After a somewhat disappointing weekend of darting, I broke out a book I bought when I first started playing to see what I might have forgotten. There are fundamentally three aspects to successful darts–mechanics, math, and mental. To play well all of them need to be in balance.

I stood at the oche tonight and reviewed my mechanics–my grip is properly balanced on the dart, my stance is stable and balanced, my cock and release is fluid. Yeah, my follow through is bizarre looking, but I don’t think that really has a significant impact on my accuracy. And yes, I need to work on more consistency in my release point, but who doesn’t?

I’m working on the math and it’s coming along. But the math didn’t cost me any games this time around. (well, maybe I could have thrown for additional points in a cricket game, but that wasn’t math, that was a choice. When I’m holding the winning dart in hand I’ve got to go for it. That’s just me.)

So, that leaves mental. And yes, I believe I made the classic mistake of letting a few bad darts get in my head. When I start pressing and getting down on myself, I lose both focus and confidence. The book talks about “quiet cool” and that resonates for me. When I’m on my game (in the zone I call it) I step up to oche knowing I’m going to hit. I don’t really even think about it. I lost a huge leg missing three shots at a 32 out. Yeah, that happens. But looking back on it, I was thinking “don’t miss this, don’t miss this, don’t miss this”, instead of having a quiet cool mindset of “let’s win this right now.” It sounds trite I guess, but the mind is a funny thing and the power of positive thinking is, well, powerful.

Here’s hoping for better results in Charlotte!