another game and redemption on the horizon.

The second question comes from commenter Dentoku, who asks:

How much does beer drinking during a tournament affect your play?

The short answer is “as much as I let it”.  I have touched on this briefly, but I will elaborate a bit more here. 

Darts is a sport of hand/eye coordination.  So, anything that adversely affects your motor skills is going to adversely affect your game.  However, many darters subscribe to the theory that drinking actually enhances their game.  So, what’s the explanation?

I think it comes down to throwing relaxed.  Especially for experienced darters, your throwing rhythm and release point can be attributed to muscle memory (meaning lower brain functioning).  When you overlay cognitive thinking you tend to “aim” and force the darts, instead of “seeing” the target and throwing to it naturally.

So for me, 2-3 beers and I’m relaxed and in the zone.  5-6 and I’m getting uncoordinated and generally worthless.  Your mileage may vary.

Thanks for participating in this edition of Ask a Darter.

The Blue Bulls took down Beer B4 Bulls from Blue Frog tonight 22-15.  I was a disappointing 6-6, but hit my share of marks, including a 5 bull, two 3BCs, and a 7 mark.  So, we should still be clinging to first place, pending our make up game Thursday with Eberhardt.

Stay tuned.

I competed in the Seoul International Dart League midseason doubles tournament yesterday.  It was a mixed A-B Division format, meaning the top ranked A player was matched with the lowest ranked B player and so on throughout the players registered for the competition.  I think this works well, because you avoid having the top players in each division teamed up which sometimes occurs in the blind draw format.  Yesterday we had a good balance on the teams which made for a highly competitive tournament.

I went in ranked #7 in A division and was matched with Podge who is currently #11 in B division.  I hadn’t really seen Podge throw that much, but I felt we had a tough job ahead of us as there were some real strong players teamed up, including several A-A combinations.  Of course, rankings don’t count for anything, it’s all about throwing good darts consistently.  And for the most part, that’s what we did.

I was quite impressed with Podge, and he actually carried me pretty much in our first match.  I picked it up after that, and we really started to roll.  In the semi-finals of the winner’s bracket we faced off with Craig and Grant.  It came down to the third leg, and we were up in the cricket leg.  Then I made a strategic error, opting to close a number instead of throwing for points.  Craig punished my stupidity by throwing a 5 mark and snatched the win.

Podge and I fought back through the loser’s bracket and faced Craig and Grant again in the Championship game.  Unfortunately, I was out of gas by then, and they promptly dispatched us 2-0.  Ah well, it was a great day and I’m not hanging my head over a second place finish.  Splitting the W210,000 prize money was also pretty sweet.

It was also a good day for the Blue Bulls (my team in league play).  Teammate Craig took first, I got a second, and Scott and Ali took third.  I spent a good part of my winnings on my bar tab as we were all in a celebratory mood after a hard days work darting.

Another fine day in my sporting life.  Heh, rumor has it that darts will be included in the 2012 London Olympic Games.  If so, I guess that would make me officially an athlete.  Imagine that!  Of course, I also lift weights.  12 ounces at a time.  Too bad beer drinking isn’t a sport, eh?

Last night we eeked out a tough win against Rubbies at Dolce Vita Pub, 19-18.  Scott and I went 3-0 in the last round of doubles mix (cricket and ’01) to secure the victory.  I had an average night, going 7-5 but didn’t hit many marks.  I’ve pretty much come to the conclusion that I am just an average player who occasionally has moments of brilliance.  What I have considered inconsistency is really just a reflection of the reality that I do not throw excellent darts on a regular basis.  I am in fact consistently average.  I believe that realization will help me enjoy the game more as it eases my frustration when I do not meet the inflated expectations I have set for myself.  Of course, I will continue to work hard at improving my game, but I am pretty much resigned to the fact that I will never be in the top tier of amatuer pub darters.  So, having fun and staying in the top ten in my division are I think realistic goals to strive for.

So, the Goat is no longer with us.  He has a new job that keeps him out of town Monday-Friday.  Fortunately, Seung Youb has managed to rejoin the team which is a big plus going into the final third of the seasons.  Barring a major implosion, we should make the playoffs where anything is possible.

 After the match last night, Koichi, Scott, Seung Youb and I went downstairs to the Bless U seafood restaurant for a bite of food and liquid refreshment.  I’m afraid the combination of soju, beer, and saki were a bit overwhelming as I spent some time on the bathroom floor after I arrived home.  Got to remember to stick with beer!

 Anyway, we had a great time darting and partying.  We are planning a team road trip down south in a couple of weeks which I hope to make.  A change of scenery is always good now and again.  I’m also going to make my first trip to the east coast next month if I can work up the courage to navigate the journey by car. 

So maybe I will even have a blog-worthy experience or two.

I didn’t win the tourney yesterday.  I didn’t really expect or deserve to the way I threw.  Still, there were some nice highlights on my way to a 6th place finish (and 50,000 won). 

Started out with Becky who has really picked up her game.  She took the first ’01 leg, but I came back with two hard fought cricket wins.  It was a tight match and all credit to Becky who gave me just about all I could handle.

