Practice routines
Six routines, what each one measures, and what a decent score looks like. Four of them are scoreable here, so the number gets kept without you writing anything down.
What is the best darts practice routine?
Doubles, because doubles decide legs and almost nobody practises them. Three darts at every double from 1 to 20 and then the bull, counting your hits out of 63, gives you a number you can compare week to week. If you only ever do one thing, do that.
The routines
- 01
Around the clock, counting darts
10 minutes · Overall accuracy across every numberScore this one on the boardWork from 1 to 20 in order and count every dart it takes. Write the number down. That single figure is the cleanest measure of your aim there is, because unlike an average it cannot be flattered by one lucky 180.
What to aim for. Under 60 darts is respectable. Under 45 is good. Under 35 and you are better than most people in your league.
- 02
Doubles round the board
15 minutes · The half of the game that decides legsThree darts at double 1, then double 2, all the way to double 20 and the bull. Move on whether you hit it or not. Count the hits out of 63.
What to aim for. Ten is normal when you start. Twenty is a solid league standard. Thirty and your checkout percentage will be worth looking at.
- 03
The 20 bed, one hundred darts
15 minutes · Scoring power, and groupingScore this one on the boardA hundred darts at the treble 20 and nothing else. Count trebles, and count how many landed in the 5 or the 1 rather than the 20 bed at all.
What to aim for. The second number matters more than the first. Trebles come with time; darts in the 5 and the 1 tell you your aim is drifting rather than your timing.
- 04
Finishing from 100
10 minutes · Checkouts under a little pressureScore this one on the boardStart on 100 and finish it, three darts at a time, as many times as you can. Reset to 100 whenever you finish or bust. Count how many attempts it takes to hit ten checkouts.
What to aim for. Under thirty attempts is decent. It also teaches the routes, because you will stop looking them up after about the fourth go.
- 05
Killer against yourself
10 minutes · Doubles, without the boredomScore this one on the boardPlay Killer with three or four seats and take all of them yourself, one hand each if you like. You end up throwing at a different double every turn, which is much closer to a real checkout than practising double 16 forty times.
What to aim for. The scorer splits your own-number rate from your hunting rate, and the gap between them is usually the interesting part.
- 06
Shanghai on the high numbers
10 minutes · Trebles on the numbers you actually usePlay Shanghai from 15 to 20 rather than 1 to 7, so every round is a number you will meet in a real leg.
What to aim for. A game, rather than a drill, which is the point. Practice you will actually do beats practice you should do.
Write the number down
Unmeasured practice is just throwing. Without a number you cannot tell a good session from a bad one, so you drift towards whatever felt comfortable, which is usually the thing you were already best at.
One number per session is enough. Darts to get round the clock, hits out of 63 on the doubles, attempts to hit ten checkouts. Any of them, written somewhere you will see it next week.
If you sign in, the scoreboard keeps them for you and works out the things that are tedious by hand: your average across every game rather than one, your doubles rate in Killer next to your checkout percentage in 501, and which numbers your darts actually land on when you miss.
Two things that waste practice time
Practising only the 20. It is the biggest number and it feels productive, and it is also the reason a leg falls apart the moment a finish leaves you on 7. Around the Clock exists to fix exactly this.
Throwing while half-watching something. Twenty deliberate minutes moves your game further than two distracted hours, and the distracted hours quietly teach you a worse throw.