The Darts Experiment - 8
The Darts Experiment - Night 4
Tonight we introduced Team Kasbah to our way of thinking on how a darts practice session should be. One key aspect that we wanted to promote was that it should be fun. Darts practice and fun, do they really go together?
The Practice Session
What would you say is the most common comment that emanates from a dart player about practice?- It`s boring
- I was brilliant in practice but in the match I was "shocking" (replace with which ever word you feel is most appropriate)
- I can`t be bothered tonight
- Brilliant, it`s good fun, let`s get it on!
Well you know where this is heading now but personally I have heard versions of the first three answers much more frequently than any version of the last answer. If you have had a different experience I would love to hear from you. It was from the negative feedback about practice along with the absolute necessity for having to practice as (and don`t try and kid yourselves here) it is impossible to improve without practising.There are also certain "golden rules" to follow to make your practice as realistic as possible.
When you are coaching football (which I have done) one of the most the crucial aspects is to keep all the players interested, keep them engaged, make sure they are all involved and have as much contact with the ball as possible. If you achieve this in a session then the players are too busy having fun to notice they are learning as well. "Let the game be the teacher" is the motto of The FA and the Darts Performance Centre is pinching there ethos for our darts practice sessions.
Our thoughts were that during a practice session, if a player felt challenged, could somehow, even if it was just in a small way, replicate the pressure and competition of match-play, be able to measure their performance over a period of weeks and months as well as set goals and targets each session then we had fulfilled our brief. Our brief was to create games that allowed players maximum contact with their darts and the board and that promoted letting their experiences playing our practice games teach them how to play better darts.
However, can we honestly say we have fulfilled our brief? Well from the feedback we have received from our members of the Darts Performance Centre website and from last night's experience with Team Kasbah then we are certainly making massive strives to achieving that particular goal. We set up a session last night using a selection of the games available on our website. A brief outline of the games we played is as follows:
Board 1 - Mini Matrix - Power scoring
Board 2 - Champions Choice - Checkouts on the board with doubles 50% smaller than normal
Board 3 - Checkout Game - Checkouts on a full size board
Board 4 - Doubles - Following a logical sequence of events, for example, double 20 to double 10 to double 5
Board 5 - 120`s and 180`s Game - Helps players in their decision making process of how to achieve two or three darts in the sixty bed.
Board 6 - Dynamic Practice - No 501 or 301here- real potential match play situation to play against your opponent.
Then in the true tradition of a coaching session a match at the end, you have got to have a match at the end!
Not all games were a total success, but the majority of them were. We have a lot more to say about that and so have Team Kasbah. The star of the night was the "Champions Choice" board for several reasons. We also utilised it for a cracking game of pairs with eight players all playing at the same time (more of that later too). We will add a further blog this week on the feedback from Team Kasbah on their session where we let "playing darts be the teacher"!