Next up was Wan Ji, someone I had never played before.  He’s ranked #1 in B division and he definitely has game.  I took the first cricket leg, then he smoked me in ’01.  I took the diddle for the third leg and of course called cricket.  Then proceeded to completely fall apart.  How bad was I?  In addition to way too many one marks, I threw six darts and hit nothing.  You can’t get away with that against good competition.  So, Wan Ji is closed with a 100+ point lead and I have 19s and 17s open.  I pulled a 6 bull shot out of my ass, and then followed with another double.  Of course, it was too little, too late.  Wan Ji pounded my open numbers to get the points back and then closed out the bulls for the victory, sending me to the losers bracket.

With all due respect, I didn’t feel like he beat me, I beat myself with some inexplicably bad darts.  People were congratulating me on the 6 bulls, but really you should never be in the situation where you HAVE to throw that to stay in the game.  Still, it won me half of the high mark pot; I split it with Dustin who threw a 9-mark.

I took Jim to move up in the losers bracket and had to wait awhile for my next round.  So, I drank some more beer and got good and relaxed.  Darts is a funny game.  Obviously it involves hand-eye coordination so you would think drinking would be counterproductive, but at least for me, when I just go up there throwing naturally I tend to do better than when I’m tight and trying to force them in.  Or so I tell myself.

Anyway, Alisteir the Scot went through the winner’s bracket undefeated.  I had a tough row to hoe just to get in the money (the top 8 finishers paid off).  I threw some pretty good darts to beat Chris B. who is currently ranked #4 in A division.  Which earned me the right to face off against Dennis, who has been smokin’ all season and is the top ranked player in the league.

I watched an espisode of Band of Brothers the other day and this young private was cowering in his foxhole to afraid to fire his weapon.  Captain Spears told him: “You know what your problem is soldier?  You still have hope.  Once you realize and accept the fact that you are already dead, you’ll be able to do your job as a soldier.  Now fire that weapon!”

I guess that was my attitude against Dennis.  I didn’t have any expectation of winning, so I was calm at the oche and just let the darts fly.  And boy did they fly good.  It was a hard fought match but I prevailed.  Beating Dennis was definitely the high point of my day.

And as fate would have it, next up for me was Wan Ji.  I was looking for revenge and feeling confident.  I took the first cricket leg.  The ’01 was tight wire-to-wire, and I took shots at the out 3 times, missing the mark by centimeters.  Damn, you got to take the out when you have the opportunity and I failed to do so which cost me the leg.  We played cricket the third leg and while I didn’t come completely fall apart like I did in our earlier match, I wasn’t good enough to win.  So, yeah Wan Ji beat me and hats off to him.  Actually, he’s a pretty nice guy and I’m looking forward to a rematch in the future.

Sueng Youb fought his way through the loser’s bracket to face off with Alisteir for the championship.  He had had to beat him twice and he proceeded to do so.  Congrats to both guys who threw some incredible darts.  Good job to Lonnie and Grant as well for putting on an outstanding tournament.  I had a great time.

Today is the mid-season singles tournament.  Looking forward to some good competition.  I don’t tend to play well in big money tourney’s for some reason.  And there’s a million won ($1000) on the table today.  We shall see which John shows up this time.  I can be good, and I can really suck.  Somewhere in between won’t cut it today.

 Had a good warm-up at the Dolce tourney last night.  Took a first and second place along with the high out.  Jeff won the drawing for the bull shoot (if you throw a double bullseye you win the jackpot).  That pot is almost 700,000 won at the moment.  So, as I was saying, Jeff won the drawing which allows you to take a shot at the double bull.  He asked me to throw on his behalf.  Talk about pressure!  So, the format allows three warmups, and then the money dart.  On my three practice darts I hit 3 single bulls.  So, I was in the zone.  I stepped up to the line, took a deep breath, wiped the sweat off my throwing hand, took another deep breath, focused on my target, aimed the dart, and let it go….

Single 18.  F**K!  Oh well, next time perhaps.  Sorry about that Jeff.

My bud Colin asks in the comments how I like playing for the Blue Bulls.  Colin was an original member of the team before moving to Vietnam and finding happiness.  Well, I do miss my home bar Dolce Vita, but I couldn’t ask for a better bunch of guys to throw with.  I’m sorry we are not doing better, although we are still in the hunt for the playoffs.  I am also disappointed that Seung Youb has not been able to play with us this year.  He was the highest ranked player in A division last season and I was looking forward to having him as a teammate and learning the secret of his success.  Unfortunately, he is the chef at a new restaurant the owners of Bless U Pub (our team sponsor) opened and is working every Monday night these days.  I wish Hyan Ah would cut us all a break and give him Monday’s off.  Ah well, darts don’t pay the bills like steady employment, so what can you do?

