Checkout training
How do you practise darts checkouts?
Throw at finishes the way a match gives them to you: one number, one visit of three darts, then the next. Draw them at random from a range so you cannot rehearse the route, or throw a list of the ones you keep missing. Count how many you check out. That rate, split by range, tells you where your finishing needs the work.
Play it now
Checking out 160
3 darts left
Getting the board ready
Twenty finishes you did not choose, one visit at each. It is the closest practice gets to being left on a number with a leg at stake. Twenty random finishes from 2 to 170 to start with; change the range, the darts or the source before the first dart, and after it they are fixed, so a correction can never change which numbers come up.
Three ranges worth a session each
A rate from 2 to 40 and a rate from 101 to 170 are measuring different things, so the scorer never puts them on the same line. Pick the range that matches the finish you keep failing.
- 2 to 40
- One-dart finishes and the odd numbers that set one up. Pure doubles, under the pressure of a single visit. Throw 2 to 40
- 61 to 100
- What a good scoring visit leaves you. Two darts will do nearly all of them, so a miss is usually the set-up dart. Throw 61 to 100
- 101 to 170
- The big finishes, where the route matters as much as the double. Three darts, and nothing to spare. Throw 101 to 170
What the numbers say
The finish screen gives your checkout rate for each range you threw at, and counts your darts at a finish: darts thrown when one dart could have checked you out. Sign in and those sit next to the same count from your matches, and a visit that went bust is counted separately from a double that missed. They are different faults. A bust is the route, and the checkout chart has one for every number.
Questions
- Why practise checkouts at random?
- Because a match never lets you choose. Throw 81 ten times in a row and by the third go you are warmed up on T19. Drawn at random, every finish is the first one of its kind, which is what the oche actually gives you.
- Why only three darts at each finish?
- Three darts is one visit, and one visit is usually all you get at a finish before your opponent has theirs. Six or nine darts are there for learning the bigger finishes, and a checkout rate from six darts is only ever compared with other six-dart sessions.
- Which numbers can you not check out in three darts?
- Seven of them: 159, 162, 163, 165, 166, 168 and 169. They are never drawn when you have three darts, and they can come up with six or nine, which is enough for all of them.
- Can I practise the finishes I keep missing?
- Yes. Switch to your own list and type the numbers in, or tap the button on the finish screen to throw the ones you just missed. Sign in and the finishes you keep missing in Catch 40 are offered as a list for you.