The Goat has been throwing real well, and passed me in the rankings this week.  We’ve always been pretty competitve when we play, so I am happy he’s on my side this year.  He’s got quite the temper and is a stickler for the rules, which has led to some pretty heated confrontations with opponents this year.  Almost came to fisticuffs the other night, but cooler heads prevailed and by the end of the match there were tequila shots and handshakes all around, which I was glad to see.  The Goat reminds me of how I used to be before I mellowed out with age.  I didn’t take any shit on the softball diamond back in the day.

Anyway, it’s all good and I’m having a great time, Colin.  Thanks for asking. 

 I’ll be in DC for a meeting the last week in April.  The bad news is I miss the first round of the playoffs.  The good news is I plan to hook up with my old friend Duke and his lovely wife Ji Young.  Duke introduced me to the sport of darts.  It will be good to kick his ass on his home turf!

 Ok, well I guess that’s more than enough talking about darts.  I’m gonna go throw some now.  Wish me luck!

Well we dropped another much last night, this time losing to 3PO from Blue Frog.  I guess we are officially in a mid-season slump.  Once again we threw pretty decent darts, just not decent enough to win.  Argh! 

 I managed a 5-4 showing with a decent number of marks, but my inability to close out a game when I had the opportunity cost me big time.

 We have the mid-season singles tourney this Saturday, so I’m hoping for a good showing there.  We will rematch with 3PO on Monday night so instead of redemption we will be looking for revenge.  Stay tuned. 

Well, we got our fanny’s kicked last night by the boys from Scrooge Pub. Pretty frustrating in that we threw pretty good darts, but they threw a tad better. I went 5-7 on the night but played better than that, hitting a fair number of 5 and 6 marks and a couple 3BCs.

So, we have a make-up match tonight against 3PO from Blue Frog, and hopefully redemption will be coming in short order.

Well, this post is about darts so move along if that subject holds no interest for you.

I titled this post “a new beginning”. But isn’t a beginning by its nature always new? Can you have an old beginning? I mean, even the beginning of the end is a start, and you can only start at the beginning right? Then again, you can have a new start, so maybe a new beginning is not redundant after all. Figuring out this kind of stuff makes my head hurt…

Anyway, last night was the opening of the new dart season. And my first night with my new team, the Blue Bulls of Bless U Pub. Bottom line up front, we won the match 22-15 against XOX, a Korean team from Friends Bar.

I could be charitable to myself and say I had a case of the opening night jitters, but the reality is I had my head up my ass, especially in singles cricket. Stupid, stupid stuff–mental mistakes and not following rudimentary cricket game management strategies. I threw at closed numbers and chased my opponent when I was down on points. Duh. I was lucky to come out of singles winning the one leg I managed. My darts were inconsistent (not unusual) but I did manage a couple of 7-marks, along with a 3BC and 3BS. So, I might have shot well enough to win except for my head being in the wrong place.

I fared a little better in doubles, going 4-2 in two games. Played smarter anyway, but wasn’t hitting the triples and bulls when I needed to. Ah well, the team won and I have the first week with the Blue Bulls under my belt, so it should only get better from here.

My new teammates are a great group of guys and I’m really going to enjoy playing with them. Craig (aka The Goat) brought some “medicine” in a flask which he asserted I had to partake in as a right of initiation to the team. Then mid-match we had a round of tequila shots and a toast of welcome. Apparently the team also has a tradition that the person who shoots the lowest score in the opening round of the team game, has to buy a round for the team. Somehow I managed to “win” that dubious honor by throwing a 26. Sorry to say that was not my lowest score during the game.

Anyway, I had a great time. We have a strong team (defending A division regular season champs) and I expect we will be in the hunt again this year. But win or lose I suspect we will keep the emphasis on having fun, which is where it belongs in my opinion. Of course, it’s a lot more fun to win and I hope to do my part to make that happen on a frequent basis.

And so ends my report.

The weather has been cold, but that’s nothing compared to my darts. I played in three tourneys at Dolce last night, although showing up and getting my ass kicked is more accurate. Started off ok in the first round of the singles tourney. Threw a Ton-80 and an 85 out. Then I ran in to CH who was en fuego. Two legs against him and out.

And that was my high point for the night. CH and his partner waxed us in both of the following doubles tournaments. Pretty frustrating night all and all.

Tonight is the Christmas tournament at Blue Frog. Here’s hoping a change in venue will wake my darts from their winter slumber.

Check back tomorrow for the results…

Last night the Sliders lost to our sister Dolce team, the Rubbies, 17-14.

I went 2-7 on the night, so it is easy to do the math and determine who is most responsible for the defeat.

I played all 9 legs against Dave New (singles and doubles) and threw like shit. Hence the title of this post.

Actually, Dave threw excellent darts, killing me with 6 marks. I still had my chances, but couldn’t execute.

I’m actually in general funk, and my darts are just another manisfestation of my malaise.

I think I need a break. But I see nothing on horizon that points to any forthcoming relief.

Alas.

Well, we started the summer dart season off with a nice victory over Cake Mix, 22-9. I didn’t play particularly well, going 5-4, but the bottom line is the bottom line. So, we shall see how it goes the rest of the way. Y’all can look forward to reading all about it right hear.

Don’t say I didn’t warn ya.